Essay: Public Relations

Public relations has multiple definitions but largely revolves are two key terms: engagement and relationship building. This communication process requires building and maintaining the relationships between organizations and their publics. Public relations specialists must develop and pursue a variety of tactics that will create a strong business objective in order to convey the organizations message. They then publicize these tactics across a variety of platforms in order to directly influence and impact the public’s view of that organization.
One integral part of public relations is to analyze how target audiences may react to decisions or actions of the organization. This analyzing process is necessary both before and after the action takes place. Prior to making any decisions it is a public relations professional’s responsibility to assess potential ramifications of the organization’s decision. Then determine how it may impact the organization, either negatively or positively. Protecting and preserving the integrity and reputation of the organization is also an essential component of the field.
In order to accomplish these tasks, communicators are required to do constant research, planning, and evaluating so that the desired message of the organization is projected. Along with this overseeing content creators to ensure that audience engagement is rising. There are many more responsibilities that are required in the field, especially depending on what area they specialize in, whether it be; journalism, crisis management, social media, etc., so although there may be some variation depending on who the client is or which specialty it is, this is generally the definition or public relations.
Public relations and advertising are often linked, however there are some major differences between the two fields regarding process, goals, and more. Firstly, advertising is paid for whereas PR is provided by the public relations professional to media outlets by means of press releases and pitches. What this means is that ad space must be purchased, however when it comes to PR, stories can be pitched to the news outlets. In public relations the concept of “owned media” comes into play as well. This is content that is produced and owned for the company’s website and social media platforms.
Another area of difference is audience. Advertising primarily targets potential customers with the goal of generating profit. Public relations on the other hand attempts to target a much broader audience such as; employees, investors, media, legislators, etc. Public relations communicators aim to build brand awareness in order to get their audience to trust the organization. Similarly, advertising is more focused on the short-term goal of making profit. Conversely, public relations typically focus more on the long term and big picture side.
Credibility is another factor that differs between the two. Audiences tend to inherently mistrust advertisements due to their obvious goal of selling a product which makes them money. Public relations on the other hand, due to the fact content is not direct from the organization, rather a third party, the audience tend to believe that their content is generally more credible. Despite the fact that these two fields overlap and share some similar goals and processes, they are in fact quite different.