The document provides guidance on conducting community relations work and using social media for public relations. It discusses researching the client and community, identifying target audiences and objectives, developing programming and content, and creating a social media presence and fan base. The key advice is that social media is a long-term investment that requires consistent, quality content and being transparent and responsive to build trust over time.

1. PUBLIC
RELATIONS
471
JANUARY 19, 2011

2. COMMUNITY RELATIONS
CLIENT RESEARCH
There are five questions you should ask about your client
before beginning community relations work?
What is the level of the client s credibility in that area?
Have there been community complaints? If so, how have
they been remedied?
How has the organization conducted community relations
work in the past?
What changes in the community or political landscape
impact relationships with the client?
Is there a SWOT analysis on the community itself?

3. COMMUNITY RELATIONS
AUDIENCE RESEARCH
There are three main groups under a community relations campaign
umbrella
Media
Mass
Specializied
Community leaders
Public officials
Boards of education
Religious leaders
Union leaders
Ethnic leaders
Neighborhood leaders
Community Organizations
Civic organizations
Business organizations
Service organizations
Youth organizations
Social organizations

4. COMMUNITY RELATIONS
IMPACT OBJECTIVES
There are five impact objectives you can think about for a
a community relations campaign
Community knowledge
Favorable opinion
Organizational support
Feedback
Employee participation

5. COMMUNITY RELATIONS
OUTPUT OBJECTIVES
There are four output objectives that work well with
community relations.
Distributing more publications.
Be more responsive to community needs.
Create new projects or forms of outreach.
Meet more with leaders or stakeholders.

6. COMMUNITY RELATIONS
PROGRAMMING
There are eight main formats to present community
relations programming.
Open House/Tour
Sponsorship of community events
Advertising in local media
Giving money to local causes/charities
Participation in volunteer actvities
Participation in community organizations
Participation in government (run for City Council or serve
on government committee
Meeting with community leaders

7. COMMUNITY RELATIONS
UNCONTROLLED MEDIA
Create ways to control uncontrolled media.
Write press releases
Submit photos/video/audio or offer opportunties for each of
those tools.
Create hashtags for your event on Twitter.
Employee wins award.

8. COMMUNITY RELATIONS
CONTROLLED MEDIA
Don t be afraid to open up the checkbook.
Send newsletters to important stakeholders. Keep them in
the loop about what you re doing.
Create a speaker s bureau and get in front of civic groups.
These groups struggle to find topics for their monthly
meetings.
Keep up to date with the event and news calendar on your
website.
Social media channels can help you accomplish all of
these objectives.

9. COMMUNITY RELATIONS
THREE THINGS I WISH I
KNEW WHEN I LEFT OU
Target opinion leaders. They provide structure and clout,
which mazimizes the efficiency of your work.
To create group influence (get an organization to support
you) go out to that organization BEFORE you need
something. Speaking, volunteering and participating in
community efforts makes it much easier to promote future
community efforts.
Audience participation matters, even if that audience thinks
you suck.

10. IF THERE IS ONE THING YOU REMEMBER
FROM THIS PRESENTATION, WHAT IS IT?
Social media is a valuable tool in
any marketing campaign.
It is not the entire toolbox.

11. SOCIAL MEDIA
OVERVIEW
There are five themes you or a client should be aware of
before ever creating a social media presence:
1. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
For every Ted Williams viral bonanza, there are millions of Ed
Williams videos nobody every sees. Social media is a long
term investment.

12. SOCIAL MEDIA
OVERVIEW
2. Content is king.
Finding that content isn t easy.
You will swing and miss.
Once you find the kingworthy content, measured results
aren t a matter of if, but when.

13. SOCIAL MEDIA
OVERVIEW
3. Be transparent
It s not the lie. It s the cover up.
It s not a matter of if you get caught; it s when.
How you apologize is almost as important as what you do
wrong.

14. SOCIAL MEDIA
OVERVIEW
4. It s OK for people to think you suck.
It's been 5+ weeks since @aepohio cut branches down
that were lying on our power lines. They still have not
cleaned up our yard. Unreal.
@marksubel Gosh Mark, drop me a note @
capratimiller@aep.com & I'll put you in touch with
someone you can discuss the matter with.
Just want to say thanks to @aepohio for quickly resolving
our concern from last week. Very professional & courteous.
Thanks @aepohio

15. SOCIAL MEDIA
OVERVIEW
5. The biggest mistake you can make is not being there.
650 million people are going to be on Facebook.
A new person joins LinkedIn every second.
Twitter still sees triple digit growth.

16. SOCIAL MEDIA
RESEARCH
How many people are searching for your product through
Google?
How is your product seen on Twitter?
How is your product seen on Facebook?
How is your product seen on YouTube?
How much time can you devote?
30-60 minutes of Facebook.
1-2 hours on Twitter.
As much time as it takes to write a good blog post.

17. BLOGGING AS A
SOCIAL MEDIA FOUNDATION
Blogging is like a house or good mutual fund: it should grow in
time.
Blogging offers reasons to post on Twitter and Facebook.
Blogs force you to stay fresh and relevant.
Blogging can make you an authority.
Blogging helps with SEO.
Link Building
Internal Traffic

18. SOCIAL MEDIA
CREATING A FAN BASE
Have a good offline product
If you sell a bad product with terrible customer service, it
doesn t matter how cool your Facebook page is.
If you have a product people like and have loyalty towards,
results will follow
Zappos shoes has 90,000 followers.
Crocs have 232,000 followers.
Nike has millions of followers.

19. SOCIAL MEDIA
CREATING A FAN BASE
Start small.
You have 10 friends.
Your 10 friends probably have five friends interested in the
same kind of item.

20. SOCIAL MEDIA
CREATING A FAN BASE
Follow bloggers relevant to the industry
www.technorati.com
www.wordpress.com
www.blogged.com
Each of these bloggers will have a Twitter handle, a
LinkedIn profile and a Facebook page. Follow those folks.
Each of these bloggers will have a list of bloggers they like.
Like those folks.

21. SOCIAL MEDIA
CREATING A FANBASE
How do you get followers on Twitter to follow you?
Follow people you re genuinely interested in. Chances are,
they will follow you back.
Follow people based on industry and area; they are more
likely to follow you back.
www.wefollow.com
www.twellow.com
www.nearbytweets.com
Follow lists.
Follow friends of friends.
@reply as often as you tweet. This is a conversation.

22. SOCIAL MEDIA
CREATING A FANBASE
Get out, talk to people and make yourself an expert:
Answer questions on Yahoo answers
Answer questions on Quora.
Answer questions on LinkedIn.
Answer questions on Twitter.
Start commenting on influential blogs.
Ask people if you can guest post on said blogs.

23. SOCIAL MEDIA
CREATING A FAN BASE
Integrate social media into overall marketing campaign.
Explain Facebook presence on website.
Document social media presence in all current forms of
outreach.
Tell people why they should follow your page/handle.

24. SOCIAL MEDIA
WHY SHOULD THEY FOLLOW
US IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Contests
Questions
Poll questions/survey
Coupons
News

25. WHY ARE PEOPLE FUSSY
ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA?
People will say bad things about me.
They already are.
You have the ability to hear those concerns.
You have a power to remedy those situations.

26. WHY ARE PEOPLE FUSSY
ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA?
People will say things that are too private.
You can create privacy guidelines because you respect people s
privacy.
You can move the conversation offline.
You have to monitor your page.

27. CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN
Develop a schedule to publish content.
Make sure it s realistic.
Follow the map.

28. STUDY THE MAP.
Plan
Do
Study
Act