Fabienne Bünzli

Public communication campaigns aim to create social change by influencing audiences’ behaviors and thus help nonprofit organizations fulfill their mission. These campaigns, however, often fail to deliver their anticipated impact. Using public relations research as a theoretical lens, this paper’s contribution is twofold: first, we develop a typology that classifies the different communication approaches used in public communication campaigns. Based on one of the most prominent public relations theories, the Four Models of Public Relations, we differentiate communication approaches along the dimensions of communication purpose and communication style. Combining these two dimensions in a typology, we identify the following communication approaches: directing, platforming, mobilizing, and involving. We provide numerous real-life examples of public campaigns for each one. Second, we formulate propositions about these communication approaches’ effectiveness relying on a key concept of public relations research: namely, audience segmentation. Using the transtheoretical model, we show that audiences can be segmented along five “stages of readiness to adopt a promoted behavior.” Conceptualizing behavior change as an iterative, dynamic process that entails stage progresses as well as backdrops, we derive how audiences’ “stage of readiness” relates to the effectiveness of the identified communication approaches.

This case study shows how social media analytics impact the way that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) engages with its stakeholders in humanitarian crises. Referring to the organization’s mission in one African context, the case illustrates the role that social media analytics played in detecting an unexpected stakeholder constellation and in strengthening the ICRC’s presence as protection provider. Through the case study, students learn what "managing stakeholders" means for an international humanitarian nonprofit organization that helps and protects victims of humanitarian crises. The case also shows the significance of social media analytics as a complementary decision-making tool to clarify stakeholder constellations, understand interests of key actors, and engage with them. Analyzing this case should enable students to evaluate the role of social media analytics for a humanitarian organization’s mission, understand the challenges of such tools, and to develop strategic communication approaches to make insights from social media analyses actionable.