Overview
Review Public Relations and Social Media: Deliberate or Creative Strategic Planning. After reading this article and identifying challenges associated with social media, discuss how organizations can use social media to effectively communicate with internal and external target audiences. Reflect on your own professional experience with social media, and consider the following questions in your response:
- How can organizations build trust through social media, both internally and externally?
- How can social media be used to address public relations issues?
- How can social media be used to support the culture, strategic vision, values, and/or mission of the organization?
Volume 42, Issue 4, November 2016, Pages 530-538
Public relations and social media: Deliberate or creative strategic planning
Author links open overlay panelFrancine Charest Ph.D a 1 2, Johanie Bouffard b 2, Ema Zajmovic b 2
a
Information and Communication Department, Université Laval, 1055, Ave du Séminaire, Québec G1V 0A6, Canada
b
Master Student in Public Communication, Specialized in Public Relations, Québec, Canada
Received 10 August 2015, Accepted 25 February 2016, Available online 7 April 2016, Version of Record 15 September 2016.
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Abstract
The subject of the presented exploratory study is the strategic planning of the daily professional activities of managers in social media (SM). Is this planning deliberate, or emergent? Are the strategies prescribed, or creative? To what communication logics must professionals adapt their practices? Following the sociology of uses studied in the approach to SM appropriation in the field of corporate communication, these questions are tackled through a qualitative, descriptive approach. The dual objective is to describe the actual professional practices of SM managers and compare them to the theories found in the literature. To do this, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 managers active in SM in North American organizations. During these, practices emerged for which the standards were not always prescribed.
Introduction
Creating and keeping relationships of trust with one’s audience is at the heart of the professional and academic activities of public relations. How are these strategic activities planned in social media (SM) in order to gain such trust, and continue to earn it over the long term? We might first question whether these activities are planned as a part of a global communication plan, or whether they emerge from daily practices. Is the planning deliberate, or emergent (Mintzberg and Waters, 1985)? Is it prescribed, or creative (De Certeau, 1990)? Does presence in SM require using elements of both trends at once? To what communication logics must public relations professionals adapt their practices in SM? What strategies should be adopted?
These questions are addressed through the SM appropriation approach, emerging from the sociology of uses and studied in the field of corporate communication. This epistemological position allows this phenomenon to be studied from the point of view of the user or, in this case, public relations professionals. What interests us is to understand the strategic process and whether it is planned (or not), or a bit of both, of SM managers in their daily SM appropriation practices to reach their communication objectives. What are these objectives: to inform, entertain, or inspire confidence? What strategic approach should be developed to gain this confidence? How should ideally symmetrical and two-way conversations be brought about (Grunig & Hunt, 1984): by developing “building mode” strategies established from a planned process, or by employing “dwelling mode” strategies which emerge from daily practices?
This study discusses the digital practices of public relations professionals through a descriptive qualitative approach. To do this, we used semi-structured interview techniques with 12 SM strategists active in North American organizations. They allowed us to analyse the SM appropriation practices by professionals through their planning and to observe how these effective practices could be compared to those prescribed in the scientific literature.
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Section snippets
Theoretical issues and markers
Conceptualizing a “theory of practices” has always been a project dear to the father of the appropriation approach, De Certeau (1990). Although he was never able to fully realize it, he at least laid the foundations. Other researchers have continued their work in this vein. Chia and Holt (2006) also emphasize the difficulty of studying daily professional practices, as well as the importance that they play in any communication strategy. As early as 1985, Mintzberg and Walters tackled the
Strategic planning in 3 levels
From Maslow’s Pyramid, which integrates the needs for trust, attachment, and collaboration of an individual, Ertzcheid, Faverial, and Guéguen (2010) propose a strategic planning model applicable to SM. It consists of 3 hierarchical levels: (1) Developing the organization’s trust capital by working on its identity and reputation through transparency and active listening; (2) Developing a sense of attachment and transparency in order to bring out ambassadors for the organization, who will become
The evolution of practices
When comparing the use of SM made by organizations when they began their involvement with the one that is made today, we can see a certain refinement of the practice. Indeed, some organizations initially launched themselves in SM in a rather experimental manner: “Before 2010, there was no written strategy […] We started to open accounts everywhere, without having a strategy” (participant #8), “There was a pretty summary plan for SM integration. It was at a minimum” (participant #5). For others,
Conclusion and points for consideration
This exploratory study, conducted using the approach of SM appropriation by professionals active in SM in North American organizations, has helped to describe the effective practices of 12 strategists and to compare them, in particular, with those described in the literature issuing from the sociology of uses.
First from a descriptive angle, the results show an evolution of the practices of SM managers, whose role is entrusted to public relations and human resources professionals. This evolution
Note 1. methodology
The proposed methodological process is intended as a descriptive qualitative approach to the professional practices of public relations in social media (SM). It has two objectives: (1) describe the strategic planning of the professional practices of SM managers; (2) compare the theories prescribed in the literature with actual practices in social media. Please see details and participant profile at the end of the article.
To do this, we employed semi-structured interview techniques with a sample
Acknowledgment
This research was supported in part by Fonds de recherche du Québec sur la société et culture (FRQ-SC).