Social Media in Public Relations

1. Chapter 4:
Social Media in Public Relations
Presented by Group 3

2. PR Management
● PR stakeholders are no longer impressed with
simply including social media within a campaign.
● Keys to social media success?
1. Influence
2. Friends (most influential)
3. Target Content

3. Edelman Cloverleaf Model
● Edelman Digital in Chicago, owned by
Edelman PR in New York (largest global
PR firm) developed the Edelman
Cloverleaf identifying media types.
● The model identifies three publishers:
- Media (Traditional news)
- Brands (Starbucks, Redbull, SpaceX)
- Influencers (Youtube, Linkedin)

4. PR History
● Early Stage: Message management began with
church and political propaganda.
Post World War II: News and Politics drew large
audiences along with the boom of television and
celebrity scandals.
Public Relations Today: Managed with social media
as planned and interactive communication.

5. PR Theories Main Focuses in Public Relations:
● Communication Strategies & Tactics
○ News releases
○ Press Conferences
○ Events
○ Publications
● Organizational Practices
● Management

6. Important Theoretical
Perspectives
● Agenda-setting
○ Influencing the importance of specific
topics by the way they are expressed
and how frequently they are shared to
an audience.
● Cultivation
○ The development of qualities and
skills.
● Ethics
○ Moral principles
● Issues Management
● Organizational Communication
○ How communication is used in
business settings.
● Persuasion

7. PR Theories
1. Press agentry/publicity
a. Presenting content to gain attention
(Example: propaganda)
2. Public Information
a. The spread of accurate information but
does not include negative information
3. Two-way asymmetrical
a. The use of “messages which will most
likely produce support of publics without
having to change the behavior of the
organization” (Lipschultz, 2018)
4. Two-way symmetrical
a. Bargaining or negotiating to resolve
conflict which benefits both an
organization and the public

8. Credibility
Credibility:
● The perception that a receiver has of a
source.
Terms associated with Credibility:
● Believability
● Trustworthiness
● Expertise
● Skills
● Accuracy
● Sincerity

9. Credibility A 2013 study examined how the use of
Twitter by Korean politicians affected
their perceived credibility by the public.
The politicians were viewed as:
● attractive
● Classy
● Sincere
● reliable

11. Social Capital, Conflict
& Collaboration
Social Capital is the ability of
individuals and organizations to benefit
from communication.
Benefits:
1. Trust
2. Shared norms and values
3. Shared resources and knowledge
4. Reciprocity (exchange for mutual benefit)
5. Resilience within relationships (quick
recovery from difficulties)
6. Coordination (team work)

12. Social Media
Tactics
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Media content across social platforms
a. Photographs
b. Audio
c. Video
d. Infographics
e. Links
3. Timing
4. Storytelling
a. Google Chrome Dear Sophie
5. Marketing

13. PR Newsrooms and
Message Targeting
Edelman PR developed a Creative
Newsroom staffed by former
journalists for:
● Real-time social media monitoring
● Response
● Strategy
“Trend Spotters”
● Identify trends and events
● Collaborate with account leaders
● Design creative concepts

14. PR Blogging and Case Studies
Social media have become PR tools that
offer many unique ways to be creative
and generate customer brand interest.
The Old Spice Guy, a brand representative,
created more than 150 personalized
videos for fans.

15. PR Blogging
By inventing new hashtags or
hijacking an existing trending
topic, a brand can connect
with new potential
customers.

16. PR Blogging Employees are connected to very
active social networks, and they are
brand ambassadors.
Employees are seen as stakeholders
with a voice inside and outside the
company.

17. Corporate Social
Responsibility
(CSR)
CSR asks companies to consider the
effects of their businesses on social and
environmental conditions.
- Considers long-term social interests,
not just quarterly profits
Self regulation within companies can be
more effective than previous “big
government” regulation

18. Corporate Social Responsibility
Social media amplify and
accelerate consumer voice, not
only forcing company response,
but also nudging interest in CSR.

19. Corporate Social Responsibility
There’s an argument (via “agency theory”) that “managers who
use” shareholder and “corporate resources to further some social
good are doing so only to advance a personal agenda such as
promoting their self image” (McWilliams, Siegel and Wright, 2006a,
p. 4).
communicating CSR may result in positive effects, such as increased brand loyalty
for those customers in search of socially responsible products and company
behavior.

20. Non-profits
With low and non existant media budgets nonprofits
gain the most from social media communication
Why do nonprofits need PR?
● To raise awareness and funds
● To maintain and develop relations
● To reach an audience
Public Relations Tactics for Nonprofits
1. Target the right media outlets
2. Use captivating visuals to stand out
3. Crowdsource your content with user submitted
videos
4. Start your own “Pay it Forward” campaign
5. Ride a trend

21. Successes
Coca cola #shareacoke als
#Icebucketchallenge

22. Failures
Most common problem for individuals and
companies is the distribution of social media
message without thinking it through and filtering it
in terms of PR strategic planning and goals
Examples that could lead to failures:
● Posting from the wrong account
● An old post is discovered by your company
● Disclosing confidential information
● Offensive posts
● Mishandled responses
● Offensive campaign

23. Lessons
1. Don't put your product in the center of social
issues
2. Should never create an ad that can be easily
taken of out context
3. Think about your ad from multiple perspectives
4. Don't exploit people’s pain for an ad
5. If a problem arises remember that the customer
is always right
6. Acknowledge the mistake and offer a heartfelt
apology
7. Promise corrective action and follow through
8. Have an internal review process for all creative
content
9. Spend more time and money to ensure the
proper message is delivered

24. Discussion Questions:
Strategies & Tactics

25. How is PR changing because of social media use? What are the
positives and negatives from the shift?
● Social media use in PR requires planned and real-time engagement.
● Strategies and tactics are changing due to the shift to social media.
● There are a variety of social media platforms and types of media
content that PR can use to their advantage.
● Digital content becomes expensive in exchange for engagement.
● PR must research carefully and be mindful of what they put into their
campaigns to not offend anyone or it may result in failure and damage
to reputation and credibility.

26. How is it possible to integrate the different media forms described by the
Edelman cloverleaf? (Influencers, Media, Brand) What are the most
important limitations to integrated PR?
Curated content can fit into multiple bubbles depending on how the company
chooses to brand themselves. For instance Redbull produces high action sports
media content that is distributed throughout many outlets. Yet, they remain an
energy drink company at their core with many athletes as brand ambassadors. The
most important limitations to integrated PR is there is no guaranteed Return of
Investment. A company can spend millions of dollars on a campaign yet fail to
meet their mark and engage with their target audience.

27. What do you see as the most important corporate social responsibility
issues related to social media? How might these change in the future?
● Companies may announce that they are doing good and bringing change, but
in fact they are doing nothing to improve social change.
○ Corporations may manipulate the truth.
● Sometimes companies use millions of dollars to advertise a small beneficial
social change. (ex. Spending millions for raising $100,000 for a cause)
● Can seem that a corporation is still working on social issues, but due to social
media ability to constantly post about the topic, an appearance of the company
working on this social issue if given
● Government regulations can get rid of issues in general
● Further regulations

28. ● Split into two teams.
● Questions will be in the following
categories: Definition, True or False,
Random, PR Trivia ranging from 100-400
points.
● Team with the highest points wins the
game.
● If the team gets the answer wrong, the
other team has a chance to answer the
question.
● 60 second timer per question.

29. Sources
https://www.classy.org/blog/5-unconventional-pr-tactics-nonprofits/
https://www.cbinsights.com/research/corporate-social-media-fails/#3
https://onlinempadegree.usfca.edu/news-resources/infographics/when-do-nonprofit-organizations-need-
public-relations/
https://www.cio.com/article/2901047/social-media/12-standout-social-media-success-stories.html#slide2
https://powerdigitalmarketing.com/blog/top-5-pr-fails-of-2017/
https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/lessons-learned-from-the-5-biggest-brand-fails-of-2017-uber-
pepsi-dove-and-more/
http://dittoepr.com/lessons-from-2017-pr-fails/
Lipschultz, Jeremy H. Social Media Communication, 2nd Edition. Routledge, 2018. [Chegg].