What is public relations?
Ask any two public relations professionals what they do and you’re bound to get a different answer. As an industry, PR pros handle a number of different tasks ranging from event planning and speech writing, to securing news coverage and writing blogs.
Because of the breadth of tasks that public relations professionals handle on a day-to-day basis, defining the industry can be a difficult task. However, despite our differences, we all have the same purpose – to connect people.
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) defines public relations as “a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”
These relationships can be between companies and their clients, nonprofits and the local community, a department head and their team, and so on and so forth. You could even argue that an individual could employ public relations tactics to improve their image online.
What makes public relations professionals unique is that we take a strategic approach to our communications. It isn’t enough that we connect with an audience, there should be a purpose and intent in every effort – buy our product, trust our experts, help our organization.
In essence, it is our job to promote our clients and their products and services.
However, public relations differ from advertising because public relations efforts are not paid for. We persuade our audiences via unpaid or earned methods such as news coverage, speaking engagements and internal communications such as blogs, newsletters and social media.
Interested in learning how a public relations program can help your organization achieve it’s business goals? Contact me to find out more.