{"title":"Building relationships with the faithful: examining church communicators perceptions of social media influencers in their OPR strategy","authors":"Guy J. Golan, Jordan Morehouse, Ashley E. English","doi":"10.1080/1062726X.2021.2011729","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The current study investigates how Church communicators perceive the role of social media platforms and influencers in their overall stakeholder engagement strategy. Building upon the Organization-Public Relationship (OPR) body of literature, we conducted 13 in-depth interviews with public relations professionals at megachurches throughout the United States. Findings reveal a reliance on one-way communication strategies to build relationships that shifted two-way communication as congregations prioritized digital connections due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We also found that Church communicators understand the concept of social media influencers differently than their corporate communicator peers to also include influence on another’s spiritual beliefs and well-being.","PeriodicalId":47737,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Public Relations Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.4000,"publicationDate":"2021-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"5","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Public Relations Research","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1062726X.2021.2011729","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 5
Abstract
ABSTRACT The current study investigates how Church communicators perceive the role of social media platforms and influencers in their overall stakeholder engagement strategy. Building upon the Organization-Public Relationship (OPR) body of literature, we conducted 13 in-depth interviews with public relations professionals at megachurches throughout the United States. Findings reveal a reliance on one-way communication strategies to build relationships that shifted two-way communication as congregations prioritized digital connections due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We also found that Church communicators understand the concept of social media influencers differently than their corporate communicator peers to also include influence on another’s spiritual beliefs and well-being.