Public Relations: Functions and RPIE Method

• Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics
• Public relations involves influencing, engaging, and building relationships with key stakeholders across platforms to shape public perception
• Marketing is a process used to build and maintain relationships with customers to create, keep, and satisfy them

Functions

• Both public relations and marketing have a role in social media
• Disciplines within public relations include: corporate, crisis, executive, internal, and marketing communications
• Media relations, content creation, events, social media, reputation management, and speechwriting are also functions in PR

RPIE Method

• The RPIE method is a four-step process for public relations: Research, Planning, Implementation, Evaluation

Research

• Involves information gathering to set up for success through situation analysis, environmental scans, and SWOT analysis
• The PESO model (Paid, Earned, Shared, Owned), social media audits, and audience data are all important for research

Planning

• Includes setting goals and objectives, identifying target audiences (primary and secondary), and determining key messages

Implementation

• Involves doing the work through content creation, writing,- graphic and video work, scheduling, posting, and monitoring

Evaluation

• Determination "what difference did we make?" and emphasizes the importance of clear goals and measurable objectives

Research Types

• Primary research involves surveys, focus groups, and interviews, and content/message testing
• Primary research if done right, can provide great insights, but can be time-consuming, and expensive
• Secondary research includes content analysis, social media audits, social listening, industry reports, and competitor analysis
• Secondary research is usually faster and cheaper, but may not be representative of the target audience

Social Media

• The fundamental use and function of social media is to establish connections with others and tell our stories virtually
• It’s important to balance educating/informing with having personality

Social Media Strategy

• A strategy should be in place for why you have a presence on each platform
• It's important to know if your audience is there, understand why people are using those tools, and have a personality (voice)

Metrics

• Basic metrics are followers, engagement, and sentiment
• Advanced metrics are psychographics of specific users who can persuade others to take action
• With channel metrics, story completion is important for Snapchat and Instagram, while retweets/favorites are aligned with Twitter and Facebook uses reactions
• Behavioral metrics determine if social media content results in a subscription or action
• Awareness leads to engagement, which causes a change in behavior

Social Media Monitoring

• Monitoring focuses on actively tracking and responding to direct mentions of your brand, reacting to customer feedback in real-time
• Listening analyzes conversations across the web to understand trends around a brand and industry, allowing for proactive strategy adjustments
• AI combines analytics with human creativity/emotional intelligence, enhances basic social posts with unique brand/personality, powers monitoring, and maintains real conversations
• Ethics involves moral guidelines and principles that influence behaviors and interactions

Ethics

• Misappropriation/trendjacking means jumping into conversations that are not relevant or necessary for a brand
• Important to be truthful and transparent, and to know who is behind a message
• Misinformation is an ethical concern

Legal Issues

• Legal issues in social media include terms of service, copyright/intellectual law, disclosure of endorsed content from the FTC

Communication Decency Act

• The Communications Decency Act of 19196 - Section 230 exists

Crises

• Traditional crises include natural disasters, companies making major mistakes, and high-profile lawsuits
• Social media crises include trending for the wrong reasons
• Social media crises also include audience backlash, and employee content that has gone wrong
• In a crisis, normal social media activity should halt

Crisis Communication

• Crisis communication strategies must be a social media component for crisis management and communication plans
• Determine if/when/how to respond on social media
• Any content must be relevant, easy-to-share, and easy to understand
• Pause other content, amplify listening and monitoring efforts, and correct false rumors
• Crisis communication should avoid silence, attacking/blaming/denying, striking the wrong tone, and failing to listen/monitor what's being said about your brand

Explore public relations as a strategic communication process. Understand its functions, including media relations and content creation, and the RPIE method (Research, Planning, Implementation, Evaluation). Discover how PR builds relationships and shapes public perception.