I do know. “AI public relations” (PR) form of feels like an oxymoron.
Public relations is about shaping and sharing your human tales with different people. It’s about capturing and creating real human pleasure and resonance. How can we ever depart that to the robots?
Effectively, we will’t — a minimum of not fully. Like applying AI to digital marketing or another subject, you should be selective and considerate about incorporating AI into your public relations technique. That’s the place we are available in.
We’ll unpack the professionals and cons of utilizing AI in public relations and share among the smartest use circumstances and professional suggestions that will help you get essentially the most out of it.
Desk of contents
Why Use AI in Public Relations (PR)
Utilizing AI in public relations has many advantages, however all of them come again to 1 all professionals try for — improved productiveness.
Let’s break down the specifics.
Execs of AI Public Relations
Increased Effectivity
HubSpot research discovered 90% of entrepreneurs say AI and automation assist them spend much less time on guide duties, extra time on the tasks they take pleasure in most (80%), and extra time on the artistic elements of their function (79%). Public relations isn’t any exception.
In truth, 76.6% of PR professionals already use AI tools to automate their most tedious and repetitive duties, according to Prowly.
For PR professionals, AI can imply faster market and marketing campaign evaluation, in addition to quicker press launch and pitch drafting. AI and automation can even assist eradicate guide duties like electronic mail follow-ups to your press companions.
Decrease Prices
By aiding with time-consuming and mundane duties, AI can even assist decrease pointless bills in your public relations funds.
For instance, should you pay a freelancer by the hour to draft press releases, utilizing an AI instrument like Jasper and even HubSpot’s Free AI Content Writer can assist reduce the necessity for these hours.
Don’t consider me? Prowly discovered that 43.5% of PR professionals utilizing instruments say it has lowered their firms’ total prices and useful resource wants. That’s on high of 48.2% reporting they struggled with working with a small funds previously 12 months.
These small efficiencies add up.
Elevated ROI
With decrease prices comes the potential for elevated return on investment (ROI). Exhausting to argue with that.
Cons of AI Public Relations
As nice as AI sounds for public relations, it nonetheless has drawbacks.
Knowledge High quality & Accuracy
Knowledge high quality and accuracy are among the largest issues of utilizing AI in public relations or any use case, actually.
Most public synthetic intelligence runs off info fed from its customers and the web — and I feel everyone knows we will’t belief every little thing we learn on-line.
Due to this, you can’t always know if the results you get from AI are correct or based mostly on dependable sources. This may be harmful when utilizing AI in public relations, particularly when doing analysis.
Be cautious of validity and even bias. The very last thing you wish to do is make strategic selections based mostly on false or misguided info.
Privateness
There’s little doubt that AI can assist expedite your public relations workflow, however that usually means sharing particulars about your model or firm to supply outcomes you possibly can truly use.
AI is currently unregulated, so any info you share is vulnerable to being saved or handed onto others utilizing the instrument, together with probably our rivals.
Lack of Human Contact
Public relations is about human connection. It’s about how your model or shopper is perceived by different folks and the general public at giant.
Whereas spectacular, AI or automation’s potential can solely go far on this area.
AI can’t create private relationships and bonds. It will probably’t take photographs with followers, shake fingers with potential buyers, or attend a charity occasion. It will probably’t “learn the room” or perceive the delicate nuances of present occasions or tradition.
And its insights and data are solely as present as its final replace. So. tread calmly when utilizing AI or automation for one-on-one communication.
With out cautious enhancing or strategic use of the instruments, its synthetic nature might be simple to identify.
This personalization mistake from UK restaurant burgerific is a typical one.
How is AI utilized in public relations?
The probabilities of synthetic intelligence are fairly boundless, however with the cons and limitations we mentioned in thoughts, listed below are among the greatest use circumstances in public relations.
1. Drafting press releases and pitches
In certainly one of my first advertising and marketing and PR jobs, I wrote and distributed about 2-5 press releases a day. I loved it, however I’d be mendacity if I mentioned it wasn’t time-consuming, not to mention draining.
I can also have developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from all of the typing, however we’re not right here to debate the significance of workspace ergonomics.
With generative AI, you possibly can dramatically scale back your press launch and pitch writing time (and perhaps even Carpal Tunnel Syndrome).
All you want is a immediate answering these questions:
- What’s the objective of your press launch?
- What essential info do it’s a must to embrace?
- Who’s it meant for?
- What tone do you wish to use?
For example, I gave ChatGPT this immediate:
“Are you able to write me a press launch about Apple’s September 2024 Product Occasion? It ought to embrace the date and time — Monday, September ninth at 10:00 AM PT and get most people enthusiastic about it.”
Right here’s what I acquired again:
However bear in mind, this could solely be a place to begin. Neerja Patel, a PR skilled of over 15 years and founder and CEO of her personal PR agency, advises, “Use AI to reinforce your creativity and help with analysis and content material creation.”
“It shouldn’t substitute your thought course of or be used as a substitution to your work. Probably the most impactful campaigns which have most outcomes are those that mix the human thoughts with AI.”
Professional tip: “To make sure you are telling the most effective narrative in AI-assisted press releases, embrace not solely essential and related info but in addition present world traits,” continues Patel.
“This may assist strengthen your messaging, in the end growing your possibilities of garnering consideration from journalists and securing tales in publications.”
Additionally, are you not the savviest with ChatGPT or prompting simply but? Our free information, “How to Use ChatGPT at Work,” will introduce you to the instrument and share greatest practices and 100 immediate concepts to get you began.
These abilities are simply adaptable to different chatbot-style instruments like HubSpot’s Free AI Content Writer. You may attempt them in a instrument particularly designed for public relations, like Meltwater.
2. Automating social media engagement
Having the ability to schedule social media posts for publication frees up a whole lot of time for entrepreneurs and PR professionals, however the use circumstances for AI and automation don’t finish there.
You can too use AI to reply to feedback or direct messages robotically.
There are a number of choices on the market for this, however personally, I’m an enormous fan of the conversational advertising and marketing instrument ManyChat.
ManyChat can be utilized to robotically reply to feedback on Instagram posts or ship a private message when folks use a selected phrase or phrase. It may also be used with Fb Messenger or WhatsApp.
3. Monitoring model sentiment and repute
AI and automation can even assist hold you retain a pulse on how the general public feels about you or your model. In different phrases, it may make it easier to monitor model sentiment and repute adjustments.
All of it comes again to social listening.
For instance, Digimind’s social listening tool “combines Digimind’s AI Sense with OpenAI’s ChatGPT to observe social media, blogs, opinions, podcasts and extra, to detect key occasions about any model or matter,” defined MarTech managing editor Constantine von Hoffman.
“It then determines essential metrics, corresponding to attain, model impression, and key mentions despatched to ChatGPT to be analyzed and summarized in plain English in real-time.”
Want a extra easy or budget-friendly different?
Arrange Google Alerts for any phrase or key phrases you want, corresponding to your model or product identify. For there, Google displays the net for brand spanking new content material matching your phrases and sends an automatic electronic mail when a brand new consequence seems.
It’s free and easy so that you can keep.
Professional tip: In the event you’re a HubSpot person, use social inbox streams.
These streams help you monitor social media for mentions of your model, product, or different key phrases from inside your portal.
4. Sustaining your press listing(s)
Prowly’s State of PR Technology reports that just about half of public relations professionals wrestle to seek out related media contacts.
Databases like these from Prowly, Cision, and Brandwatch can assist, however even as soon as you discover your contacts, sustaining the listing might be simply as onerous.
Fortunately, that is one space the place AI shines brightest.
For one, AI and automation can assist you phase your press contacts into totally different lists based mostly on their distinctive specialties or demographics.
You may create one listing for tv, one other for digital media, and others segmented by location, like New York or London.
AI can even assist clear your information by robotically figuring out and eradicating inactive or bounced electronic mail addresses, correcting typos in electronic mail addresses, and filtering out duplicates.
All this helps scale back listing decay and enhance deliverability charges.
Professional tip: In the event you use HubSpot, use smart lists and workflows to maintain your press lists present.
Good lists will robotically replace, including and eradicating contacts based mostly on the standards you set, whereas workflows can be utilized to wash information within the CRM.
5. Reaching out to media.
AI doesn’t simply make it easier to construct and keep your press listing; it may make it easier to contact it.
For example, utilizing automated electronic mail instruments like HubSpot’s, you possibly can arrange follow-up messages for brand spanking new contacts who obtain your press/media kit or those that electronic mail about press inquiries.
You may even arrange a sequence to comply with up with contacts who could not have opened your outreach or have gone darkish.
Somewhat than having to ship out dozens, if not tons of, of guide emails, automation can scale your outreach efforts and improve your possibilities of getting
6. Researching
This seemingly goes with out saying, however AI is usually a game-changer in public relations analysis.
Utilizing AI quite than a traditional search engine could make it simpler to reply particular queries. Why precisely? Effectively, there isn’t any must click on by a number of pages and hope you discover what you want; AI does that for you.
It crawls the net for associated assets after which distills and summarizes the content material for you. Whereas it could take a number of tries to get the precise info you want, an AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Meta AI can prevent huge quantities of time scrolling.
(Ai)ding your public relations success
As quick-witted as many individuals are, AI can typically course of requests, analyze information, and reply quicker than people ever may.
I imply, give it some thought this manner: I can do lengthy division, however that doesn’t imply a calculator received’t assist me get the reply quicker.
Take our suggestions and recommendation above and begin utilizing AI in public relations with the identical mindset.
