What is Public Relations?
Every organisation, no matter how large or small, ultimately depends on its reputation for survival and success. Customers, suppliers, employees, investors, journalists and regulators can have a powerful impact. They all have an opinion about the organisations they come into contact with - whether good or bad, right or wrong. These perceptions will drive their decisions about whether they want to work with, shop with and support these organisations. In today's competitive market, reputation can be a company's biggest asset – the thing that makes you stand out from the crowd and gives you a competitive edge. Effective PR can help manage reputation by communicating and building good relationships with all organisation stakeholders.
Public Relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.
Example of different of Public Relations campaigns
Print Campaigns
Print public relations campaigns typically are comprised of a process in which a public relations representative sends out press releases to various media outlets. These releases promote a company change, a new product or a new service. Members of the media may then use the release to write a story, or they may contact the company for a more in-depth interview. High quality PR agents will have a list of media contacts that can be relied upon to publicize the story. New agents may not have built up their personal contacts in the media yet and may not have as much luck placing stories.
Radio and Television Campaigns
Radio and television campaigns are similar in essence to print campaigns. Releases and notifications are sent out to programs that are related to what is being promoted. Radio hosts are typically in need of guests and will be open to scheduling a speaker for an interview, particularly if they are an established expert or have an excellent track record in business. National television interviews are more difficult to land, but local media may be interested in doing an interview.
Online Campaigns
Online public relations campaigns are becoming increasingly popular and work in a variety of different ways. The first is very passive. A release is written and optimized with keywords that are related to the product or business. This release is then posted on a variety of different websites that are, in turn, crawled by search engines. The company's release is then pulled up when users look for those keywords. Social media and podcast campaigns are also becoming more common in this arena. PR agents seek out podcasters in a related field and try to schedule phone interviews for their clients.
Reputation Management Campaigns
Reputation management campaigns are common, but are never publicized well -- a direct dichotomy in public relations. These campaigns are used to shape or reshape public opinion and operate behind the scenes. They may rely on posting positive comments on sites where a company has been maligned, or they may be more aggressive and actually attack another company that has publicly maligned them.
Famous Public Relations
Zombies Take Over NYC, 2010
To promote its television series “The Walking Dead”, AMC had two dozen people dressed as zombies walking around Madison Square Garden and on the Brooklyn Bridge. It certainly caused amusement and horror around New York as people were not expecting to see the living dead among them.
A Beautiful Stunt, 2012
Dove decided to ‘spread to love’ with a campaign that targeted London commuters. Dove encouraged commuters to tweet and text answers to various questions they posed on an interactive screen located in London’s busy Victoria station. The questions included “what makes you feel beautiful” and streamed the answers real time on the screen. Not only did they engage the commuters in conversation, they also put smiles on people’s faces by giving them presents to give to their valentines.
The Great Jump, 2012
Felix Baumgartner became the first person to break the sound barrier without the help of a machine by falling 23 miles from the earth’s stratosphere. The event was sponsored by Red Bull. The jump earned the world’s attention and accounted for one percent of all online conversations at the time.
Who needs Public Relations
PR services are utilised by many organisations and individuals who want to create a better image of themselves in public. The most frequent clients of PR firms include:
Businesses; they utilise PR services to present their products/services and the way their firms work and of course, create a strong relationship with the customers and reach more potential buyers.
Non-profit organisations; examples include charity organisations, schools, hospitals, etc. who use PR services as a part of fund-raising events and promotion campaigns.
Notable individuals; examples include celebrities who use PR services to communicate in their behalf with the media and their fans but PR specialists are also highly sought after by politicians who can succeed only if they have a good public reputation.
Roles of Public Relations in an Organization
Public Image Strategy
Public relations strategists will work with top executives in the organization to craft an overview of how the company wants to be perceived, and how it is going to project a positive image. This can involve focusing in on exactly the right message, and then deciding on the broad outlines of a campaign to disseminate that message.
Outreach Events
Public relations professionals often arrange events to raise the profile of the organization or lend its brand and name to a charitable event that represents the philosophy of the company. Think of a corporation sponsoring a Special Olympics event, or a hospital organizing a health outreach day in its town.
Media Relations
Talking with the media is a core function of public relations departments. Public relations professionals field questions from reporters, arrange for interviews with key individuals in the organization and write press releases to make the media aware of company events or achievements.
Social Media
One emerging function of public relations is to maximize an organization’s positive use of social media to build its image. Managing a Twitter feed, a Facebook page and a YouTube channel are all vital ways to connect with possible new customers or stakeholders. Monitoring public comment about the organization on the Internet can also give PR professionals early warning of any emerging trends or problems.
Handling Emergencies
Sometimes a company or organization is struck by a disastrous event that ruins its public image. This might be an oil company that has to deal with a high profile spill, or a food company that has a contamination event. Public relations professionals decide how the organization will repair the damage to its image, communicate how it is dealing with the problem and regain control of its message.
What are the methods organisations use to promote their image?
Using celebrities.
Placing stories in media: e.g. press release.
What is branding?
The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers' mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.
