PR, short for Public Relations, is used to describe communicative actions that handles the confidence for a person or an organization. Sometimes, you may see the add-on “as ethical as possible” being used in the summary to describe it. The mission is to ensure that important parts of the audience have access to information that gives the image of the organization that it wants to spread.
It is, of course, kind of hard to grasp the concept of PR by using only the above as your understanding framework. Because the above stated could, if interpreted that way, also mean any kind of external communication. And yet, PR is not the same thing as market communication, or selling campaigns. When I talk about this, I try to explain it in terms of context, and that you should understand it in terms of purpose: market communication is used to sell things. (yeah, over-simplified, but I’m trying to be concrete here). PR is used to build trust. PR comes first, selling communication later. PR gives long-term effect, market communication gives more immediate results.
Another way of understanding what PR is, and it’s position within the communication field, is to measure it in terms of “earned” or “bought” channels (and “bought” channels in this context includes “owned” channels), where PR takes place in earned channels, and classic or content marketing uses bought channels. “Earned” channels would be channels you don’t control – such as editorial media, or for that sake, word-of-mouth. “Bought” channels are the ones you pay to get your content in – such as classic ads. (And “owned” would be your website, for example.)
I would also like to add the element of proactive communication here. Proactive communication and PR-activities are often one and the same thing, but addressed differently in different organizations. Proactive external communication takes place when you have a plan for what message you want to put out there, with what purpose, and you have just the right story to dress it in – much the same as a good PR-work.
It has been said many times, but it deserves to be repeated:
“Content marketing: you say that you are amazing. PR: someone else says that you are amazing”.
As to the WHY – well, take a guess at which one of the above swings the highest with your audience…?
In short, you want to use Public Relations because you want to give a good, trustworthy and solid image of your business. You want to do that by telling great, attractive and true stories. By stubborn and qualitative, often editorial, work you create awareness and trust. Because you want to create visibility, trustworthiness and attraction – a long term work with the largest effect in the long haul.
I have worked with PR within different organizations, and in different positions, for a long time. It has been called different things in different contexts, and very much depending on whether the organization has been a private company or a public institution. But the overall principles and the “how to” are very much the same. So I am going to publish my 10 steps to create Great PR in this blog. Or “The world’s shortest PR-school”.
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