Public Relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their audiences.
Every business needs a good reputation to succeed and thrive. As a company grows, it has more and more prominence in the community in which it operates.
And although this depends on several factors, such as quality and reliability, Public Relations is one of the pillars to manage a company’s reputation.
It lets you communicate your brand and values broadly and create narratives around your products and services.
A well-done Public Relations job allows the public to understand what your company has to offer.
Sounds amazing, right? But do you know what Public Relations is?
Studies in Social Communication are divided into three main fields: journalism, advertising and Public Relations (affectionately abbreviated as PR).
And while many people know — or at least have a sense of — what a journalist or a publicist does, the question often arises: what exactly does a public relations professional do ?
That’s what we’re going to talk about in this post!
You will understand:
- What is public relations?
- How did public relations come about?
- What does a public relations professional do?
- What is public relations in marketing
- Public relations job market
- How is the public relations course?
- Conclusion
What is public relations?
Simply put, the PRSA (American Public Relations Society) defined Public Relations as a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their audiences .
Let’s break it down to make it easier to understand and get to know the defining elements of RP better.
- Organizations : a grouping of people around a common cause. An organization can be a company, a government, a party, that is, it can take many forms.
- Audiences : like organizations, audiences are multiple and encompass different social backgrounds. We can think of them as groupings of people who interact with a particular organization.
- Communicational process : like all forms of communication, the PR activity involves at least two parts (in practice, there are multiple parts). These parties, which are organizations and publics, relate to each other in different ways to establish exchange processes.
- Non-linear processes : on the contrary: they happen spontaneously and multilaterally. Public relations emerge as a way of understanding them and optimizing the relationship between the various agents involved.
- Exchange relationships: organizations and publics relate all the time through various dynamics that can add value to both parties.
In this sense, Public Relations emerge as a way of organizing relationships and exchange processes between organizations and publics, generating benefit and value for both parties.
Organizations benefit to the extent that they are able to convey their message and generate a positive perception of the brand and services.
The public, on the other hand, can have a more transparent view of organizations and charge them for the services offered and positions made.
How did public relations come about?
One of the greatest scholars of public relations, James E. Grunig , points out that the Chinese aristocracy already practiced a rudimentary form of public relations five thousand years ago.
But public relations as a professional field has been studied since the beginning of the 20th century, that is, about 100 years ago.
As we can see, this field of study is relatively recent.
It emerged in the US from the need that companies saw to communicate with their audiences to generate a positive image.
At that time, an accelerated era of growth was underway, marked by the mechanization of processes and exploitation of workers.
The labor movement was increasingly articulated and demonstrating against large companies.
As a result, these companies felt the need to communicate a better image to the public.
In fact, he is considered the father of public relations .
Ivy Lee founded her own public relations office and worked for large corporations to improve their image and increase their profits. He reinvented the way organizations positioned themselves in the world.
He preached the humanization of business models and defended transparency, preaching the maxim: “ The public must be informed ”.
This still consolidates the way public relations are seen by communication scholars: an activity to optimize the relationship between publics and companies, with the aim of improving the experience of these publics .
Because it is a new area — there was no course in the faculties and no form of specialization — public relations was built on the basis of practice.
For the same reason, professionals who worked for companies in this role had other training, mainly related to the areas of administration and management.
Thus, public relations – which was not even given that name – emerged as a technical position and focused on a gestational aspect.
With the evolution of the field, the need arose to organize studies to prepare new professionals. We will see the structure of public relations courses later on, but first it is important to clarify:
What does a public relations professional do?
The PR has the function of analyzing the organization in its various dimensions and possibilities to establish strategic plans that convey the best message and image of the company. He is a communication manager and acts strategically in the most diverse fields of the company.
This professional is a key part of a company: he is responsible for the different communication demands that, together, affect the business situation.
All these demands make up the PR agenda , which is then responsible for making them happen in the best possible way. This means protecting, maintaining and/or creating a good image through the media with the public.
He needs to relate directly and clearly with the public, in order to strengthen relationships and avoid noise.
The main activities of the PR include:
Develop an organization’s communication plan
This may seem like a very broad topic. And indeed, he is.
Drawing up an organization’s communication plan is not easy and requires dynamism, critical thinking, responsibility and a lot of flexibility.
The public relations professional has the great responsibility of outlining a plan that covers both the internal and external communication of the company.
Therefore, it is essential that he has a holistic view of the company , its values, services and objectives, and is able to convey this in his planning.
And this is done through the alignment of the company’s communication team ( advertising , marketing , design and journalists). Of course, PR doesn’t perform each of these functions and doesn’t even need to have in-depth knowledge about them, but he’s the one who will get these teams to work together in the same direction.
Finally, these efforts result in communication actions, such as branding , positioning on social networks, the creation of internal communication vehicles (such as TV and corporate newspaper) and the way to communicate with the press.
All of this contributes to the organization being able to position itself before the public and so that the objectives are met.
write press releases
The press release, or press release, as the name suggests, is an announcement or information for the media about the company’s activities.
While it may seem simple, writing and publishing a press release is not an easy task.
The press release can just be something the company wants to communicate, like a new service or a new brand positioning, but it can also be a reaction to some previous event (a controversy, for example).
In both cases, it is essential to be careful in the choice of words, the spokesperson for the message, the tone of voice and even the moment in which the press release is made.
A badly done press release can cause misunderstandings, adverse reactions and even crises in the organization.
However, if done well, it results in great moments for the company and positive vision and speech from the media and audiences.
Organize events
The company’s internal and external events serve a variety of purposes, and making them well-executed and enjoyable is essential.
The PR organizes all the logistics so that it works in the best possible way and meets the event’s objectives for the company.
Conduct market research
Understanding the market is fundamental to public relations work.
It is necessary to understand the behavior of consumers, potential customers, people who interact with your brand through a mapping of audiences.
Therefore, market research is very useful. They are carried out together with other professionals and teams, with PR being fundamental in the process of elaboration and conduction.
The surveys will show which audiences he is dealing with, in addition to showing market trends and preferences.
Thus, the actions taken in the company will have more potential to succeed, as they will be based on facts.
Manage contacts and relationships
A company needs good relationships. And, after all, that couldn’t be more of a public relations task, could it?
It is important to emphasize that when we talk about relationships, in the plural, there is a good reason.
An organization does not relate to a single group of people. There are several groups , which we call publics. Therefore, diverse and interconnected relationships are established between organizations and their audiences.
What audiences are these? We can divide them into three major groups:
- internal community , that is, the collaborators;
- external community , which includes consumers, potential customers, product lovers and any other people who, in any way, have a relationship with the company and/or the brand;
- media , which are the communication vehicles and the people who represent them.
All these audiences must be carefully worked through through networking, partnerships and strategic actions.
Content production
Yes, content marketing is closely tied to public relations work .
Writing content is part of the PR routine. But, of course, the content production process is not restricted to that.
PR is able to gain an understanding of the brand’s language and positioning and convey it across different channels, both internal and external.
Although the PR is not responsible for all content production , it takes care of the entire process that encompasses blogs , social networks, websites and videos, as well as the publication of materials about the company in external vehicles.
manage crises
No company is exempt from errors and, consequently, from criticism and crises, whether internal or external.
The PR has to deal with adverse reactions and control the damage , working the situation in the best way possible so that it does not generate serious consequences for the organization.
Dealing with opinions, comments and criticism
This topic is related to the previous one.
These days, it’s even easier for people to voice their opinions. This is very positive, both for consumers and for companies, for the relationship to strengthen and for both to achieve mutual understanding.
At the same time, the ease of users expressing their opinions can generate unexpected scenarios for the company.
Responding to positive comments is okay, but negative reviews are not that simple.
The speed and advertising of social networks and complaint sites, for example, mean that the response time has to be accelerated. And it goes far beyond that: care in the language, with the information passed and with the involvement of other people is crucial.
Accepting opinions and criticisms and resolving situations arising from them can be much more complex than you imagine.
And the hardest part involves anticipating the impacts of actions. Much more than dealing with criticism, PR has to assume that every company action will have reactions . It is your duty to anticipate scenario and prevent unpleasant situations.
communication consultancy
Finally, several of these activities are included in the communication department, which is often headed by a PR.
The communication consultancy is a sector that makes the connection between the company and the public. A company may have its own advisory team or hire a company to do so.
The communication office takes care of all the communicational part of an organization, and therefore it is necessary to plan a PR. Among the activities of the communication office are: press office, management of social networks and image management.
What is public relations in marketing
A well-done relations job is one that helps the public understand a company, its values, its goals, and what it has to offer.
But any good marketer can read that phrase and relate to it.
In fact, these two activities come together. Both aim to establish relationships of trust and exchange between the company and the public through enchantment. And most importantly, they provide lasting benefits.
But each of them has its own operating logic.
Public relations work in a more direct, logistical and strategic way. Marketing, on the other hand, works mainly with the new and risky, and with indirect elements. But the important thing is that both are important to a company and it is critical that teams work together.
We can think that, while a PR works directly with employees, the marketer is concerned with internal marketing strategies , for example.
Public relations job market
Many people say that the job market in any communication field is getting smaller and worse.
But the truth is that the ease of communication makes many companies understand the urgency of hiring professional solutions for this sector. This is no different with the PR professional.
The market is constantly professionalizing, as it is a relatively new activity, as well as pointing to more opportunities. We have already described the main activities that PR professionals perform, but let’s list some positions that a PR professional can occupy:
- Communication adviser
- Press officer
- Events Manager
- customer relationship
- Institutional communication
- brand journalist
These are just a few options. Of course, as with any other profession, PR will not perform all of these roles. We are presenting possible fields of activity for this professional.
How is the public relations course?
curriculum
The curriculum of the course includes subjects of social communication, management and administration. These three main areas are essential for the formation of a good professional and offer an overview of the field of knowledge.
Subjects include:
- Communication Theories
- Public Relations Processes
- Event organization
- Organizational communication
- communication consultancy
- media management
- Marketing
Duration
The course lasts approximately 4 years and the grid is concentrated in a single period, allowing for an internship.
Conclusion
The area of communication is very vast, and Public Relations enters as one of the main fields.
Combining strategy, knowledge about communication, economics, management and administration, the professional has a holistic view of the organization and is able to make the best decisions for the organization.
If you liked this area, it is worth knowing more about the faculties available and which ones are most interesting for your professional goals, since the field of activity is very vast.
One of them is to act in the area of community marketing. Not familiar with this field?
