The Social Media Communication Matrix – A New Direction in Public Relations

Sophisticated problem solving in strategic communication or public relations (PR) is done through planning, strategic communication planning. The focus of this book is to meld current trends in social media to strategic communications planning in the field of PR. The definition of social media used here is channels delivering web-based information created by people to improve communication. This work used the strategic communication plan based on Wilson and Ogden's (2014) work for basic structure and an operational definition of strategic communication developed by one of the authors. The steps in a typical strategic communication campaign that will be affected include goals, measurable objectives, the big idea, key publics, message design, strategies and tactics and evaluation or return on investment. This book covers the major social media platforms and addresses branding, crisis communications, entertainment and sports, citizen journalism, and analytics. The contribution to the body of knowledge should be highly significant, affecting the way PR professionals go about devising and conducting strategic communication campaigns in light of the effect of social media as well as how academics teach the process in their classrooms.

Kenneth D. Plowman specializes in strategic management and conflict resolution in public relations and earned his doctorate in journalism from the University of Maryland. Dr. Plowman spent 15 years in the field of public relations. Dr. Plowman's career has followed a dual track, the other one being in the US Army Reserve. Now retired, he serves as senior instructor for the Public Affairs Leadership Division of the Defense Information School at Ft. Meade, Maryland.

Beki Winchel is a co-editor of PR Daily, an international online PR news source. She has a background in strategic communication and specializes in social media public relations. She has worked on social media communication with companies of all sizes-from Fortune 500 to startups-in the tech, academic, food, sports, realty, nonprofit and social entrepreneurship industries.