Social Media Influencers In Strategic Communication

This book seeks to draw a comprehensive picture of influencer collaborations from a strategic communication perspective. The contributors tackle strategic influencer communication from multidisciplinary perspectives, from varying actor foci, and from different methodological frameworks and methods. Influencers cross traditional boundaries in many ways and oscillate between intimacy and publicity, authenticity and commercialization, ingratiation and critical distance. From a strategic communication perspective, this variability makes influencers hard to capture: organizations can cooperate with influencers to achieve both marketing and PR objectives. Influencers can act as cooperation partners, integrating commercial content into organic narratives, or as independent critics. Influencers also combine different roles that have traditionally been occupied by separate actors such as intermediary, content distributor, creative content producer, community manager, testimonial, strategic counsellor, and event host. The combination of these roles in just one actor opens new opportunities for strategic communication and can produce appreciated synergy effects. It is therefore hardly surprising that influencer collaborations have become a firmly established instrument in the toolbox of strategic communicators. The chapters in this book were originally published in the International Journal of Advertising and the International Journal of Strategic Communication.

Social Media for Strategic Communication: Creative Strategies and Research-Based Applications Second Edition teaches students the skills and principles needed to use social media in persuasive communication campaigns. This book combines cutting edge research with practical, on-the-ground instruction to prepare students for the real-world challenges they’ll face in the workplace. By focusing on strategic thinking and awareness, this book gives students the tools they need to adapt what they learn to new platforms and technologies that may emerge in the future. A broad focus on strategic communication – from PR, advertising, and marketing, to non-profit advocacy—gives students a broad base of knowledge that will serve them wherever their careers may lead. The Second Edition features new case studies and exercises and increased coverage of diversity and inclusion issues and influencer marketing trends.

Strategic Corporate Communication in the Digital Age explores how contemporary communication approaches are crossing boundaries as innovative media formats and digital transformations offer new challenges and opportunities to academia and practitioners.

"At last, a book that covers social media strategy in a practical, timely way that will help guide our students as they transition to the professional world." —Gina Baleria, San Francisco State University Social Media for Strategic Communication: Creative Strategies and Research-Based Applications teaches students the skills and principles needed to use social media in persuasive communication campaigns. The book combines cutting-edge research with practical, on-the-ground instruction to prepare students for the real-world challenges they’ll face in the workplace. The text addresses the influence of social media technologies, strategies, actions, and the strategic mindset needed by social media professionals today. By focusing on strategic thinking and awareness, it gives students the tools they need to adapt what they learn to new platforms and technologies that may emerge in the future. A broad focus on strategic communication—from PR, advertising, and marketing, to non-profit advocacy—gives students a broad base of knowledge that will serve them wherever their careers may lead. Visit the author’s blog at http://karenfreberg.com/blog/ to get tips for teaching the course, industry related news, & more! The free, open-access Student Study site at study.sagepub.com/freberg features carefully selected video links, flashcards, social media accounts to follow, and more! Instructors, sign in at study.sagepub.com/freberg for additional resources!

Social media has ushered in a new era of communication between organizations and key stakeholders. This text guides readers through a four-step process of developing a robust social media campaign. Covering the latest industry standards and best practices to engage digital audiences through social listening, strategic design, creative engagement and evaluation, each chapter also includes expert insights from social media professionals. Focusing on principles rather than a specific platform, this is a text dedicated to developing social media competency that can adapt to any organization or environment.

Unleash Your Secret Weapon for Restoring Trust: Open, Honest Communications! Most PR books tell you how to “spin” your message. People are sick of that! Spin Sucks will teach you how to communicate honestly, responsibly, openly, and authentically…and truly earn the trust of your customers, stakeholders, investors, and communities. Top PR thought leader and blogger Gini Dietrich runs the number one PR blog in the world, spinsucks.com, where she shares cutting-edge tips and tools for effective, ethical communications. Now, she’s integrated all she’s learned into a complete, actionable guide for every business leader who understands there are new rules to communications, but don’t know what to do. No matter what your organization does, Dietrich will help you: Share your story more powerfully—without sex, extortion, or “truth-stretching” Humanize your organization, even if you don’t have outsized personalities Tell the truth, using the best techniques honed by centuries of storytellers Overcome whisper campaigns, anonymous attackers, and trolls Create fresh, honest content that’s compelling to both humans and Google Systematically prepare yourself to engage more successfully online Clarify and close gaps between your message and your customer’s perception Celebrate your brand ambassadors Master seven steps for handling online criticism, and transforming critics into fans Keep others from stealing your great content Learn actionable lessons from others’ successes (and failures) Develop more positive, productive agency (or client) relationships Converge paid, owned, earned, and shared media—and get more value from all of them spinsucks.com

Social media are rapidly and dramatically transforming the communication landscape. They are purported to provide reputational benefits by promoting transparency and enhancing possibilities for stakeholder engagement. However, they also present reputational risks by exposing organizations to new types of crises, stakeholder criticism, and digital activism. This textbook provides a comprehensive look at social-mediated developments in corporate and organizational communication and examines the consequent implications for reputation management. The book takes a grounded approach in bringing together perspectives from communication and management and from scholarship and practice. It helps the reader make sense of digitalization in corporate communication and its consequences for organization–stakeholder relationships, trust, engagement, leadership, and reputation. Covering a wide spectrum of topics such as branding, consumer engagement, employee relations, crisis communication, corporate responsibility and sustainability, and the return on investment (ROI), the book maps key changes in the evolving communication landscape, with an understanding of the strategic benefits and challenges for corporate reputation. Key Features • Blend of theory and practice of social-mediated communication and implications for reputation management • International focus with contemporary (and classic) examples and cases • Link with professional practice in “Voices from the Field” feature • Discussion questions and activities to encourage critical reflection and informed application

As media continues to evolve, social media has become even more integral to public relations activities, presenting new opportunities and challenges for practitioners. Relationships between publics and organizations continue to be first and foremost, but the process and possibilities for mutually beneficial relationships are being rewritten in situ. This volume aims to explore and understand highly engaged publics in a variety of social media contexts and across networks. The hope is the expansion and extension of public relations theories and models in this book helps move the discipline forward to keep up with the practice and the media environment. Contributors analyzed a range of organizations and industries, including corporate, entertainment, government, and political movements, to consider how public relations practitioners can facilitate ethical and effective communication between parties. A consistent thread was the need for organizations and practitioners to better understand the diverse backgrounds of publics, including age, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, beyond surface-level demographic stereotypes and assumptions. This book will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students in the field of public relations and communication, especially those with a particular interest in online engagement and social media as a PR tool.