Introduction to Public Relations

Introduction to Public Relations

• Practiced in organizations ranging from multinational telecommunications companies to small human service agencies.

What is Public Relations?

• A leadership and management function helping achieve organizational objectives, define philosophy, and facilitate organizational change.
• PR practitioners communicate with internal and external stakeholders to develop positive relationships.
• The goal is to create consistency between organizational goals and societal expectations.
• PR practitioners develop, execute, and evaluate programs that promote influence and understanding.
• Public relations uses communication to adapt relationships between organizations and their stakeholders.
• It is the management of communication between an organization and its stakeholders, according to Grunig & Hunt (1984).
• A distinctive management function that establishes and maintains mutual lines of understanding, communications, and acceptance.
• Cooperation between an organization and its stakeholders that involves management of problems or issues.
• Helps management to keep informed on and responsive to public opinion, defines management's responsibility to the public interest, and helps management utilize change effectively.

Key PR-related Terms

• Advertising: Information placed in the media by an identified sponsor who pays for the time or space.
• Publicity: Information from an outside source utilized by the media due to its news value.
• Government Relations: The flow of information to and from legislative bodies.
• Lobbying: Primary purpose is to influence legislation and regulation.

PR Fields

• Research
• Counseling/advising
• Government affairs
• Investor relations
• Development or fund raising
• Multicultural affairs
• Issues management/Crisis management
• Media relations
• Public affairs
• Community relations
• Employee relations
• Publicity
• Marketing communication
• Promotion

Marston's R-A-C-E Process

• Research
• Action
• Communication
• Evaluation

R-A-C-E: Research

• Includes the client or organization.
• Involves a problem or potential problem and opportunities to do public relations.
• Focuses on audiences or publics.

R-A-C-E: Action

• Develop a strategy that Involves
• Identifying goals and objectives
• Identifying target audience(s) or public(s)
• Creating a theme for the program/campaign

R-A-C-E: Communication

• Develop and Implement:
• Tactics for communicating
• Time line for the program/campaign
• Budget

R-A-C-E: Evaluation

• Identifying research methods to be used to evaluate the success of the program/ campaign during & after.
• Determine a way to measure whether the campaign achieved its objectives.

Functions of Public Relations

• Writing: Creating written content, from news releases to speeches, brochures to advertisements.
• Media relations: Interacting with the press.
• Planning: Organizing special events, media events, and management functions.
• Counseling: Advising management on interactions with key stakeholders.
• Researching: Studying attitudes and opinions that influence behavior and beliefs.
• Publicity: Handling marketing-related functions.
• Marketing Communications: Producing marketing materials like brochures, sales literature, meeting displays, and promotions.
• Community Relations: Promoting the organization's messages and image within the community.
• Consumer Relations: Engaging with consumers through written and verbal communications.
• Employee Relations: Communicating with the organization's internal stakeholders, including managers and employees.
• Government Affairs: Interacting with legislators, regulators, and local, state, and federal officials.
• Investor Relations: Communicating with stockholders and their advisors for public companies.
• Special Public Relations: Managing relationships with publics critical to specific organizations.
• Public Affairs and Issues: Addressing public policy and its impact, identifying and addressing critical issues.
• Social Media Interface: Creating the organization's primary public interface through its website and social media.

Differences Between PR & Marketing

• Marketing primarily focuses on consumers.
• PR focuses on relationships with all stakeholders essential to an organization's success.
• Marketing is a management function that identifies human needs and wants, and offers products/services to satisfy them by targeting customers.
• PR and marketing are "separate and equal, but related functions" and must work together toward organizational goals.
• PR works on the brand, while marketing works on the products.

PR Skills

• Good people skills like a pleasing personality and networking ability.
• Strong communication abilities, both verbal and written.
• Organizational skills for meetings, presentations, press conferences, and events.
• Versatility to handle various tasks, from interacting with clients to managing a website.
• Creativity and sales skills to visualize effective campaigns and sell ideas.
• Resilience to bounce back from failure and handle criticism.
• Other essential skills include strategic message development, media relations, presentation skills training, and new media management.

Is PR a Science?

• A degree or diploma in public relations, journalism, mass media, communications, corporate communications or even advertising or marketing are useful.
• An internship with a firm will help you find out whether you are cut out for this job.