What is PR?

Author: Youth 2 Youth.

PR, or Public Relations can essentially be defined as the management of communication between an organisation and its' publics.

A common mistake that most businesses make is to assume that PR is marketing. This is wrong. Marketing is usually more 'sales' focussed, or at least more concentrated on the selling of a product or service. By contrast, PR does not have to have anything to do with sales, or indeed a product or service!

Another common misconception is that PR is just 'dealing with people'. Wrong again. Essentially the best PR is a two-way, symmetric flow of communication between the organisation and its' publics. It is never just promoting a product or getting a message 'out there' - it has the flipside of monitoring the response and listening to the publics' feedback. Therefore ethical PR takes into account the needs, wants and feelings of its publics as well as what the organisation is trying to achieve. It strives to achieve a mutually beneficial relationship with open and honest channels of communication.

Public Relations encompasses many things, which are defined in basic terms below:

• Publicity - free, unpaid coverage in a media or at an event
• Promotion - the act of endorsing a product/service to people
• Media Management - distributing information to, and dealing with, media
• Issues Management - monitoring trends and issues in society
• Crisis Communication Management - monitoring, preparing for and dealing with crises from a communication perspective
• Integrated Communications - where PR crosses over into Marketing, Advertising, Graphic Design, Multimedia and Web Design (ITC)
• Managing sponsorship and fundraising activities
• Event Management

Public Relations used to be thought of as just technical skill - dealing with the media and writing the organisation's communications. As a result, PR practitioners were often integrated into the Marketing departments of most large businesses. With PR now recognised as a profession, and increasingly a more ethical one, PR professionals now usually have their own department in an organisation or share a Communications department with Marketing. Of course, many businesses now also choose to contract out PR to specialist companies.

There are two schools of thought on how PR should progress as an industry and profession.

The Integrated Marketing school suggests that all communications-related professions, such as marketing, PR and advertising should integrate into either one department within the organisation or within one contracting agency (rather than split these things up). This is because the line between all these fields is becoming somewhat blurred. It is also because many marketers and advertisers feel threatened by PR as a profession, as businesses now rely on it very heavily for their success.

By contrast, the Specialist school of thought suggests that each field should remain separate and specialise in its respective profession. This is because PR professionals can now see how important they are becoming to business success, and are not keen to share budgets or ideas with marketers and advertisers, who are often thought to disguise 'selling' as PR.

For a young person in business, it's relatively easy to practise simple PR basics:

• Check that all your Corporate Communications (letters, cards, stationery, reports) all look the same and carry the same branding and message, so as not to confuse your clients.
• Go beyond the call of good Customer Service by forging excellent relationships with both clients and other businesses whom you deal with. Send them Christmas cards, offer them special deals, send them surveys.
• Ensure that staff and contractors are kept up to date with news and events within the organisation.
• Develop socially responsible programs for your business (assisting charity or not-for-profit groups; recycling; etc and tell people about them).
• Always ask the organisation 'Is this ethical?' before you send any communications to your customers or change your policies. Make sure that whatever the business does, you'd be happy to have it splashed across the front page of a newspaper. That way, you should always do the right thing!

For more information on Public Relations:

• Check out Youth 2 Youth's Toolbox Program 'Be A PR Star'- our one day workshop that trains you in basic and practical PR skills. We can train your staff using this program. Just contact us for a quote.
• Check out the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) web site, www.pria.com.au.

'Copyright 2003 Youth 2 Youth'

Disclaimer: This article is for your information, but it may not apply to or be suitable for your situation, so seek professional advice. Youth 2 Youth cannot be held liable for anything resulting from how you use the information provided in this article.