ALR731 - Public Relations Strategy: Social Media Access Analysis

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of a public relations (PR) strategy aimed at addressing the issue of early social media access among children, particularly those aged 10-12. The essay begins by highlighting the problem, citing a UK survey that reveals a significant number of children in this age group have social media accounts despite being below the permissible age. It then explores the negative implications of early social media use, including emotional abuse and privacy concerns, emphasizing the need for a prevention program. The essay identifies the target public as both children and their parents/guardians, recognizing the importance of reaching a mixed audience to effectively convey the message. It also considers teachers as a crucial target group. The essay delves into the communication strategies, emphasizing the AIDA framework (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) and the importance of crafting a consistent message across various media channels. It discusses the use of audio-visual mediums, community meetings, and online campaigns, highlighting the need for factual and informative content. The essay also examines the role of non-governmental organizations and government involvement in the implementation of the strategy, emphasizing the importance of a coordinated approach. Finally, the essay outlines the ethical implications and the strategies and tactics to be employed in the PR plan, including the use of online and offline media, seminars, and classroom discussions, and the importance of a consistent message across all channels.

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA ACCESS: PR STRATEGY ANALYSIS
SOCIAL MEDIA ACCESS: PR STRATEGY ANALYSIS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIAL MEDIA ACCESS: PR STRATEGY ANALYSIS
Introduction
The essay is focused towards the analysis and evaluation of a Public Relations
communication plan. The focus is on critically evaluating communications strategies that are to
help in spreading awareness about the identified issue of early social media access among
children. Formation of effective communication strategy integrated within a systematic public
relations plan can help to gather necessary attention towards the prevention of early social media
access of children below the permissible age for such activities. There is a need to create a
prevention program and PR campaign addressing the problem that has been considered. The
problem as mentioned earlier is the issue connected with the social media access of very small
and vulnerable children. In a recent survey conducted in the UK it was found that around three-
fourths of the children aged between 10-12 years have accounts in social media. However, they
are much below the official permissible age to access social media. This problem is not limited
to children accessing social media content that is inappropriate for them (Johnston 2019). The
problem has created much deeper issues in relation to the emotional, psychological and even
physical wellbeing of the children. Facebook was found to be the most used social media site by
children of the given age. The social media platform has a minimum age limit of 18 years for
permissible access. Social media usage of children between 10 to 12 years old have been found
to harm the moral development of children. Moreover, it makes children consume online time
that can be otherwise used for their better productive development. The more significant issue is
children being exposed to online abuse as a result of using social media. Children reported to
come under influence of internet abuse as a result of accessing social media. Considering these
factors a significant communications plan needs to be created that can raise awareness that helps
to prevent early social media access of children.
Target Public
The target public considering the focus issue for the required strategy is primarily the
children aged between 10 and 12. However, as this audience would not have the necessary
understanding of the harm that can be caused to them due to their earl social media access,
reaching out to their parents or guardians becomes much necessary. Hence, the primary target
can be said to be both the children and their parents. It is important to create the communication

2SOCIAL MEDIA ACCESS: PR STRATEGY ANALYSIS
strategy through the effective integration of these two primary targets. Hence, the strategy
actually has to reach a mixed target groups of children and their parents or guardians to be
optimally effective. This is the target audience as the impact of social media on the behavioral,
psychological and emotional changes of the children would be more closely witnessed by the
parents and guardians. The children are unable to take care of themselves if considered on the
context of early social media usage. Hence, it becomes very important to get the parents and
guardians involved in order to make the children understand more about the impact that social
media can have on them. Parents in the current world scenario are quite naturally concerned
about the impact of internet usage on their little children. Children in the present society are
getting more exposed to online life and online content. This is to a certain extent being used for
educational purpose but largely the children remain more recreation oriented in regards to their
internet usage. This is an important factor that should be considered before forming the
systematic public relations plans to reach out to this target audience.
It is important to note that the parents in the current society are very much inclined
towards the internet safety of their children. Past occurrences have brought to light the various
issues that people have faced over social media. This has also included in several instances small
children getting emotionally, psychologically or physically hurt. Hence, parents as the target
audiences are very concerned about the wellbeing of their children. Especially, the internet and
social media exposure of the children are significant concerns for the modern parents. Empirical
studies done recently reveal that 43% of parents agreed that social media is more negative for
their children than positive. Additionally, 31% of the parents that children face equal risks and
benefits through social media. Only around 26% opined that the benefits were more than the risk
factors. Much importantly 78% of the parents agreed to have logged into the accounts of their
children for checking their activity. These findings reveal that parent are definitely concerned
about the early social media access of their children as well as social media access itself even in
their teens or early youth. The strategy would in this case has to focus on the negative effects that
can be caused on children between the ages of 10 to 12 years if they get access to social media
(Jamieson 2019). The plan needs to be informative and only accurate data should be used and
provided subsequently to the parents.

3SOCIAL MEDIA ACCESS: PR STRATEGY ANALYSIS
Another important target group is the teachers in the primary educational institutions.
Apart from the parents, it is the teachers that spend the most time with the children. Hence, it
becomes important that they are also considered as an essential target base. The main aim of the
campaign should be to enhance the reach of the awareness towards the children and the people
that are mostly related to the children. Consideration of these target audiences would improve the
performance of the public relations plan. Hence, it becomes important that the plan is made
integrating all three of the target groups, namely- children, parents and teachers effectively
together.
Communication
Communication becomes the most important factor as the public relations strategy would
be dependent of an effective communication plan. Communication strategies help to improve the
connection between the PR groups and the target audiences. It becomes important that these
plans are created keeping in mind the best possible ways through which the target audiences can
be reached. The AIDA framework is an important tool that is used to enhance the productive
efficiency of public relations strategies. The AIDA stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire and
action. The message that is needed to be created needs to be formed and disseminated in
accordance with these four identified aspects (Austin and Pinkleton 2015). Thus, firstly,
awareness about the issue needs to be created in the minds of the target audiences. Secondly, the
interest about the issues related to the early social media access of children need to be created.
Thirdly, it becomes important that the organization focuses on improving the desire of the target
audience to take preventive measures against the potential threats. Fourthly, it becomes
important that action is taken in the right direction. This means that the target audiences should
ultimately engage in activities that help to prevent children from accessing social media at an
early age.
Some of the most important tools that can be used in this case are audio-visual mediums,
community meetings, school sessions and online awareness campaigns. However, primarily the
most important factors becomes creation of the message. The target audience can only be
reached through a proper message that is sent. Thus, a message needs to be created that can be
kept more or less constant throughout the process of sending and presenting the information. The

4SOCIAL MEDIA ACCESS: PR STRATEGY ANALYSIS
public relations group would require to create a strong message. Hence, the focus should be on
the mental and emotional trauma that can be caused to the children if they use social media at an
early age. Children have been known to suffer from a number of issue due to accessing social
media at an early age. They can face online abuse, come into contact with harmful and violent
content and get influenced by malevolent or criminal groups (Jamieson 2019). The target publics
should obviously be approached in a matter of fact way. There should be no dramatic videos or
messages that are created. The nature of the problem would require an omni-channel promotional
activity to be formed. Hence, it is necessary that the message be kept short and simple. The target
public should be told through the presentation of accurate and relevant facts connected to the
problem of the social media access of children below permissible ages. It becomes very
important that different types of messages are created. Audio-visual messages can be created
depicting the social media negative influences. Online communication can be made with the help
of infographics or picture presentations. The target public should be told to join the campaign to
create a better developmental environment for the children. This would be effective in promoting
the entirety of the public relations campaign. It becomes important in campaigns such as these
that a common platform is created for the effective interactions between the people involved.
This platform helps in the formation of a better communicational framework that can be utilized
for the benefit of all the stakeholders.
The media that can be used for the communication process are online media, audiovisual
media and print media. In this case the message would have to be kept constant throughout all
the media that are used. It is important that the technology that is used is the video making
technology, sound devices, laptops, computers, editing software and projectors. These can be
used to make the videos, collect information and also present the messages that are the most
important aspects connected with the communication plan and campaign. The platforms that can
be used are community gatherings, seminars, school campaigns, online videos, newspapers,
classroom discussions and TV advertisements.
Strategy and Tactics
Strategy is one the central aspects connected with any Public relations plan. Strategy
enables the participants to engage freely with the campaign. It is concerned with the success of

5SOCIAL MEDIA ACCESS: PR STRATEGY ANALYSIS
the entire campaign rather than the separate areas of the campaigns. It helps to provide an
overview of the entire campaign. This contributes greatly towards the effectiveness of the entire
public relations plan. Tactics are dependent on type of organization that is delivering the
program. This include the various social and political sectors that can participate in the PR
campaign, their acceptance among the target publics and the approach that is being taken.
Strategies are important as it helps to integrate all the essential areas of the plan together towards
improving the success of the campaign.
The important group that need to initiate the entire process of the communication
strategies and the PR plans are the Non-governmental organizations. It is important that the not-
for-profit sector runs the campaign as otherwise there can be corporate issues that can jeopardize
the social importance of the issue. This is because corporate organizations tend to be identified
more with the business side of their PR campaigns. Hence, if a not-for-profit group is involved
the process it would be more accepted among the target audiences. Moreover, it would also
signify the better socially productive value of the campaign. The Government can be involved in
the process to help in the implementation of the strategy. A coordinated approach will mean that
the organizations can perform effectively together towards the benefit of the society. The merits
of the coordinated approach is that the non-profit can create a better network for the PR strategy,
the government can help with the legal requirements and the resources that are necessary and the
coordinated approach of both these organizations can contribute greatly towards the formation of
a better environment for the campaign (Pearson 2016).
The target public would provide more credibility to the non-profit organizations as they
are already engaged with various humanitarian activities. Thus, they can have a better
understanding with the target audiences that are involved in the campaign. The involvement of
the government would further increase the credibility of the organizations. This is because the
organization would be strengthened. The involvement of the government would provide a sense
of security in the mids of the target audiences. Moreover, it would ensure that are more serious
effort is being made to tackle the problem of children accessing social media at an early age.
Hence, both the government and the publics would be effectively inclined towards achieving a
better result.

6SOCIAL MEDIA ACCESS: PR STRATEGY ANALYSIS
The tactics that are most importantly required are essential identification of goals,
implementing storytelling functions of PR, avoiding shortcuts and creating and important
relationship with the audiences. Setting the goals in this case would be creating an ideal customer
reach, creating an ideal audience feedback, creating the desired audience turnout at the most
important events. The PR and communications strategy timeline should be formed. The
campaign would be based on the various events that would be taking place. Hence, it becomes
important that these events are pre-considered. Planning is important as it would create a good
framework for layout of the plan. The tactics of problem identification would resonate more with
the audiences. This is because the audiences would get to know the exact problems that are
related to the identified issue. The ignorance of children towards the limits that are provided by
the social networking sites should be a concern that is greatly focused on. The target audience
would need a relevant limitation to identified problem in order to identify more with the subject.
The ignorance of the children would need to be projected as a significant limitation area.
Monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation of the PR plan would need to be made as it is important that
the success of the program is assessed effectively. There are various ways through monitoring
and evaluation can be done for the communications plan. This would help to create a better
platform through which the essential assessment of the PR campaign can be formed. There are
various evaluation plan that need to be created based on the fact that a large number of
communication platforms would be used to promote the campaign. It needs to be considered that
the campaign would not be limited to a single media. The media channels that are to be used are
Television, community programs, newspaper and online.
The television programs can be monitored through the TRP ratings that can be generated.
Moreover, the viewership of the TV advertisements related to the campaign in between some of
the most viewed TV programs can be used as an effective measurement. An important factor
would be the newspaper advertisements as well. The newspaper advertisements would be
reviewed in accordance of the curiosity that they are able to generate among the audiences. The
secured articles can be an important monitoring tool for the audience. The most number of
articles on the topic can be measured. Moreover, the number of audiences that can view the

7SOCIAL MEDIA ACCESS: PR STRATEGY ANALYSIS
advertisement of the organization also need to be measured for enhancing the prospects of the
viewers. It is important that the measures are done in ways through which the audiences can be
understood in better ways. The community programs that would be held need to be measured
though audience feedback. Survey is an important tool through which the views of the audiences
can be easily found. It is important to understand that the survey tool would be required to be
used after the program. Through the surveys the important views of the audiences can be
effectively found. Surveys can be designed in ways through which the views of the audiences
can be measured. For example- children can be asked about how many times they engage in
social media activities. Or parents can be asked about whether or not their children access the
social media. It is important to know how effective the campaign has been. Another important
monitoring tools can be audience response study. The responses of the audiences after each of
the communication takes places can be measured. The engagement of the audiences can provide
essential insights into the value of the entire communications campaign. Media monitoring can
be done to effectively evaluate the number of audiences that have engaged with the campaign.
Another important tool that can be used is the online monitoring and evaluation tool. This can be
used to measure the likes and shares that the social media communications of the organization
receive. It is important to remember that the shares and likes of the promotional content of the
communications strategies.
The discussed tools would be the best form of measurement as they focus on the reaction
of the audiences. This is the most important desired result given the actual purpose of the
communications plan. It should be remembered that the plan would focus to gain the approval of
the children, their parents and the teachers towards the issue. The mentioned tools would help in
the better evaluation of the entire process of the PR and the communications campaign.
Conclusion
The communications plan is made to attract the attention of the main target audiences
towards the major problem issue that has been selected. The strategies are focused towards
making the target audiences aware of the problem related to the early social media access of
children. The strategic factors should be kept in mind before implementing the plans. Effective
PR strategies can be utilized towards improving the coordination between the various

8SOCIAL MEDIA ACCESS: PR STRATEGY ANALYSIS
organizations involved in promoting the events and the target audiences that are central towards
the effective implementation of the plan. It is important that all the four elements of the target
publics, communication, strategy and tactics and monitoring and evaluation are all much
essentially considered. Children are facing significant issues in todays would due to their
inclinations towards the internet. Public relations strategies should be effectively implemented to
garner the support of the common people of the society towards the problems that social media
poses for children. The message becomes he most important factor in the communications
strategy.

9SOCIAL MEDIA ACCESS: PR STRATEGY ANALYSIS
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