As media continues to evolve, social media has become even more integral to public relations activities, presenting new opportunities and challenges for practitioners. Relationships between publics and organizations continue to be first and foremost, but the process and possibilities for mutually beneficial relationships are being rewritten in situ. This volume aims to explore and understand highly engaged publics in a variety of social media contexts and across networks. The hope is the expansion and extension of public relations theories and models in this book helps move the discipline forward to keep up with the practice and the media environment. Contributors analyzed a range of organizations and industries, including corporate, entertainment, government, and political movements, to consider how public relations practitioners can facilitate ethical and effective communication between parties. A consistent thread was the need for organizations and practitioners to better understand the diverse backgrounds of publics, including age, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, beyond surface-level demographic stereotypes and assumptions. This book will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students in the field of public relations and communication, especially those with a particular interest in online engagement and social media as a PR tool.

Despite representing significant portions of the advertising, marketing, and public relations work force, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community has largely been ignored by scholarly research in strategic communications. With the exception of case studies that document strategies that can be used to secure the LGBT consumer dollar, little has been done to understand the LGBT community's experiences with strategic communications efforts. This edited volume fills this gap by sharing research on the impact and interaction of campaigns and programming from advertising, marketing, and public relations on internal (e.g., practitioners and employees) and external (e.g., consumers, activists) stakeholders from the LGBT community. Several chapters in this volume highlight a significant change in the focus of strategic communications that recognizes the long-term benefits of having legitimate partnerships; others, however, counter this optimistic trend by discussing the continued struggles of practitioners working in strategic communication and the LGBT community at large.

Despite representing significant portions of the advertising, marketing, and public relations work force, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community has largely been ignored by scholarly research in strategic communications. With the exception of case studies that document strategies that can be used to secure the LGBT consumer dollar, little has been done to understand the LGBT community's experiences with strategic communications efforts. This edited volume fills this gap by sharing research on the impact and interaction of campaigns and programming from advertising, marketing, and public relations on internal (e.g., practitioners and employees) and external (e.g., consumers, activists) stakeholders from the LGBT community. Several chapters in this volume highlight a significant change in the focus of strategic communications that recognizes the long-term benefits of having legitimate partnerships; others, however, counter this optimistic trend by discussing the continued struggles of practitioners working in strategic communication and the LGBT community at large.