The strategy applied to public relations

The strategy has been defined in various ways throughout history. For Chandler (cited by Sáez et al., 2015), it is the long-term determination of goals and objectives, actions, and allocation of resources. Ohmae (cited by Sáez et al., 2015) explains that it is the continuity of a perception of improvement based on commitment, competitiveness, creativity, and alignment to the organization, the client, and the competition. For their part, Ansoff and McDonnell (cited by Sáez et al., 2015) say that what it is about is producing a resource allocation pattern that offers the best results, to respond to the objectives of the organization in an always turbulent environment. And, for Porter (cited by Sáez et al., 2015), the strategy is a unique value proposition compared to the competition. Although the strategy is still a central idea of business management, there are currently a large number of disciplines that study, treat, and apply it from diverse scientific and professional perspectives such as communication and, specifi- cally, public relations (Sáez et al., 2015).

The conception of public relations as an autonomous and managerial functional area within the orga- nization, which dates back to the 1980s, understands this function to be directly dependent on senior management (Dircom, 2018; Ruler & Verčič, 2004; Xifra, 2017), from which the corporate strategy emanates (Sáez et al., 2015). From this perspective, public relations are a discipline directly linked to strategy and, thus, to strategic planning (Amec, 2020; Matilla, 2018; Otero & Pulido, 2018; Spell, 2021).

In the digital field, the purpose of public relations activity remains the same: trust management. Thus, the application of the strategy to this praxis will require a methodical planning process and, likewise, the consistent development of preliminary research (research), the design of an action plan (action), its implementation (communication), and a final evaluation (evaluation), like the one promulgated by Marston. Yaxley (2012, p. 431) also adds that the strategic process of public relations in the digital medium supposes “an opportunity for public relations to evolve in order to apply its existing strengths in earning coverage, building online relationships, and managing corporate reputation”.

At this time, it is observed that the management of digital communication is a shared responsibility between different areas of the organization. However, it is the communication department that must coordinate the integration of offline and online activity in an organizational communication program (Aced, 2018). Furthermore, the first condition of any strategic approach is that offline and online communication be conceived as a whole, that they complement each other, and that they form part of the same integrated approach that, in turn, must be aligned and consistent with the corporate strategy. (Aced, 2018; Compte-Pujol, Matilla, & Hernández, 2018).

The research (research)

A strategic approach requires starting from preliminary research since, otherwise, the professional can only be guided by mere intuition for decision making, instead of doing it empirically (Capriotti, 2021; Castillo-Esparcia and Villabona- Beltrán, 2018; Cuenca, 2018; Cuenca-Fontbona et al., 2020; Cutlip et al., 2006; Grunig and Hunt, 2003; Madroñero and Capriotti, 2018; Marston, 1981; Matilla, 2018; Otero and Pulido, 2018; Spell, 2021; Xifra, 2017).

This first stage implies, on the one hand, compiling preliminary information on the internal and ex- ternal situation of the organization and, on the other hand, analyzing audiences’ perceptions through public relations audits (Cuenca, 2018; Matilla, 2018).

For Matilla (2018), this stage can be divided, in turn, into two more specific sub-stages: preliminary information and research itself. In the preliminary information phase, the founding creed, general au- diences map, organizational structure, philosophy and management style, corporate personality and identity, corporate culture, corporate image, corporate reputation, corporate notoriety, visual identity, competitive environment, SWOT analysis, and P.E.S.T.E.L analysis, must be defined. Next, the re- search stage must be developed, which can be basic (with techniques such as personal or participant observation, formal or informal conversations, etc.) or applied (including, among others, environmen- tal research, audits of perceptions and attitudes, the communication audit, and the social or relations audit). To conclude this first stage, an analysis of all the information and data obtained must be carried out to, finally, establish a diagnosis of the situation, which allows empirically identifying the commu- nication problem to be solved through a strategic plan.

The interpretation of this initial information and its projection in the face of an uncertain future allows future scenarios to be identified and any possible deviation to be measured (Matilla, 2018; Oliveira, 2018; Otero & Pulido, 2018; Spell, 2021; Xifra, 2017). Based on this diagnosis, it will be possible to design an action plan in the digital sphere aligned with possible scenarios.

The strategy (action) The second stage of the strategic planning process, the action, responds to the design of a plan typology categorized byXifra (2017) in commercial or marketing support, institutional, of notoriety, purpose and corporate image and reputation, and crisis, educational or awareness, of social action, and, also, internal communication projects (Amec, 2020). It also responds to the communicative function of the program: information, influence, persuasion, education, dialogue, commitment, en- tertainment, or loyalty (Grunig and Hunt, 2003; ) (Amec, 2020; Capriotti et al., 2019; Matilla, 2018; Neill & Moody, 2015; Xifra, 2017) that must be based on preliminary empirical research and that must contribute to the achievement of previously set objectives (Amec, 2020; Capriotti, 2021; Madroñero & Capriotti, 2018; Matilla, 2018; Otero & Pulido, 2018; Spell, 2021; Xifra, 2017). The concept of planning, the basic axis of any strategy, consists of determining and analyzing the strategic audiences of a map of previously configured audiences (Oliveira, 2018), in setting goals and objecti- ves, establishing strong ideas and messages, and in selecting digital tools. Its purpose is to relate the attitudes, opinions, ideas, and reactions of the audiences derived from the research stage, with the policies and programs of the organization (Matilla, 2018). Creativity, innovation, and its adaptation to the digital environment also strengthen any approach that wants to present itself as strategic (Moreno et al., 2017).

The existing literature about the strategic stage in the field of public relations in the digital medium refers only to the media ecosystem. Several authors agree that digital channels are being used in an integrated way to communicate and influence internal audiences (Ewing, Men, & Neil, 2019; Lipiäinen, Karjaluoto, & Nevalainen, 2014) and external audiences (Capriotti & González-Herrero, 2017; García, Carrillo-Durán, & Jimenez, 2017; Navarro et al., 2017). On the other hand, Hanna, Rohm, and Crittenden (2011), insist on the need to develop an integra- ted communication ecosystem that allows the combination of channels to achieve a greater capacity to influence audiences. In this same sense, forLuo, Jiang, and Kulemeka (2015) what is essential is to strategically integrate and align the management of digital platforms with corporate objectives and with the rest of the communication program. They also highlight that digital tools, especially, those related to social networks, help public relations professionals to scan the environment, listen to different audiences, and generate dialogue, essential issues for any strategic thinking in communication.

According to the results of the European Communication Monitor -ECM- (Amec, 2020), blogs and social networks, as well as websites, e-mail, and intranets, are the most used digital communi- cation tools in any communication strategy. Specifically, in the field of internal communication, the importance of digitizing the forms of communication and strengthening the digital infrastructure of the organization itself is growing to favor the flow of internal communication and between teams (Zerfass et al., 2021). And four channels are identified as an upward trend: corporate social networks, mobile apps, online videos, and intranets (Amec, 2020). In general, the situation caused by CO- VID-19 has highlighted the need to invest in strong and solvent virtual solutions (Gallagher, 2021). Concerning external communication, several authors highlight the potential of blogs and web pages to strategically manage relations with audiences, stimulate interaction and corporate transparency, and even communicate the activity of the corporate social responsibility-CSR- policy (Navarro et al., 2017). The ECM 2020 study points out that social networks are at the top of the list of tools most used by communication professionals in their strategic approaches (Amec, 2020), andRoshan, Warren, and Carr (2016) emphasize the advantages of social networks to prevent conflict scenarios or deal with crises.

The execution (communication)

Execution of the public relations plan is the third stage of Marston’s strategic process. It involves direc- ting, in a manner consistent with the previous stages, the implementation of public relations techniques and digital tools that have been decided in the planning stage (Matilla, 2018; Otero & Pulido, 2018; Spell, 2021; Xifra, 2017). At this stage, the fundamental elements that must be contrasted to validate compliance with the principles of the Marstonian strategic process are: the administration of the budget that is allocated to digital communication, time management, quality control, or the formative evalua- tion, and, in this sense, the importance of monitoring the digital plan is carried out as the actions are executed to correct any imbalance regarding the initially proposed goals and objectives, and, finally, the direction of teamwork (Matilla, 2018; Otero & Pulido, 2018; Spell, 2021; Xifra, 2017).

The evaluation (evaluation)

Finally, the evaluation stage consists of assessing whether the deployed strategy has had success, im- pact, interest, and/or acceptance among audiences (Lindenmann, 1990; Marca, 2018; Matilla, 2018; Otero & Pulido, 2018; Spell, 2021; Watson & Noble, 2014; Xifra, 2017). In other words, “it serves to know which aspects of the plan have worked, but, above all, which have failed, analyzing the possi- ble causes of that failure to draw conclusions and make the appropriate corrections” (Rodríguez, 2017, p. 377).

The final, or summative, evaluation is a key stage in most public relations strategic planning models. However, although academics and professionals recognize the vital importance of evaluation (Amec, 2020; Marca, 2018; Xifra, 2017) to consolidate the strategic nature of public relations, the former treat the subject of evaluation tangentially and, the latter evaluate their plans superficially, without taking into account the objectives or the decision of what the measurement indicators or Key Performance Indicators- KPI- should be (Balance Scorecard Institute, 2021; ) (Buhmann & Likely, 2018; Buhmann, Macnamara, & Zerfass, 2019; Macnamara & Gregory, 2018; Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012; Marca, 2018; Watson & Noble, 2014; Zerfass et al., 2017). The IPR Measurement Commission study alre- ady predicted that, although digitization is the technological trend that most affects the public relations profession, few believe it to “have a research-led strategic insight function” (Adi, 2019), therefore, measurement and evaluation will continue to be a challenge for public relations in the coming years to consolidate its strategic proposal (AMEC, 2020, 2021).

Sample

The questionnaire, written in Spanish, was sent by email, within the framework of remote administra- tion methods, in two consecutive weekly waves carried out between November 9th and 22nd, 2020, to the electronic addresses of N=1,067 functional communication directors of the Spanish companies with the highest turnover with more than 5 years of experience. All the participants are members of the Association of Communication Directors-Dircom¹ which, due to their high level of representativeness, constitute a quality sample. The contact information of this sample was obtained from the last Dircom 2017² public directory and the electronic addresses were obtained, one by one, from various sources and by hand. 18 experts between professionals and academics participated in the pre-test. The profile of the experts was determined following three criteria: a) that they accumulated more than 5 years of experience; b) that they were reputable specialists in the sector (heads of agencies, associations, and/ or professional colleges in the field of public relations and communication, company communication directors, members of academic institutions that are in national and international research teams), and c) with extensive knowledge of the discipline and professional reality.

A total of 186 respondents started the questionnaire and 134 completed it. After eliminating the respon- ses of the participants who could not be clearly identified as part of the target population, the analysis was carried out based on the responses of n=124 professionals who answered every one of the ques- tions posed, representing 11.62% of the population size (error +/-8 and trust level 0.95).

The sociodemographic profile of n=124 was mostly female (54%), with ages mainly between 35 and 50 years. The geographical area of origin was concentrated mainly between Madrid and Barcelona, although we also obtained some responses in cities such as Valencia, Seville, and Bilbao.The Dircom directory classifies companies into 10 sectoral categories, which made it possible for the sample of communication managers to be heterogeneous. The responses received belonged to orga- nizations in the category of Services and Leisure (27.4%), Food, Drinks, and Tobacco (15.3%), Com- merce and Distribution (14.5%), Audits, Consultants, and Law Firms (4.8%), Telecommunications,

¹ The Dircom association is a professional association that brings together managers and communication professionals from Spanish companies, institutions, and consultancies. It was born in 1992 from the initiative of a group of outstanding communication professionals motivated by the growing importance and scope of their responsibilities in the company and society. Dircom’s vision is to value the function of communication and the director of communication in organizations, in such a way that said competence and its managers are considered as a strategic area and manager. Its mission is carried out through four strategic axes: recognition, professional development, networking, and responsible management/CSR. http:// www.dircom.org/sobre-dircom/que-es-dircom

2. Dircom Directory 2017 Communication Yearbook 2017 Almería: Almería Press Association – FAPE http://almeria fape es/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/DIRCOM_Directorio_2017 pdf

Questionnaire and statistical analysis

The methodology used is quantitative and the questionnaire included in its research 20 questions rela- ted to the praxis of the communication department in each of the different stages of strategic planning of public relations, the typology of the plans, their communicative function, and the digital ecosystem used.

Source: Own elaboration.

For the single-answer numerical typology questions (strategic planning stages), a seven-level metric (Likert scale) was established (from totally disagree with an ordinal score of 1, to totally agree with an ordinal score of 7). For the analysis, the summative possibility offered by the scale was used. Thus, to present the results, the groups of elements from each of the two opposite parts of the scale have been reasonably added, considering scores 1, 2, and 3 (different degrees of disagreement) in disagree- ment with the question raised, and, at 5, 6, and 7 (different degrees of agreement) in agreement with the question raised. The score of 4 (neither disagree nor agree) has been considered neutral. For the multiple-choice answer categorical typology questions (typology, communicative function, and digital ecosystem of the plans), the options were established using checkboxes.

For the analysis of the absolute frequencies (Fa) and the relative frequencies (Fr) of the results and the existing correlation between the stages of the strategic process, the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) was used. Results were statistically tested using Pearson’s correlation (r) and paired samples t-test.

Strategic planning of public relations in the digital medium

The results of the study show important similarities in the opinions expressed by professionals from communication departments regarding the strategic praxis of public relations plans in the digital me- dium.

A previous issue, a prelude to any strategic approach and on which there is unanimity among the heads of the analyzed sample, is that the public relations plans in the digital medium that are drawn up are related to the rest of the communication operations that are promoted in the communication depart- ment (91.1%).

Although the study does not ask about the type of research that is designed, the results do explain that most professionals say they outline strategic public relations plans in the digital medium based on some type of preliminary research (87.9%). Few do not believe that preliminary research is relevant in their approaches to digital communication, or who do not carry out any type of preliminary research (4%) (Table 2).

Most professionals specify that they plan by reflecting on and defining the communication objectives, specifying the topics and messages to be disseminated, determining the strategic audiences and the di- gital channels of dissemination, and all this, always based on the information provided by preliminary research. The initiation of a strategic plan through preliminary research coincides, to a large extent,

with this strategic vision that a large part of the senior executives responsible for communication in the companies in the sample (95.2%) claim to have. The sample of those who seem to give little or no importance to having to fix the issues of this second stage of the planning process (2.4%) is scarce. In another order of ideas, the experts, to invigorate the strategy, also give great importance to creativity in content creation (83.0%) and having it correctly adapted to the digital environment and declined according to strategic audiences (84%).

When asked about the logistics of implementing the public relations program in the digital medium, more than three-quarters of the sample explained that they have automated their main execution pro- cesses through different digital platforms, be it design, account managers, responses, data storage, shi- pments, and even the monitoring of plans (71.8%) to execute any strategic approach with guarantees (Table 2). However, there is still a significant volume of managers who state that they still do not have optimal automation of the execution processes of public relations plans (10.4%).

Finally, regarding the evaluation of strategic public relations plans in the digital medium, this same stage has been questioned, separately, about the quantitative and qualitative methodology. In the same Table 2, it can be seen that the majority of professionals state that the evaluation is carried out through quantitative key performance indicators such as notoriety ratios, the growth of the community or fo- llowers, or the engagement rate and using corporate reputation metrics, monitors, online bookmarks, or even clipping services (83.9%). There are some of the departments that either are not sufficiently advanced (8.9%) or do not use measurement tools or indicators (7.2%). And, in general, they also state that they do some kind of qualitative evaluation to make better decisions (90.3%). There are few programs with null or almost null qualitative monitoring (5.6%), or that do not apply any at all (4%).

Table 2. Strategic process of public relations plans in the digital medium

Source: Own elaboration.

Typology of public relations plans in the digital medium

Public relations plans in the digital medium are mainly designed to increase the notoriety and aware- ness of the corporate brand (83.9%), while protecting the corporate image and reputation (83.0%), a type of program that is associated with the argument of 86.3% of the sample, according to which, pu- blic relations in the digital field are fundamental in a situation of vulnerability, risk, or crisis (Table 3).

Besides these first three typologies, there are, on the one hand, a series of approaches to support the marketing function (80.6%), and, on the other hand, that of publicizing the corporate purpose (78.2%). Another relevant fact to observe in Table 3 is the identification of a significant volume of programs aimed at internal audiences (71.8%). Finally, the possibilities offered by the virtual space also occur in the communication of CSR policies (63.7%), followed by the design of awareness or education pro- grams (53%), and in the field of institutional relations or public affairs (49%).

Table 3. Typology of public relations plans in the digital medium

Source: Own elaboration.

Communicative function of public relations plans in the digital medium

Regarding the communicative function of public relations plans in the digital medium, a certain diver- gence can be observed in the opinions of the surveyed professionals. For some, any action is designed solely to inform (80.6%), for others the goal is to build loyalty (58.1%), influence (50.8%), or persuade strategic audiences (46%). Educating (31.5%), dialoguing (21.0%), engaging (16.1%) or entertaining (16.1%) would be other basic functions (Table 4).

Table 4. The communicative function of public relations plans in the digital medium

n=124 professionals respond (multiple choice answer) about each of the communicative functions.

Source: Own elaboration.

Ecosystem of digital public relations plans

Lastly, regarding the digital ecosystem of public relations plans, it is observed how e-mail (95.2%) is the most used internally and the Web page externally (100%), (Table 5).

In digital approaches to internal communication, besides email, other common tools are the Intranet (82.2%), the Newsletter format (74.2%), Webinars (69.4%), corporate apps (68 .5%), online corporate events (64.5%), and Blogs (52.4%). Those that also play a relevant role are online messaging such as WhatsApp or Telegram (41.1%) and internal social networks such as Sharepoint, Yammer, Workplace, or Chatter (38.8%).

Regarding external communication, the strategy involves the use, besides the corporate website, of email (87.9%) and social networks, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and those that allow the articulation of audiovisual, graphic, and interactive formats, such as YouTube and Instagram (86.3%). Like the results obtained internally, the Newsletter (73.4%), online corporate events (64.5%), Webinars (58.1%), and Blogs (54%) are also common tools. Furthermore, more than half of the com- munication departments have a digital newsroom enabled (53.2%). Apps (30.6%), Podcasts (24.2%), and Wikis (21%) are of incipient use.

Table 5. The ecosystem of public relations plans in the digital medium

n=124 professionals respond (multiple choice answer) about each of the digital channels.

Source: Own elaboration.

The Marstonian strategic planning stages must be consistent with each other. The way to check this coherence is by establishing correlations between the different stages. In this way, it is observed that, between the preliminary research and the strategic stage (r= 0.575, p ≤ 0.01), the execution stage (r= 0.105, p ≤ 0.01), and the evaluation stage, both quantitative (r= 0.395, p ≤ 0.01) and qualitative (r= 0.469, p ≤ 0.01), there is a direct association, that is, there are no differences between the diagnosis, the strategy, the execution, and the evaluation. The same happens when strategic planning is correlated with execution (r= 0.141, p ≤ 0.01), quantitative evaluation (r= 0.388, p ≤ 0.01), and qualitative evalua- tion (r= 0.567, p ≤ 0.01). Likewise, there is coherence between the execution stage and the quantitative (r= 0.160, p ≤ 0.01) and qualitative (r= 0.382, p ≤ 0.01) evaluation (Table 6).

Table 6. Consistency between the stages of strategic planning

The scale shows reliability of 0.74 (Cronbach’s Alpha).

Source: Own elaboration.