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COM 227 (Campus) Public Relations

This guide is designed to accompany the campus-based COM-227 course taught by Professor Boroshok.

Pew Research Center

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. They conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. They do not take policy positions.

Look at the tabs across the website banner and click on Topics. There you might select Generation X, Generation Y, Millennials, Baby Boomers, Social Media, Digital Media or other related topics. You may also use their search box and type in key words. In the first row of tabs, you might select Hispanics or Social Trends to learn more about your target audiences.

Media & Social Media Platforms/Tools

 Once you identify and research the target audience(s) for your client's service/initiative/product/event/etc., and craft messages that will resonate with them, it’s time to match those up with appropriate media outlets, social media platforms and tools to convey that message to them. 

Use these databases and resources to select media and social media platforms that best match the target audience data for your client's products/services.

Muck Rack

The in-class demonstration by the MuckRack representative gave an overview of the information that can be gleaned about various media outfits, specific journalists, pitches, PR budgeting, success measurement in PR, tech and tools being used, and much more including their podcasting survey of podcasters' challenges and preferences.

SRDS

Shapiro Library Subscribes to certain platforms within SRDS which you may access from the link below or from the A to Z Database List on the library home page. Once on the search interface, clicking on the tabs across the banner: Digital, Magazines, Newspapers, Broadcast, Direct Marketing, Claritas 360, and Influences will show a dropdown where you may access any of the items that do not have a green lock next to them. 

For example, you might investigate a popular consumer magazine for where you target audience is located and find out more about that media outlet's target audience to see if it matches yours and might make it worth pursuing messaging in that publication. 

Example: Boston Magazine

Type Boston into the search box, and you will immediately see some basic information like circulation figures and ad page costs.

SRDS interface with Boston Magazine circled with a blue arrow pointing at "Enhanced information available".

Clicking on Enhanced Data Available, you will be taken to a page listing many other types of additional information and links including: , Contacts & Reps This link opens in a new window, Circulation This link opens in a new window, Rates & Policies This link opens in a new window, Issues & Specs This link opens in a new window. It also links to: View Audience This link opens in a new window information provided by this media which will contain detailed information about that publication's audiences (print and online audiences) to match up with your target audience. The example below shows Boston Magazine's Media Toolkit page about their online readers:
Page saying "Meet our online readers" showing statistics about the people who read Boston Magazine online.

You might also check out their page about their print readers to decide if their readers match your target audience, to determine if this is an appropriate media outlet for your client.

Statista

Use the Social Media button beneath the search box on the interface, or search for individual platforms: Meta (Facebook), X (formerlyTwitter), Snapchat, etc. to see user information and match to your target audience data. 
Examples:

Look up major social media platforms:

eMarketerPro

There are a variety of ways to use the many resources available through eMarketerPro.

General Search

You might use the initial search box to look up reports they have on a particular target audience. For example a search for "target audience" yields this report: From Gen Z to boomers, how to connect varies channel to channel This link opens in a new window (Sponsored by Data Axle) which links to a report about Generational Shifts in Marketing Preferences (see document below).

Search for specific Media Outlets or Social Media Platforms

Look up individual media outlets/social media platforms by name:

  • Limiters in the left margin to narrow/focus your results
  • Select Forecasts in left margin under Content Type, usually by country, so select for example: TikTok, US. (This gives projections for the next 4-5 years for users, revenues, etc.) You may then select further limiters such as Age, Generation or Gender.
  • You may limit to Article or Report, click on them and read the intro or the table of contents for relevant information.
Example: TIKTOK

Chart of number of TikTok Users for the years 2021 through 2025 in the United States

Browse the Drop-down Topics

Select a topic from the banner beneath the search box at the top of the eMarketer search interface. Selecting from any item in the drop-down menu will lead to further, more specific sub-categories until there are no more specific possibilities. These lead to pages with reports or report summaries to help you decide whether to take the time to download the report.

Banner of eMarketer search interface showing drop-down menu for Advertising & Marketing

RKMA

Click on the link below and scroll down to the Table of Contents, select appropriate sections, noting page number; scroll down to that page.

Sample source from RKMA

Scroll through the extensive table of contents to utilize the information you need to support your recommendation for particular social media for select populations as target audiences for your client.