Why PR?

Every organisation no matter how big or small, ultimately depends on it reputation for success(Cipr.co.uk, 2018). Thus effective implementation of public relations within a company is a necessity that cannot be overlooked. In my case, one of the initiative I took was to improve the public relation strategy of Amazon.

How to do a PR strategy well

There a several ways to go about improving or creating a PR strategy, first one must identify and isolate there target audience. Who are your customers? What are there interests? Then identify on what topic you wish to speak upon, are they management oriented? Product or service oriented? These first few steps will help greatly in creating your PR strategy(Forbes.com, 2018). In my case my target audience where online shoppers( e-commerce community) specifically those who visited amazon and the topic of choice was how can amazon improve her PR.

Continuing on my initiative( improving public relations of amazon )was to improve awareness of amazons 0.5% charity donation campaign( where amazon contributes 0.5% of sale towards charity). This would be projected through the use of social media specifically through a blog campaign on Instagram and Facebook arguing in favour of Amazons charitable contributions, furthermore I would encourage amazon to participate in charitable events and fund raiser to further improve their PR.

The use of Blogs, social media and new media as whole should be paramount in any companies PR campaign and is changing how organisations communicate; especially with customers(Scoble & Israel, 2006) . This concept is further illustrated in the journal “How Blogs and Social Media are Changing Public Relations and the Way it is Practiced” by Donald K. Wright & Michelle D. Hinso showing how the communication world is moving towards a digital direction and those who understand it will communicate more effectively than those who do not(Weber, 2007).

Risks: However there are many pitfalls in regards to an organisation using social media and blogs heavily, this is due to the fact improper use of new media can destroy a company’s reputation(Socialmedia.biz, 2018). From the possibility of employee privacy violation, i.e an overexcited employee tweeting about a new project( showing your competitors your plan) to a disgruntled employee discussing the failing of your company. Furthermore there’s also the very real possibility of data theft. Information not securely locked or carelessly placed online can be victim to data theft.

*tips on how to avoid data theft: https://hospitalitytech.com/5-social-media-risks-increase-your-risk-security-breach

Measuring effectiveness

After implementing a public relation strategy it’s important that your able to measure its effectiveness, one of the ways I intended to do this for my initiative was by targeting new customers and surveying them. Asking them question, such as “ have you heard of Amazon 0.5% scheme” or “do you think amazon is an ethical company” this supplemented with sentiment analysis would give insight into whether costumers, specifically new customer’s thought about amazon and give qualitative data. Furthermore sentiment( opinion mining) analysis allows an organisation to adjust their strategy as well as measure the effectiveness off the PR campaign by finding whether customers have negative or positive view of the organisation (Hashimoto, 2018)

Risks: continuing on theres a risks when measuring the effectiveness of a public relations campaign. Firstly any sort of PR campaign which involves changing the opinion of consumer will take a great deal of time to mature, thus results will not be seen immediately.

Furthermore there are challenges involving sentiment analysis. Questions on the survey should avoid allowing the customer to use sarcasm, since its one of the sentiments that is very difficult to analyse. Adding to this, questions should also avoid neutrality, since it doesn’t reveal much about the consumers opinion i.e answers such as unsure, no opinion aren’t very useful . Finally it’s important to note negative sentiment doesn’t always mean bad PR “Sarah Palin’s appearance on the Today show generated many negative comments but still drove ratings increases” (Lazarus and Lazarus, 2018)

Conclusion & tips

To conclude doing a PR campaign well and implementing it effectively can be very difficult, there are many pitfalls. However there a few conclusions one can take, firstly you must know your target audience and know the topic you want to discuss; be clear and concise.

Secondly just like in the journal How Blogs and Social Media are Changing Public Relations and the Way it is Practiced” by Donald K. Wright & Michelle D. Hinso blogs and social media are becoming indispensable to both consumers and company and must be a part of any PR campaign; use social media and blogs effectively .

Thirdly it’s important you have an effective way of measuring your PR campaign and know its limitation, otherwise how will you know if your PR campaign worked. know the limitations of your methods.

Refrences:

Cipr.co.uk. (2018). What is PR? | Chartered Institute of Public Relations. [online] Available at: https://www.cipr.co.uk/content/policy/careers-advice/what-pr [Accessed 4 Apr. 2018].
Forbes.com. (2018). Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenmakovsky/2013/08/29/improving-personal-public-relations/ [Accessed 4 Apr. 2018].

Muhammadsaleem.com. (2018). [online] Available at: http://www.muhammadsaleem.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/wrighthinson.pdf [Accessed 7 Apr. 2018].
Socialmedia.biz. (2018). The 3 Major Risks of Using Social Media in Your Business | Socialmedia.biz. [online] Available at: http://socialmedia.biz/2015/09/29/the-3-major-risks-of-using-social-media-in-your-business/ [Accessed 5 Apr. 2018].

Scoble, R. and Israel, S. (2006). Naked Conversations .Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.[ accessed 5 Apr.2018]

Hospitality Technology. (2018). 5 Social Media Risks That Increase Your Risk for a Security Breach. [online] Available at: https://hospitalitytech.com/5-social-media-risks-increase-your-risk-security-breach [Accessed 7 Apr. 2018].
Hashimoto, S. (2018). 7 Benefits of Sentiment Analysis You Can’t Overlook. [online] Blog.insightsatlas.com. Available at: https://blog.insightsatlas.com/7-benefits-of-sentiment-analysis-you-cant-overlook [Accessed 5 Apr. 2018].
Lazarus, N. and Lazarus, N. (2018). 10 Sentiment Analysis Issues to Be Aware Of. [online] Adweek.com. Available at: http://www.adweek.com/digital/37705-sentiment-analysis/ [Accessed 6 Apr. 2018].
Weber, L. (2007). Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Buil Your Business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.[accessed 4 Apr.  2018]