What is Public Relations (PR)? Explained in Detail

In today’s world, for any business to prosper, we need to have a PR department. Firstly, we need to know What is PR? PR mostly focuses on maintaining a positive corporate image through media interactions. It helps in building your brand’s image in the public domain and is especially important to mitigate public views on some negative news. PR doesn’t necessarily promote a product or service, which is contrary to advertising or marketing. But it behaves like a catalyst in developing your brand’s identity. 

Table of Contents 

1) What is Public Relations? 

2) Different types of Public Relations 

3) Working in PR 

4) Essential skills required for a PR career 

5) Importance of Public Relations  

6) Conclusion 

What is Public Relations (PR)? 

Public Relations or PR is a set of strategies on how information about a company is disseminated to the public, especially in the media. Its primary goals are to propagate important organisational news or events, maintain brand identity, and cultivate a positive public image. PR may be in the form of a company press release, news conferences, interviews with journalists and social media postings.
 

Different types of Public Relations 

Public Relations is often divided into several departments, and each department has some specific functions. Let's have a detailed look:
 

1) Media Relations: This emphasises forging of a strong relationship between the public, media, and organisations. A Media Relations team briefs the media with company news and events, providing validated sources, and making it accessible to the public. 

2) Production Relations: This department is related to the company’s operations. It supports the marketing strategies, such as a special campaign, launch of a new product, or management of a major product change. 

3) Investor Relations: This oversees the relationship between company and its investors. It handles investor events, communicates the release of financial reports, and handles investor complaints. 

4) Internal Relations: This branch of PR handles relations between the company and its employees. The Internal Relations department is involved in counselling employees regarding interpersonal relationships. This helps ensure workplace satisfaction and resolves issues between the organisation and employees to avoid public defamation. 

5) Government Relations: This PR department becomes the face of the company while interacting with the governing bodies. It focuses on forging a strong relationship with the rule-makers, influencing the decision-makers, and ensuring a fair treatment of the company's clients. 

6) Community Relations: This PR wing focuses on reputation building within a specific community to establish a positive image. The community could be a physical (town or city) or a non-physical (specific type, like pet-lovers) community. This branch of Public Relations aligns with a social niche of a community. 

7) Customer Relations: It forms a bridge between the company and its customers. This Public Relations team handles key relationships, understands the customer priorities, conducts market research, and addresses key concerns of the customer. 

Learn how to build rapport with local communities with our Introduction to Public Relations Course. 

Working in PR 

A PR professional may possess different educational backgrounds like journalism, business management, communications, etc. They need to possess certain skillsets such as, an eye for detail, effective communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving. In today’s challenging world of business, organisations need a PR team to propagate their brand position in the public domain. Typically, a PR performs functions like communication of brand values, develop interface between internal and external stakeholders, dissemination of company news and upcoming events, and building rapport with the public. 

Essential skills required for a PR career 

To have a successful career in PR, you need a set of skill as described below: 

a) Excellent communication skills: PR Specialists must possess exceptional verbal and written communication skills. They must effectively convey messages to various audiences, including clients, media professionals, stakeholders, and the public. Strong writing skills are essential for drafting press releases, articles, speeches, and other communication materials. In contrast, polished verbal communication skills are necessary to present ideas, engage with clients and stakeholders, and represent their organisations or clients in public settings. 

b) Research and analytical skills: PR Specialists must be adept at conducting thorough research and analysing information to develop informed communication strategies. They must gather data, monitor media trends, and assess public sentiment to craft messages and campaigns that resonate with target audiences. Additionally, they must be able to evaluate the effectiveness of their strategies and make data-driven decisions to optimise communication efforts. 

c) Creativity: Creativity is a vital skill for PR Specialists, as they are tasked with developing innovative and engaging communication campaigns to capture audience attention and effectively convey their client's message. Creativity allows PR Specialists to stand out in a crowded media landscape and leave a lasting impression on their target audience, whether it's devising attention-grabbing headlines, designing visually appealing graphics, or conceptualising viral social media campaigns. 

d) Strategic thinking: PR Specialists must possess strategic thinking skills to develop long-term communication plans aligned with their client's goals and objectives. They must anticipate potential challenges and opportunities, identify target audiences, and tailor their messages and tactics accordingly. Strategic thinking enables PR Specialists to stay ahead, adapt to changing circumstances, and achieve measurable results for their clients. 

e) Interpersonal skills: Building and maintaining positive relationships is fundamental to the role of a PR Specialist. They must be skilled at networking and fostering connections with journalists, influencers, clients, and other stakeholders in the industry. Strong interpersonal skills enable PR Specialists to effectively collaborate with team members, negotiate partnerships, and navigate challenging situations with professionalism and diplomacy. 

f) Crisis management: Crisis management is an essential skill for PR Specialists, as they may be called upon to handle challenging situations that threaten their client's reputation or public image. They must remain calm under pressure, assess the situation quickly, and develop a strategic response to mitigate reputational damage. Effective crisis management involves clear communication, transparency, and swift action to address concerns and maintain public trust. 

g) Adaptability: The media landscape constantly evolves, with new technologies, platforms, and trends emerging regularly. PR Specialists must be adaptable and open to learning new techniques and skills to stay relevant in the field. Whether mastering social media algorithms, leveraging emerging technologies, or navigating changes in industry regulations, adaptability allows PR Specialists to thrive in a dynamic and ever-changing environment. 

You can develop your Marketing skills through our Introduction to Marketing Training - join now! 

Importance of Public Relations 

Public Relations is important to organisations for several reasons. One of those is to develop a positive image in public and build a healthy relationship with the customers. The PR also has the responsibility to revive any preconceived negative reputation and resolve controversial issues, if any. 

Also, the customers should not feel disconnected with the brand and its products. PR helps manage brand reputation and ensures employees, customers, investors, and other stakeholders continue to be positively involved with the company. 

Difference between Public Relations and Marketing 

Marketing is mostly focused on promoting company’s products or services, achieving sales targets, and ensuring revenue generation. Meanwhile, Public Relations is more focused on managing the reputation of an organisation. 

Both the PR and Marketing departments may deal with similar kinds of activities. For instance, both interact with customers to garner feedback. This information can be used in direct marketing to understand product demand, sales trend, and ways to improve methods of sales generation. From a PR perspective, this information is used to gauge the customer psyche, ensure customer satisfaction, and address customer grievances. 

Difference between Public Relations and Advertising 

Advertising is done to promote a company or its products/services with the help of media. A company garners public attention by announcing expansion plans for a growth company into a new market or by revealing significant pricing changes. 

On the other hand, Public Relations focuses on how a company should develop interface between internal and external stakeholders, rather than directly promoting their products. Moreover, PR deals in confidential information about the company that cannot be disclosed to the public. This will maintain the trust intact between the company and its customers. 

Conclusion 

In this blog, we have learnt the basics of What is Public Relations. I hope you have understood the different types of PR, the required skills, importance of PR, and the differences between PR, marketing and advertising. Now, you can apply these learnings in real-world scenarios to attain best outcomes. 

Learn all about marketing with our Marketing Course - join now!