About PR
What is PR?
Public Relations is the way in which an individual or an organisation deals
with other people, or “the public.” And publics are not just the media; they
can be employees, customers, government or even neighbours. Not only can public
relations help increase the public's awareness and perception of your business;
it can offer significant opportunities for you to promote your business' product
or service.
Primarily though, public relations is best know for gaining media coverage
on behalf of organisations. This type of public relations is often confused
with advertising. Although both deal with the media (newspapers, TV, radio
and magazines) the similarities end there.
Advertising is paid for, guaranteed space, with the advertiser having total
control over the message PR is free, but it has to be “news.”
It involves liaising journalists to achieve editorial coverage, i.e. news items
and features. As a result, the person or organisation supplying the news has
much less control over what is written and indeed, no guarantee of coverage.
Even so, editorial mentions carry with them the implied endorsement of the
publication which can be very effective in influencing readers' opinions.
Public Relations is not just for big business. It is for all business. The
media is very receptive to those who have some interesting stories and activities
for the public to hear about. In return it helps you to grow your business.
Remember! Whilst media is an important part of public relations
focusing on press coverage can be limiting in its effectiveness. A good public
relations strategy will ensure that relationships are built with all of the “publics” a
business wishes to reach. A supporting public relations programme will reach
each of these audiences with the right key messages via a range of public relations
activity.
What can public relations achieve?
There are many ways in which public relations can benefit your product or
service. It can:
- help project the right image and profile of your business
- help build lasting relationships with the key stakeholders of your business,
i.e. customers, media and employees etc.
- promote confidence and interest in your product or service and inform your
target audiences of your latest news.
- help counter-balance a negative issue or incident or ‘set the record
straight.’
- often be more credible than advertising. People tend to believe what they
hear and see in the media.
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