What is Public Relations?

“Let’s start with the basics -What is Public Relations?’’ It is the art and science of maintaining relationships with ‘‘public’’. It is the practice of building and maintaining healthy relations between a brand (an organisation or an individual) and their stakeholders or ‘‘public’’. Organisations or individuals make constant efforts to reach out to their stakeholders, who are referred to as “public”.

Table of Contents:

• What is Public Relations?
• What is ‘Public’ in Public Relations?
• How is Public Relations practiced?
• What does Public Relations achieve?
• What are the Responsibilities of a Public Relations Professionals?
• What makes Public Relations Successful?

What is the “Public” in Public Relations? 

In other words “What is Public Relations?” It is a two-way communication. As it relates to the very “public” nature of Public Relations, whereas “stakeholders” are particularly related to companies. Here the public may include customers, investors, employees, suppliers, legislators, competitors, government officials and others. The concept of public can be seen differently from organisation to organisation. They are the people, a group of institutions on which success depends.

How do we do Public Relations?

The public relations professional must know how to effectively address the concerns. This can be possible by using the most powerful tool of the public relations trade, which is called publicity Publicity plays a major role in Public Relations as it is the primary step of defining it. Publicity is not gained when an organisation pays, but it is something which is earned. It comes through the reporters, columnists and journalists.

Public relations aims to create or obtain coverage for clients for free. This is known as ‘earned media’, rather than paying for marketing or advertising.

In the present scene, the importance of public relations has increased drastically. It is because of the increased interaction between the organisation or individual and their stakeholders.

Public Relations makes effort to mutually benefit both organisation and government bodies.

This helps in adopting various techniques and educating people about new public services and introducing new lifestyles. Public Relations plans strategies and activities to influence public opinion or public. The entity here can be an individual, a group, an idea, a product or an organisation.

What does Public Relations achieve?

It is the process to bring mutual advantages and adjustments. The organisation and public, provide feedback from the public to the management as it is very important. It also evaluates public attitudes, identifies policies that interests the public. And brings the main idea of what is public relations.

This is considered as an essential element in the growth of any organisation or brand. And its place in the market. Good PR means there is good communication. Which is sincere and purely based on facts. Besides all these factors, better understanding brings in harmony among relationships.

PR specialists use techniques by creating and maintaining good relationships with the target audience, the media.

What are the Responsibilities of a Public Relations Professional?

A Public Relations professional is responsible for many activities, such as:

• Designing Communications Campaigns
• Writing Press Releases
• Content For News
• Working With The Press
• Arranging Interviews For Company Spokespeople
• Writing Speeches For Company Leaders
• Acting As An Organisation Spokesperson
• Preparing Clients For Press Conferences
• Media Interviews And Speeches
• Writing Website And Social Media Content
• Managing Company Reputation (Crisis Management)
• Managing Internal Communications And Marketing Activities Like Brand Awareness And Event Management.

What makes Public Relations Successful?

Success in the field of public relations requires a deep understanding. Here the interests and concerns are important for each of the company’s stakeholders. Organizations also conduct some special programs to improve community relations in this field which include:

• Providing employee volunteers to work on community projects
• Sponsoring educational and literacy programs
• Celebrating anniversaries and occasions.

Organizations are well recognized when they are good community citizens. Also when they support programs that improve the quality of life in their community. These include environmental programs, clean-up and organise, recycling and other fun activities.

It is to know that communication is considered as the essence of Public Relations. A good PR campaign is based on action as well as words. And that is at the crux of what is public relations.

-Navya Penmetsa

Navya Penmetsa is a Content Strategy Intern at the School of Communication & Reputation (SCoRe). She has worked with Echobox Content Writing and is currently working as WizCounsel Professional.

She is pursuing her final year under-graduation in Journalism, Psychology and English Literature. She wants to establish her career in Public Relations and Corporate Communications. She has good command over communication and leadership qualities. She can be reached on Twitter as @prjunkie and on LinkedIn as Navya Penmetsa