2010 - Public Relations Society of America

Millennials say they have done so. Statistics in this study provide a glimpse of the opportunities
that exist for public relations professionals to target this engaged audience.
Current Investigation
When research came to a point of engagement with studying different practices of public
relations, Grunig and Hunt’s four models of public relations were developed to help practitioners
become better equipped with the when and how to use their communications skills to solve
public relations problems. The current study is being presented within Grunig and Hunt’s (1984)
four models of public relations through the relationship management framework lens. The
question of how public relations practitioners are using social media tools to effectively reach
Millennial audiences will be addressed through these guiding foundational blocks.
The following research questions and hypotheses are advanced:
RQ 1 : Do Millennial students interact with one particular social media tool over another?
H 1 :
Millennial students who indicate they interact with company/brand e-mail will generate
the most committed relationship over all other company/brand social media tools.
RQ 2 : What is the relationship between a Millennial student’s commitment to maintaining a
relationship with one of the top 10 most social company/brand and the interaction of the
Millennial student with a social media tool of that company/brand?
H 2 :
Those Millennial students who have had a relationship with the top 10 social brands via
social media tools will be more likely to have a favorable perception of that
company/brand.
RQ 3 : To what extent is a Millennial students’ favorable perception of the organization
positively associated with his or her active social media behavior?
H 3 : Millennial students’ satisfaction with the relationship they have with one of the top 10
social brands will be positively associated with the company/brand through a social
media outlet.
RQ 4 : To what extent, if any, is there a difference between gender and each social media tool?
H 4 :
Millennial males will be more likely to interact with social media tools than Millennial
females.
Methodology
In selecting companies or brands to be investigated in targeting Millennials from a public
relations perspective in this study, no list with this exact criteria emerged. However, one list
dubbed by Advertising Age as the “Most Social Brands of 2008,” rose to the top. This list is
intriguing and relevant because it outlines the brand or branded company product that is
mentioned most often in social media. Brands were chosen based on the conversation volume on
a variety of social networking, blogging and microblogging sites according to Klaasen’s (2009)
article. “This survey stuck to a pretty rudimentary metric—it measures mentions, not the
sentiment of those mentions or the word parings” (Klaasen, 2009, p. 1). Sheer volume of
conversations on social media tools is what caused each of these top 10 companies/brands rise to
the top of the list. The top 10 list includes: iPhone, CNN, Apple, Disney, Xbox, Starbucks, iPod,
MTV, Sony, and Dell.
Participants
Students from two Midwestern universities were selected to complete the survey.
Location, proximity of universities, and similar demographics of the student body at both
universities provided an opportunity for a larger number of Millennial students to be surveyed.
The population of this study consisted of Millennial students from both Midwest
universities. Participants were selected because most fit the Millennial demographic. Those
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