The values that brands convey affect consumer choices. They like to buy products from socially responsible companies. A special type of PR — social PR — will help to unobtrusively and effectively convey the brand's worldview to the target audience.

What is social PR

The main difference between social PR and classic PR is the presence of a socially significant component. A positive image of the company is formed by solving urgent problems. For example, by drawing attention to the difficulties of a certain group of people, to environmental or social issues.

Sometimes social PR works more effectively than ordinary PR or advertising, because people feel involved in the correct, socially approved type of behavior. By making purchases from the initiating company, they not only cover their needs, but also become "accomplices" in positive changes in society.

What determines the choice of strategy and target audience of social PR

For a company, social PR is an opportunity to get an emotional response from the target audience, stronger than from ordinary PR activities. At the same time, public initiatives are not generated by chance – they are consistent with the overall marketing strategy and correspond to corporate values. The target audience of the campaign is one of the portraits of the brand's target audience or one of the influence groups.

How to Define Your Target Audience

The target audience of social PR is not only consumers of products and services. Activities are also directed at groups of influence - people or organizations that exert or may in the future exert pressure on the work of the company and its image. These can be employees, trade unions, customers, local authorities, government, partners, competitors, public organizations.

At the stage of determining the target audience, you can experiment with segmentation. It can be radically different from marketing segmentation aimed at sales.

For example, among the customers of a digital bank, there are women who are expecting a child. The purchasing behavior of this group does not differ from other audiences, but by conducting a social campaign to support motherhood, the bank increases the loyalty of existing customers and attracts new ones.

Social PR Strategies

The purpose of social PR is to form opinions, values, and new models of behavior among the audience. Depending on the initial situation, it can be achieved by implementing one of the strategies.

Anti-crisis or defensive PR strategy. It is implemented when an undesirable situation has occurred, and there is already a negative reaction to the actions of the organization or to its products and services. Perhaps a negative opinion does not directly affect the company, but hinders promotion in the market.

Strategy for forming a positive image. The stronger the resistance in society and the more global the changes in behavior and in the worldview are required, the longer the campaign should be. Such projects last for years, and only large corporations can implement them.

Mistakes in strategy development

In addition to the obvious mistakes, such as the inconsistency of social PR initiatives with the overall marketing strategy and the choice of topics that do not coincide with the company's values, there are others. They are related to the ethics and social responsibility of PR:

  • Sometimes, in an attempt to reach out to the public, companies develop shocking content, forgetting that it can traumatize the audience. Overly provocative slogans and overly detailed photos are more likely to scare people away.
  • An appeal to conscience often leads to the opposite effect: people push inconvenient information out of their minds.

Bottom Line: Success Factors for Effective Social PR Campaigns

Successful social PR campaigns are characterized by a number of features (several or all of them from the list below):

  • Selection of a relevant topic that is aligned with the overall strategy of the company.
  • A non-standard approach to standard tasks. For example, an online store that sells garbage or accessories sewn from advertising banners.
  • Using emotions in messages – they help make communication memorable and create a strong connection with the audience.
  • Following a trend or even creating a new trend.
  • The ability to actively interact with the brand and organically promote the idea offline or online. This can be done with the help of souvenirs that you want to have and wear: T-shirts, shopping bags, hoodies, etc.; online challenges; unusual outdoor advertising, etc.
  • Engaging influencers with like-minded views in the campaign. No one will believe in the idea of frugal consumption if it is talked about by a rapper, in whose videos champagne flows like a river, and he himself is hung with gold.
  • Search for topics that can create organic promotion in society. As a rule, these are topics that cause heated discussions. But you need to maintain a balance and not exploit painful topics. For example, the topic of abortion is too painful, but the idea of gender equality is provocative, capable of causing lively discussions, but unable to shock and hurt the audience.

When developing a social PR campaign, you need not only to come up with an important initiative, but also to build a plan on how to convey it to the target audience, including with the involvement of the media.