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How to Use Social Judgment Theory in PR to Increase Your Pitch Success Rate

[fa icon="calendar"] 09-Nov-2015 12:00:00 / by Rachel MacDonald

Social Judgment Theory in PRThanks to Rachel MacDonald for this really interesting guest post! 

Imagine you are back at school now. You’re in science class. You have a thermometer and you are about to measure your own body temperature. Your temperature rises and so the thermometer’s sensor becomes more ‘red’, right?

That’s how social judgment theory works too. It states that people have a cognitive map that impacts the way messages are received and this map basically works like a thermometer.

The ego involvement you have with a topic determines how red your thermometer can potentially become. If you have a high ego involvement and hear a message that opposes your view on the topic, your thermometer will turn completely red and you’ll reject the message.

The basic premise of social judgment theory is that if the latitude of acceptance is greater than the latitude of rejection the recipient will likely accept the message. So, the theory focuses on low and high ego involvement.

Content is key with high ego involvement and factors like the presentation and the presenter increase in importance with low ego involvement. Makes sense, right?

If you’re at a presentation where you have no prior interest or knowledge of the topic, you’ll focus more on the aesthetics of the presentation. But, if you care about the topic, you’ll listen intently to the content of the speaker’s messages.

Social Judgment Theory and Media Relations

Okay, but how does that apply to public relations? Well, let’s place a journalist as the recipients of a message. If we apply social judgment theory to our inbound pitch, then we will increase our likelihood of success. Let’s see how this can play out, looking into high ego involvement first and then low ego involvement.

High Ego Involvement Scenario:

You need to get coverage about your client’s new research that found basketball has grave consequences for anyone under 12 years old.

With the new inbound PR, researching your recipient is crucial so while you’re conducting your due diligence let’s say you find out that Maggie, the journalist, not only writes about sports but is a huge basketball fan. She even writes about it on her personal blog and tweets about attending her children’s basketball games.

Since she has a high ego involvement, crafting excellent content in your pitch is crucial.

While you’re thinking about what to write you might want to rethink starting your message with “basketball has grave consequences for anyone under 12.” This is going to light up her thermometer and she will immediately reject what you are saying. 

Instead, try phrasing it like this, “I know you’re a huge basketball fan and cover the topic often, so I thought you would be interested in my client’s [insert client’s name] research. Their data, which features insight from top basketball players including [big name players], indicates surprising information regarding basketball players under 12 years old. Would you like to chat about my client’s findings and see if there is an opportunity for a story here?”

Here, you mentioned all things that are going to peak the basketball-fan-journalist’s interest.  By applying social judgment theory, you avoided making a statement that would have caused immediate rejection and have primed her to be excited about what you are going to share. After all, it involved her favorite sport and top players.  

Low Ego Involvement Scenario:

Alternatively, you could find someone who has a low ego involvement with basketball but happens to write about sports. You can approximate ego involvement through past coverage and social profiles.

Remember, when there is a lower ego involvement, factors like the presentation and presenter become more important. So, establish credibility for yourself in your pitch by mentioning how long you’ve been working with basketball clients and create a presentation that is neat, simple and visually appealing.

Social Judgment Theory Beyond Media Relations

Social judgment theory can be applied in PR beyond pitching journalists. Think about it in terms of working with clients. Sometimes clients and PR professionals don’t see eye to eye. Let’s say your client’s a laggard in the digital realm, but you believe that the key to their success is on a digital platform. You can’t pitch to them with high-tech language and jargon, that is going to cause dissonance and they’ll immediately reject the message. Instead, craft a simple, traditional pitch highlighting the benefits of digital in terms they understand.

No different than inbound PR, social judgment theory is all about understanding your recipient and offering them hyper-individualized information. You’re already doing research on the recipient; now focus that research to learn if they have a high or low ego involvement in your topic.

From there you can determine if you should focus more on content or presentation of your message.

Of course, content is always important, but if you’re dealing with someone who has a low ego involvement, the importance of presentation increases.

Overall, avoid making statements that will cause dissonance on the recipient’s cognitive map. Carefully craft your message so it resonates with what you know your target cares about and you’ll start seeing your success rate increase.

 

Have you heard of social judgment theory before?

 

Topics: Public Relations

Rachel MacDonald

Written by Rachel MacDonald

Rachel is a Growth Marketing Intern at HubSpot and student at Boston University. She loves all things tech and marketing. On weekends, you’ll catch her writing raps and eating white pizza.

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