I know. “AI public relations” (PR) kind of sounds like an oxymoron.
Public relations is about shaping and sharing your human stories with other humans. It’s about capturing and creating genuine human excitement and resonance. How can we ever leave that to the robots?
Well, we can’t — at least not entirely. Like applying AI to digital marketing or any other field, you must be selective and thoughtful about incorporating AI into your public relations strategy. That’s where we come in.
We’ll unpack the pros and cons of using AI in public relations and share some of the smartest use cases and expert tips to help you get the most out of it.
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Why Use AI in Public Relations (PR)
Using AI in public relations has many benefits, but they all come back to one all professionals strive for — improved productivity.
Let’s break down the specifics.
Pros of AI Public Relations
Higher Efficiency
HubSpot research found 90% of marketers say AI and automation help them spend less time on manual tasks, more time on the responsibilities they enjoy most (80%), and more time on the creative aspects of their role (79%). Public relations is no exception.
In fact, 76.6% of PR professionals already use AI tools to automate their most tedious and repetitive tasks, according to Prowly.
For PR professionals, AI can mean quicker market and campaign analysis, as well as faster press release and pitch drafting. AI and automation can also help eliminate manual tasks like email follow-ups to your press partners.
Lower Costs
By aiding with time-consuming and mundane tasks, AI can also help minimize unnecessary expenses in your public relations budget.
For example, if you pay a freelancer by the hour to draft press releases, using an AI tool like Jasper or even HubSpot’s Free AI Content Writer can help cut the need for those hours.
Don’t believe me? Prowly found that 43.5% of PR professionals using tools say it has reduced their companies' overall costs and resource needs. That’s on top of 48.2% reporting they struggled with working with a small budget in the past 12 months.
These small efficiencies add up.
Increased ROI
With lower costs comes the potential for increased return on investment (ROI). Hard to argue with that.
Cons of AI Public Relations
As great as AI sounds for public relations, it still has drawbacks.
Data Quality & Accuracy
Data quality and accuracy are some of the biggest concerns of using AI in public relations or any use case, really.
Most public artificial intelligence runs off information fed from its users and the internet — and I think we all know we can’t trust everything we read online.
Because of this, you can’t always know if the results you get from AI are accurate or based on reliable sources. This can be dangerous when using AI in public relations, especially when doing research.
Be wary of validity and even bias. The last thing you want to do is make strategic decisions based on false or misguided information.
Privacy
There’s no doubt that AI can help expedite your public relations workflow, but that often means sharing details about your brand or company to produce results you can actually use.
AI is currently unregulated, so any information you share is at risk of being stored or passed onto others using the tool, including potentially our competitors.
Lack of Human Touch
Public relations is about human connection. It’s about how your brand or client is perceived by other people and the public at large.
While impressive, AI or automation’s ability can only go far in this arena.
AI can’t create personal relationships and bonds. It can’t take photos with fans, shake hands with potential investors, or attend a charity event. It can’t “read the room” or understand the sensitive nuances of current events or culture.
And its insights and information are only as current as its last update. So. tread lightly when using AI or automation for one-on-one communication.
Without careful editing or strategic use of the tools, its artificial nature can be easy to spot.
This personalization mistake from UK restaurant burgerific is a common one.
How is AI used in public relations?
The possibilities of artificial intelligence are pretty boundless, but with the cons and limitations we discussed in mind, here are some of the best use cases in public relations.
1. Drafting press releases and pitches
In one of my first marketing and PR jobs, I wrote and distributed about 2-5 press releases a day. I enjoyed it, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t time-consuming, let alone draining.
I may also have developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from all the typing, but we’re not here to discuss the importance of workspace ergonomics.
With generative AI, you can dramatically reduce your press release and pitch writing time (and maybe even Carpal Tunnel Syndrome).
All you need is a prompt answering these questions:
- What is the goal of your press release?
- What important information do you have to include?
- Who is it intended for?
- What tone do you want to use?
To illustrate, I gave ChatGPT this prompt:
“Can you write me a press release about Apple's September 2024 Product Event? It should include the date and time -- Monday, September 9th at 10:00 AM PT and get the general public excited about it.”
Here’s what I got back:
But remember, this should only be a starting point. Neerja Patel, a PR professional of over 15 years and founder and CEO of her own PR firm, advises, “Use AI to enhance your creativity and assist with research and content creation.”
“It shouldn’t replace your thought process or be used as a substitution for your work. The most impactful campaigns that have maximum outcomes are the ones that blend the human mind with AI.”
Pro tip: “To ensure you are telling the best narrative in AI-assisted press releases, include not only important and relevant information but also current world trends,” continues Patel.
“This will help strengthen your messaging, ultimately increasing your chances of garnering attention from journalists and securing stories in publications.”
Also, are you not the savviest with ChatGPT or prompting just yet? Our free guide, “How to Use ChatGPT at Work,” will introduce you to the tool and share best practices and 100 prompt ideas to get you started.
These skills are easily adaptable to other chatbot-style tools like HubSpot’s Free AI Content Writer. You can try them in a tool specifically designed for public relations, like Meltwater.
2. Automating social media engagement
Being able to schedule social media posts for publication frees up a lot of time for marketers and PR professionals, but the use cases for AI and automation don’t end there.
You can also use AI to respond to comments or direct messages automatically.
There are a few options out there for this, but personally, I’m a big fan of the conversational marketing tool ManyChat.
ManyChat can be used to automatically respond to comments on Instagram posts or send a personal message when people use a specific word or phrase. It can also be used with Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
3. Monitoring brand sentiment and reputation
AI and automation can also help keep you keep a pulse on how the public feels about you or your brand. In other words, it can help you monitor brand sentiment and reputation changes.
It all comes back to social listening.
For example, Digimind’s social listening tool “combines Digimind’s AI Sense with OpenAI’s ChatGPT to monitor social media, blogs, reviews, podcasts and more, to detect key events about any brand or topic,” explained MarTech managing editor Constantine von Hoffman.
“It then determines important metrics, such as reach, brand impact, and key mentions sent to ChatGPT to be analyzed and summarized in plain English in real-time.”
Need a more simple or budget-friendly alternative?
Set up Google Alerts for any phrase or keywords you like, such as your brand or product name. For there, Google monitors the web for new content matching your terms and sends an automated email when a new result appears.
It’s free and effortless for you to maintain.
Pro tip: If you’re a HubSpot user, use social inbox streams.
These streams allow you to monitor social media for mentions of your brand, product, or other keywords from within your portal.
4. Maintaining your press list(s)
Prowly’s State of PR Technology reports that nearly half of public relations professionals struggle to find relevant media contacts.
Databases like those from Prowly, Cision, and Brandwatch can help, but even once you find your contacts, maintaining the list can be just as hard.
Thankfully, this is one area where AI shines brightest.
For one, AI and automation can help you segment your press contacts into different lists based on their unique specialties or demographics.
You can create one list for television, another for digital media, and others segmented by location, like New York or London.
AI can also help clean your data by automatically identifying and removing inactive or bounced email addresses, correcting typos in email addresses, and filtering out duplicates.
All this helps reduce list decay and improve deliverability rates.
Pro tip: If you use HubSpot, use smart lists and workflows to keep your press lists current.
Smart lists will automatically update, adding and removing contacts based on the criteria you set, while workflows can be used to clean data in the CRM.
5. Reaching out to media.
AI doesn’t just help you build and maintain your press list; it can help you contact it.
For instance, using automated email tools like HubSpot’s, you can set up follow-up messages for new contacts who download your press/media kit or those who email about press inquiries.
You can even set up a series to follow up with contacts who may not have opened your outreach or have gone dark.
Rather than having to send out dozens, if not hundreds, of manual emails, automation can scale your outreach efforts and increase your chances of getting
6. Researching
This likely goes without saying, but AI can be a game-changer in public relations research.
Using AI rather than a conventional search engine can make it easier to answer specific queries. Why exactly? Well, there is no need to click through multiple pages and hope you find what you need; AI does that for you.
It crawls the web for related resources and then distills and summarizes the content for you. While it may take a few tries to get the exact information you need, an AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Meta AI can save you massive amounts of time scrolling.
(Ai)ding your public relations success
As quick-witted as many people are, AI can generally process requests, analyze data, and respond faster than humans ever could.
I mean, think about it this way: I can do long division, but that doesn’t mean a calculator won’t help me get the answer faster.
Take our tips and advice above and start using AI in public relations with the same mindset.
