A while back I wrote a post about What the Actual F is Public Relations, and felt like I wanted to do another blog post talking about my definition of public relations. Things change all the time in the communications industry and it’s important to stay on top of things.
It’s also pretty wild how much the PR industry had changed in the past 5 years alone. When you look at major publications across the world there have been so many restructurings, or magazines and newspapers have been closed due to lack of funds. This has a huge impact on PR and any other industry reliant on the media (like advertising, for example).
So, what does this have to do with a definition of public relations? Well, the type of PR I specialize in is media relations.
Public relations as an industry is a whole heap of things. It includes anything from:
- Pitching stories to media to secure an interview for a client
- Creating social media collateral
- Preparing and managing events
- Dealing with crises in organizations and creating communications to help inform the public of what’s going on
- Managing relationships with investors and creating content specifically for them
- Developing relationships with influencers with the end goal of getting them to post about your client, company or product (whether that post has been paid for or not).
- Plenty more!
As you can see, there are so many things that fit under the umbrella of PR.
So, back to definitions. The Public Relations Society of America defines it as,
Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.
– Public Relations Society of America
However, since my specialty of PR is pitching the media to get interviews or stories for clients, this is what my definition of public relations is,
Storytelling through building relationships with folks in the media, with the ultimate goal of securing a piece of coverage about your company, story or product.
– Alana Simpson
Because at the end of the day, what does public relations, or media relations, do for a company? I’ll write a different blog post talking about this in depth, but using PR as a marketing tactic can help you do all of these things:
- Build brand awareness
- So your ideal client can find you easily
- Build credibility
- So folks feel comfortable and excited to work with you
- Build your sales pipeline
- So you can focus on helping people, versus scrambling to find leads
To wrap things up, it’s crucial to have a definition of public relations so that you can do it effectively. Or, hire the right person to do it for you effectively.
