“Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation” (cipr). “It is the effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics” (cipr). “It’s all about the way organisations communicate with the public, promote themselves, and build a positive reputation and public image” (prca).
These are some of the best known definitions of PR that some people are familiar with. Certainly, public relations is all about the image, the reputation of the organization and the relationship that it has with the public. However, many people don’t understand what PR is about. They associate it with media relations, social media, campaigns, advertising or marketing.
So you don’t get confused, here are 3 things that will let you know more about PR.
1. Public Relations and advertising are two different things.
It is true that both of PR and advertising help the organizations reach their target audience. Though they are not the same thing. Advertising is all about creating paid announcements that will be promoted through the different types of media, meanwhile PR is more about the communication strategy that will help an organization build a beneficial relationship with the public, and most importantly, maintain it. To make it simple: Advertising is paid media and PR is earned media.
2. Relationships are a must when it comes to PR.
As it suggests, “Public Relations” involves relationships. Therefore, the profession requires good communication skills as practitioners have the obligation and the responsibility to establish and maintain strong relationships with the different stakeholders such as journalists, clients, investors and donors etc. It is very important for the professionals to focus on the relationship between the company and both of internal and external stakeholders, as they can affect the proper functioning of the organization and its future.
3. The amount of PR jobs is just huge!
Many people are wondering if the options in the PR field were limited and what jobs a PR professional could do. To answer this, let’s just say that, once they develop their skills and get their degree, people that are interested in PR will just have to choose from the many options and careers that the PR field offers, and this will mainly depend on what they are more passionate about.
Here are some jobs and career paths for PR people:
- Media planner
- Social media manager
- PR specialist
- Media relations
- Marketing communication
- Spokesperson
- Special events coordinator
- Social media community
- Marketing manager
- Marketing coordinator
- Publicist
- Strategic planner
- Sales representative
- Public information officer
- Employee relations