Author: Kadence Buchanan
Effective public relations are a process and its essential first step is research. Nowadays, research is widely accepted by public relations professionals as an integral part of the planning, program development, and evaluation process. Before a public relations program is undertaken, information must be gathered, data collected, and interpretation done. Only after the first step is performed, organizations can begin to make policy decisions and map out strategies for effective communication programs.

The second step in the public relations process, after research, is program planning. Prior to the implementation of a public relations activity, it is essential that considerable thought must be given to what should be done and in what sequence to accomplish an organization’s objectives.

A good public relations program should be an effective tool to support an organization’s business, marketing, and communications objectives. In other words, public relations planning should be strategic. A practitioner must think about a situation, analyze what can be done about it, creatively conceptualize the appropriate strategies and tactics, and determine how the results will be measured. Planning also involves the co-ordination of multiple methods to achieve specific results.

Developing a systematic planning prevents haphazard, ineffective communication that may result in unexpected outcomes. Thus, public relations managers need to follow a well-designed program plan that will help them execute their programs effectively and provide the desired results after the completion of the public relations program.

Moreover, business communications, especially those introduced by public relations departments, can present ethical questions. False and misleading advertising is illegal and unethical, and it can infuriate customers. Sponsors and advertisements aimed at children must be very careful to avoid misleading messages. Advertisers of health-related products must also take precautions to guard against deception when using such descriptive terms as “low fat”, “fat free2, and “light”. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission has issued recent guidelines on the use of these labels.

Finally, public relations companies have introduced the notion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which is the recognition that business activities have an impact on society and the consideration of that impact in business decision-making. Obviously, social responsibility costs money. It is perhaps not so obvious that social responsibility is also good business. Customers eventually find out which firm is acting responsibly and which does not. Young public relations professionals should always keep in mind, that just as easily as consumers decide to cast their dollar votes for a product produced by a company that is socially responsible, they can vote against the firm that is not.

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Author: Clyde Lee Dennis
Public Relations, often referred to as PR is the management of internal and external communication of an organization to create and maintain a positive public image. It’s a process that involves popularizing successes, downplaying failures, announcing changes, and many other activities.

Public relations are a very important management function in any organization and it should be understood that it is not synonymous with publicity.

Public relations specialists are often times referred to as communications specialists and media specialists, among other titles, and serve as advocates for businesses, nonprofit associations, universities, hospitals, and other organizations, and build and maintain positive relationships with the public. They also handle organizational functions such as media, community, consumer, industry, and governmental relations; political campaigns; interest-group representation; conflict mediation; and employee and investor relations.

These specialists are the ones who draft press releases and contact people in the media who might print or broadcast their company related messages and material. As well as arranging and conducting programs to keep up contact between organization representatives and the public.

Public relations specialists work in busy offices and in smaller firms usually get all-around experience, whereas those in larger firms tend to be much more specialized. Concentrated in large cities, where press services and other communications facilities are readily available and many businesses and trade associations have their headquarters.

To become leaders they must show creativity, initiative, and good judgment and most importantly have the ability to communicate thoughts clearly and simply.

Public relations managers also evaluate advertising and promotions programs for compatibility with public relations efforts and serve as the eyes and ears of top management within a company. They may even confer with labor relations managers to produce internal company communications such as newsletters about employee-management relations, and with financial managers to produce company reports.

Public relations people working for a company may handle consumer relations or the relationship between parts of the company such as the managers and employees, or different branch offices and include ongoing activities to ensure the organization has a strong public image.

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Author: Sue Currie
Public Relations includes a variety of tactics that strengthen your credibility, enhance your image, develop goodwill or influence public opinion. As The Public Relations Institute of Australia defines it – PR is a two-way communication between an organisation and its publics.Put simply PR involves communicating who you are, what you do, why you do it and how you make a difference.

Forward-thinking organisations know that communicating – and doing so frequently and effectively – is a very important aspect to the success of their business. Public relations tactics used can include investor relations, crisis communications, community relations, special events, newsletters, annual reports, sponsorships, speaking opportunities, news conferences, media relations, publicity and other activities designed to mould opinion.

Marketing and Public Relations are often confused – what is the difference? Marketing covers all aspects of producing, promoting and distributing goods and services to the consumer. The main elements of marketing are the product, its price, distribution and promotion – which includes advertising as well as publicity.

Selling is one of the most vital functions of marketing and of course advertising is a very important part of this function. Sales promotions would also be part of a marketing campaign. An example would be a competition giveaway on the back of a cereal pack.

Marcomms is also a widely used term these days and stands for Marketing Communications. This role or department in a large organisation generally covers both marketing and public relations. There are also advertising agencies, marketing agencies and public relations consultancies that provide an integrated mix of these services.

Often marketing, advertising and sales will work together in a major corporation while corporate and internal communications, media relations and public relations will be part of a separate department. For the small to medium business owner as well as the larger organisations, all of these elements must work together to ensure a coordinated approach to getting your name, reputation or brand “out there”.

Advertising, marketing and PR must work together to ensure the successful roll out of your message, product, or service into the market place.

What is Publicity?

Publicity is designed to generate media coverage – it is not public relations. Publicity is part of media relations which is one of several major public relations functions. Publicity is a very important tactic of an overall PR campaign. Media coverage on a product, service, company or cause is vital for helping the organisation attain its objectives. Print and broadcast coverage far surpasses advertising in terms of credibility and delivering value for money. They say publicity is seven times more effective than advertising.

Skilled publicists are invaluable and there are many public relations companies that specialise in this skill only. To “get good PR” is a common view of public relations as only being publicity. Put simply publicity is making a suggestion to a journalist that leads to the inclusion of a company, person or product in a story.

Newspapers, magazines, TV programs and radio shows have large amounts of space to fill and depend upon publicists to help provide story ideas, interview subjects, background information and other material. But that doesn’t mean to say you approach every journalist there is and suggest yourself or your business as a possible story idea. You need to know the stories they want to cover whether it’s a business news story or a “feel good” piece for a weekend magazine.

Do your research; find out the most appropriate publications or TV or radio programs for your information. Put yourself in the position of the editor and ask yourself, “Is this something my readers are interested in?” People who read Financial Review are not the same people who read That’s Life. You need to give the journalist a story idea. Think of yourself as an editor coming up with ideas to fill space. Help the journalist do their work.

Publicists, PR agencies and journalists need to work together and develop good working relationships so that everybody achieves the desired result.

What’s a Media Release?

A media release is a release of a story to the media. The most important tool for making a suggestion to a journalist is the press or media release.A media release is a like a mini news story that presents the most newsworthy aspect of your product, company or service in a format and language familiar to the journalist.

A good media release answers the who, what, where, when, and why of a story. Start with an attention grabbing headline followed by an exciting lead paragraph. Usually media people don’t read beyond the first paragraph, so if you don’t capture them quickly, it will be hard to get their attention after that.

If it is well written, concise, and contains good information – your chances of getting published are increased. Paragraphs subsequent to the lead may include background information, spokesperson quotations and other information that can help put the newsworthiness of the story in perspective.

I hope this has given you a clearer understanding of the many different yet essential strategies that a business needs to implement to successfully tell people about their product or service. Fundamentally public relations is about communication and making an impression.

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Author: Sue Jan
Public relations is effective in helping:

* Corporations convey information about their products or services to potential customers

* Corporations reach local government and legislators

* Politicians attract votes and raise money, and craft their public image and legacy

* Non-profit organizations, including schools, hospitals, social service agencies etc. boost support of their programs such as awareness programs, fund-raising programs, and to increase patronage of their services

Public relations in present times employs diverse techniques such as opinion polling and focus groups to evaluate public opinion, combined with a variety of high-tech techniques for distributing information on behalf of their clients, including the internet, satellite feeds, broadcast faxes, and database-driven phone banks.

As public image is important to all organizations and prominent personalities the role of public relations specialist becomes pertinent in crisis situations. Public relations agencies provide important and timely transmission of information that helps save the face of the organization. In the words of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), “Public relations helps an organization and its public adopt mutually to one another.”

Experienced public relations agencies have formulation press releases into which they can plug the company news, as well as a targeted list of publications for their industry. Truly good public relations agencies generally have a good working relationship with key reporters, boosting their chances of getting coverage. Some public relations agencies deal only with large, established clients, while smaller boutique public relations agencies specialize in certain areas.

At present public relations as a career option exists in private companies or government institutions that actively market their product, service and facilities. Public relations training courses are widespread in educational institutions. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 122,000 public relations specialists in the United States in 1998 and approximately 485,000 advertising, marketing, and public relations managers working in all industries.

Most public relations practitioners are recruited from the ranks of journalism. Public relations officers are highly trained professionals with expertise and knowledge in many areas, for example shareholder management during a crisis, the evolving role of the in-house public relations professional, account management skills for public relations, an introduction to financial public relations, an introduction to consumer public relations, an introduction to public relations software etc.

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