Public Relations is not the same as advertising.
PR aims to promote companies and individuals by raising their visibility amongst potential customers or clients in the wider community. This may involve increasing editorial coverage in the media (print, electronic, broadcast, social, etc); but it can involve other measures as well.
PR workers may submit stories to news and media agencies to try and gain media coverage for their clients. To do this they have to make the stories interesting and look like a real story, rather than simply advertising.
Many public relations workers start out in another profession where they develop communication skills, contacts, and/or a heightened awareness of the industry they will eventually do PR for.
An example may be journalists who move into PR, as they know how to reach reporters and editors.
Good people skills are important to enable you to work well with journalists, other media workers, clients and other members of your team.
Studying marketing, communication skills or writing and I.T. can all be helpful to get into public relations.
Freelancing and Developing a PR Business
Many PR professionals move into this area of work as a freelancer. Anyone who has a flair for PR, and develops the appropriate skills, will often get noticed by businesses and other organisations in the industry they work in. It is not uncommon for opportunities to emerge for some part time PR work, which over time builds into more clients and more hours, and eventuallyu a full time job.
This freelance work can continue to grow if you do an effective job; and over time, develop into a very solid public relations business. This is how many people end up getting to own a PR business.
PR agencies and advertising agencies will have the same goal – to promote their clients and make them appear important and exciting. But how they do this will vary. Advertising is paid for, so many customers will view the message with scepticism, whereas if a PR agency presents a story as a “news story” to make their client look good, it can be viewed more favourable.
The PR Society of America defines PR well as:
“Anticipating, analysing and interpreting public opinion, attitudes and issues that might impact, for good or ill, the operations and plans of the organization. Counselling management at all levels in the organization with regard to policy decisions, courses of action and communication, taking into account their public ramifications and the organization’s social or citizenship responsibilities. Researching, conducting and evaluating, on a continuing basis, programs of action and communication to achieve the informed public understanding necessary to the success of an organization’s aims. These may include marketing; financial; fund raising; employee, community or government relations; and other programs. Planning and implementing the organization’s efforts to influence or change public policy. Setting objectives, planning, budgeting, recruiting and training staff, developing facilities — in short, managing the resources needed to perform all of the above.”
Tasks that a PR agency will be involved in include:
- Writing and distributing press releases
- Writing speeches
- Writing pitches – these are less formal than a press release, but the PR worker will send them to a journalist as a way to encourage a story
- Carrying out market research on the client’s message
- Creating special events
- Event management
- Blogging
- Copy writing
- Networking
- Attending business events
- Using social media
- Responding to negative opinions online
- Responding to crises after negative publicity
Clients use PR firms to protect their reputations, enhance their reputations, or build their reputations in the media. A good PR agency can look at messages and translate them into positive news stories or create a response to ensure that the client looks better.