What is Public Relations? “Public relations is the management function that identifies, establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the various publics on whom its success or failure depends” - Scott Cutlip Public relations, byname Public Relations is an aspect of Communications involving the relations between an entity subject to, or seeking public attention of the various publics that are, or may be interested in it. The entity seeking attention may be a business corporation, a politician, a performer or author, a government or government agency, a charitable organization, a religious body, and the list continues.
The target public (demographic) may include sectors as tapered as female voters of a political party who are between 35 and 50 years of age or the shareholders in a particular corporation. The target public may be as broad as any national population or the world at large.
The concerns of public relations operate both ways between the subject entity, which may be thought of as the client, and the publics involved. Important fundamentals of public relations is to acquaint the client with the general conceptions of the client and to affect these perceptions by focusing, curtailing, amplifying, or augmenting information about the client as it is conveyed to the public.
Public relations encompasses a variety of marketing activities that strengthen organizations credibility, enhance an organization’s image and develop goodwill. These marketing strategies are usually targeted directly at an audience and may include speeches, special events, newsletters, and annual reports. A public relation involves clearly communicating who you are, what you do, why you do it, and how you make a difference. There is a major difference between publicity and public relations, the terms public relations and publicity are often misused and incorrectly thought of as being interchangeable. Publicity, only one part of public relations, is media coverage such as news stories, feature articles, talk show interviews, editorials and reviews.
Other commonly confused terms are publicity and advertising. The key distinction between the two is that you pay for advertising. Publicity is free, and is therefore more credible and more likely to have an impact on the reader or viewer. In fact, advertising, generally, is not considered part of public relations. According to the Public Relations Institute of America, public relations is the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain understanding between an organization and its public (Malan and L'Estrange, 1981).
Public Relations is a broad and complex activity although its basic objective is simple. Its basic objective is to clearly communicate a message or concept of an organization in order to achieve a resonating knowledge within its target demographic. Public Relations exists, liked or not, in all modern businesses, organizations, corporations and the like. Due to their size and complexity they are all in need of, and should be concerned with, their Public Relations. Positive Public Relations with the conscious effort to inform and be informed provides knowledge, understanding, goodwill and a good reputation. It helps keep institutions prepared in an ever-shifting environment of circumstance and public opinion. It is an on-going activity that is forever changing. It must anticipate difficulty and eliminate causes before the problems arise. It is not there to rescue an operation or to apologize for it (Malan and L'Estrange, 1981).
Public Relations is essentially concerned with communication: between people, between people and organizations and within and between organizations. Activities and methods of public relations activities in the modern world help institutions to cope successfully with the many problems that exist, in the creation of prestige and reputation for an individual or a group, to promote products and to win elections or legislative battles. The majority of public relations workers are staff employees working within a corporate or institutional framework while others operate in public relations counseling firms. In industry, public relations personnel keep management informed of changes in the opinions of various publics (that is, the groups of people whose support is needed) such as employees, stockholders, customers, suppliers, dealers, the community, and government. These professionals counsel management as to the impact of any action—or lack of action—on the behavior of the target audiences. Once an organizational decision has been made, the public relations person or department has the task of communicating this information to the public using methods that foster understanding, consent, and desired behavior. For example, a hospital merger, an industrial plant closing, or the introductions of a new product all require public relations planning and skill.
Public relations plays an integral role in the entertainment industry. The theatre, motion pictures, sports, restaurants, and individuals all use public relations services to increase their business or enhance their image. Other public relations clients are educational, social service, and charitable institutions, trade unions, religious groups, and professional societies. The successful public relations practitioner is a specialist in communication arts and persuasion.
The work involves various functions including the following:
1. Programming—that is, analyzing problems and opportunities, defining goals, determining the public to be reached, and recommending and planning activities.
2. Writing and editing materials such as press releases, speeches, stockholder reports, product information, and employee publications.
3. Placing information in the most advantageous way.
4. Organizing special events such as press functions, award programs, exhibits, and displays.
5. Setting up face-to-face communication, including the preparation and delivery of speeches.
6. Providing research and evaluation using interviews, reference materials, and various survey techniques and managing resources by planning, budgeting, and recruiting and training staff to attain these objectives.
7. Specialized skills are required to handle public opinion research, media relations, direct mail activities, institutional advertising, publications, film and video production, and special events.
The ten effective public relations activities that follow are common public relations activities. The ones that will benefit you will depend on your objectives, the size, type and location of your business, the characteristics of your customers or audience, and your budget.
1. Media Relations include a variety of methods to contact and give information to the media: news releases, press kits, media advisories, news conferences, press tours, and personal letters or phone calls to editors and reporters.
2. Special Events: events draw attention to your organization or bring people to your place of business. Open houses, fund-raisers, trade shows, awards ceremonies, contests, stunts, receptions, speeches by VIP’s are examples of special events.
3. Newsletters Publications, typically four to twelve pages in length with short articles intended to keep your customers, members, investors, or donors up-to-date on what your organization and its people are doing. It may also contain advice or other information of particular interest to your audience. Tip Sheets One or two-sided sheets containing advice, instructions, or other information of particular use to your customers. The objective is to show off your expertise. These sheets are usually formatted as bulleted or numbered lists.
4. Promotional letters our expertise by responding to items in the news by writing a letter to the editor.
5. Speakers arrange to have individuals in your organization speak at meetings of professional and trade associations, service clubs, civic organizations, and community groups.
6. Sponsorships: It is not always necessary to organize a special event, sponsor what somebody else is organizing, or sponsor a local sports team, musical group, or community theatre. Ensuring sponsorship will be acknowledged on advertising, programs, uniforms, posters, and other promotional materials.
7. Charitable Contributions: Even though a donation has to be very large to make the news, a consistent commitment to giving back to your community by supporting local charities will do much to enhance your image. By donating to charities, they acknowledge donations in their newsletter, annual report, wall plaques, and other promotional materials.
8. Thank you notes and letters directly thanking customers for their business, and donors for their contribution, will encourage repeat business.
9. The real tasks of public relations in the business world may focus on corporate interests or those of marketing products or services; on image creation or defense against attack; on broad public relations or straight publicity. In general, the strategic goal of public relations is to project a favorable public image, one of corporate good citizenship. This cannot be accomplished with lights and mirrors in an age of investigative journalism, and the first responsibility of public relations is to persuade management that the reality must correspond with the desired image.
10. Public relations is concerned with creating a favorable climate for marketing the client's products or services, including maintaining good relations with merchants and distributors as well as placing product publicity and disseminating information to trade and industrial groups. It further includes publicizing praiseworthy activities by company personnel. Financial public relations involve relations with a company's own stockholders (stockholder relations) as well as with the investment community.
To a large extent, the goal of public relations is to optimize good news and to forestall bad news. But when disaster strikes, the public relations practitioner's task, in consultation with legal counsel, is to assess the situation and the damage, to assemble the facts together with necessary background information and to offer these to the news media. When a client is under attack, it is a public relations responsibility to organize the client's response, usually involving several complicated issues to be both lucid and persuasive.
Collected by---
M.S.A. Shobuz
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