By Katie King – Published Author and CEO of AI in Business

Katie King

Public relations (PR) is the business of people. You need a keen awareness and understanding of people’s wants, needs, motivations, and attitudes in order to execute it effectively. You also need to forge and foster strong interpersonal relationships with a wide range of stakeholders. 

However, our increasing reliance on digital platforms and technologies has made this difficult to accomplish. On social media, good and bad news spreads like wildfire. Word-of-mouth doesn’t just mean telling one’s close friends, family, and neighbours anymore. Trends depart as swiftly as they arrived; conversations move on quickly, and minds change like the weather. It can therefore be challenging for PR practitioners to keep abreast of developments and stay ahead of potential crises. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) may be the solution for helping PR pros to keep up and even get ahead. Here are the top 3 use cases which some PR practitioners are already exploring, or will soon be using day-to-day.

Audience Segmentation and Social Listening

In order to effectively communicate with your audiences, you have to know who they are and what they want. You may think you know who your biggest brand fans are, but you will likely find that there is always more to learn. Not only that, but the needs, attitudes, and behaviours of audiences evolve quickly in the digital space. What is trending one day may be old news the next. You may also think everything is fine whilst a crisis is bubbling below the surface.

This is where audience insight and social listening platforms can be majorly beneficial to PR pros. So much customer data and information are collected and gathered every day, and to sort through and make sense of it all is a full time job in itself. Even if PR pros dedicate all their time to analysing the data that is available to them, it is likely that they will only scratch the surface of this information. By the time insights are formed, it’s likely that things will have already moved on and this information may no longer be accurate. 

AI tools can analyse unthinkable amounts of data in real time and in more depth than human workers could ever possibly accomplish. These insights are incredibly valuable for helping PR practitioners keep abreast of developments with their audiences. AI-based platforms can provide information about audience demographics, trending topics, and what types of content will best serve their needs. Social listening tools such as Brandwatch and Signal AI monitor thousands of online conversations in real time to identify where your audiences are discussing your brand, what they are saying, and how they feel about your organisation or products.

Such knowledge is invaluable to PR practitioners. Not only does it help them keep ahead of potential crises and intervene before things get out of hand, but it helps them to tailor their messaging and inform the content they deliver to their audiences.

Content Creation

Of course, AI can help with that, too. There are several tools in the market that enable PR pros to automate their content creation effectively. Tools like Phrasee keep an eye on the trends and make recommendations for content, as well as drafting it for you with a consisten brand voice. Other platforms such as ZeBrand can help you build a consistent brand with recommendations and autogenerated assets and content to support it.

Advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP) have led to AI tools that are able to draft copy that is engaging and human-like. Jasper has become one of the go-to tools for brands like Google, AirBnB, and IBM for writing everything from social posts to blog content to website copy. Employing these tools can help alleviate some of the burdens on PR pros who need to push out loads of content quickly yet effectively.

Media Relations

When that content needs to be released through third-party media, AI can help with pitching. PRophet and Muck Rack are two of the most popular AI-powered media relations tools on the market today. PRophet uses AI, NLP, and ML to analyse past reporter behaviour and predict future reporting potential before going to market with a pitch, and also allows the user to adjust for variables such as breaking news, editor influence, relationship with the reporter, or a spokesperson’s performance when running analysis. Muck Rack leverages AI to provide advanced media monitoring, better reporting and analysis, and more targeted pitching with built-in capability to generate tailored pitch messages.

With AI in the mix, journalists end up with pitches for stories that best meet their needs while PR pros can maximise their success rates and ensure that their stories are picked up by the right publications for their target audiences.

These are just some of the benefits that AI can bring in the PR space. In the business of relationships, practitioners need to be thinking ahead about ways that they can build and strengthen their own relationships with technology. It will certainly be interesting to see the developments and innovations that spring up in this space as more and more agencies, professionals, and brands get on board.  

You can learn more about these developments at https://www.aiinbusiness.co.uk/