▶ The Red Cross uses social media to build relations with volunteers, community and media. ▶ Social media's two-way dialogue creates faster service, media coverage, and feedback. ▶ The Red Cross’ ...social media exhibits dialogic principles, communality and control mutuality. ▶ Barriers to use social media are staff, time, managing content and publics’ abilities.
Forty individuals from the American Red Cross were interviewed to explore the use of social media in communicating with key publics. Results show that practicing public relations through social media is effective and necessary in the emerging digital age, as shown through the Red Cross’ development of a two-way dialogue with younger constituents, the media, and the community. This two-way dialogue has been accomplished primarily through Twitter and Facebook, with barriers such as lack of staff and time, and opportunities to improve National Headquarters and local chapter relations. The insights shared by the American Red Cross are useful for both public relations scholars and professionals to help them understand and apply social media practices to build strong, lasting relationships.
Through interviews with 40 American Red Cross communication professionals, this study examines how an organization that frequently responds to crises proactively manages on- and offline communication ...before, during, and after crises. The results provide the first empirical evaluation of an emerging model: the blog-mediated crisis communication model (BMCC). The lessons shared by the American Red Cross are insightful for researchers to understand the process of blog-mediated crisis communication in the nonprofit sector, which are also relevant for other public relations professionals. The findings support components of the original BMCC model, but also clearly indicate important revisions, including renaming the model the social-mediated crisis communication model (SMCC).
The authors investigated the independent and interactive effects of perceived risk and perceived efficacy on seeking of general, breast, and prostate cancer information. Analysis of the 2003 Health ...Information National Trend Survey indicates that perceived absolute risk and perceived response efficacy have generally independent-rather than interactive-effects on cancer information seeking. The influence of perceived absolute risk on prostate cancer information seeking appears to be moderated by perceived relative risk. When perceived relative risk is low, perceived absolute risk has no effect on prostate cancer information seeking; when perceived relative risk is high, perceived absolute risk exerts a significant positive influence on prostate cancer information seeking. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications.
In an effort to educate more children in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades (approximate ages nine to thirteen), this project develops a public relations and marketing program to use parents to reach ...these children with information about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Parents will be presented with information by teachers and pediatricians, people parents know and trust. The information will be presented in a number of ways including brochures, videos, public service announcements, live presentations, a website, and other tactics. Teachers and pediatricians will be presented with the information to be passed on to parents through trade shows, live presentations, pharmaceuticals companies, and mailings. The entire goal of this project is to raise the education level of teachers, pediatricians, parents and children about the prevention of HIV and AIDS.
