What is Public Relations?
As part of our “back-to-basics” blog series on the foundational tenants of our business, we are dedicating this post to public relations.
Many people have heard of public relations, but not everyone truly understands what it involves. A common perception is that public relations is simply about interacting with the public. While there’s some truth to this, the reality is much more nuanced.
A useful analogy can help with clarification: In advertising, the emphasis is on self-promotion, where the subject speaks for itself. In contrast, public relations involves third parties objectively communicating on behalf of the subject.
Public relations, or PR for short, is a form of mass communications used to engage with different types of audiences, including consumers, customers, employees, investors and lawmakers, among many other stakeholders. Specialized disciplines such as investor relations, crisis communications, government and employee relations all make use of public relations tools and tactics.
PR may be utilized to inform, persuade, highlight a particular point-of-view or prompt a call to action. It could be about a specific product, company, service or issue. Typically, an organization will engage a public relations firm to create and implement a program aimed at influencing one or several key stakeholder groups. For publicly traded companies, for example, a robust PR strategy can help increase awareness and visibility among investors, who look to third-party messaging to help inform their investing decisions.
At its core, public relations involves creating awareness between a brand or organization and its key audiences through carefully crafted messaging. These messages, often referred to as “talking points,” answer the essential question: What are the main points we want to communicate to these audiences?
The next step is determining how and where these messages are delivered. Talking points are transformed into various types of content, which are then distributed across a wide range of mass and specialized media, including news outlets, industry publications, digital and social media, broadcast channels, and more.
A fundamental objective in PR is how best to reach target groups where they work and live. Until the Internet, TV and newspapers were very influential, and still are to some degree. However, reaching targeted audiences in today’s Web-based world has become increasingly complex.
That’s why PR often is considered more of an art than a science. Crafting content that resonates with people and makes a real impact requires a great deal of critical thought and creativity within legal and regulatory confines, of course. Press releases, videos, newsletters, social media posts, podcasts and op-eds are just a few of the many essential tools used to inform and engage key stakeholders.
Whether it’s encouraging consumers to buy a product or investors to buy or hold a stock, or positioning a CEO as an industry expert, the ultimate goal of public relations remains the same: to help effect change and action, and to communicate with people in meaningful and transparent ways. That’s what public relations is all about.
George Medici, gmedici@pondel.com
