Public relations strategies and practices

Public Relations

BUILDING GOODWILL and REPUTATION

Definitions of Public Relations

Public relations refer to a set of planned activities, which help an entity establish identity, acquire business credibility and authority (Fey 2003). It makes the audience remember the entity through repetitiveness or a strong approach in delivering a message or information. It may seem cheap, at times, but unlike advertising, public relations are not free. Unlike advertising, public relations or PR cannot be bought. It must be established with effort, timeliness and the correct approach. It may not be well understood, but PR remains the most effective marketing tool of a small business (Fey).

This definition sees public relations as largely dependent on the media. For a first step, it sets the target for its message (Fey 2003). The public relations person or agency determines if the message is best or optimally carried or endorsed by the local daily or weekly publication or the morning, afternoon or evening TV talk show. If it chooses the newspapers, the PR person or entity must make the news release really newsworthy. That news worthiness is something that the audience of the message decides. It also depends on the media's specific goals. If the chosen medium is television through a particular TV talk show, the message can be received by the show's regular viewers. But it will be carried or endorsed by a newspaper's editor or columnist on home trends, art events or business, the message can reach intended readers who regularly read these newspaper sections. PR requires a keen exposure to the different capabilities and reaches of the different media. A successful PR program also requires a regularly updated list of contacts, considering their high turnover (Fey)..

A second definition is an assessment of a set of activities in establishing the reputation of the entity (Cartledge 2003). It brings out the results of previous actions in the direction of building the reputation. It consists of the consequences of what the PR person or agent did and said and what others think about the entity being promoted. In a larger understanding, PR helps the entity and its audience of publics adapt to each other, according to the Institute of Public Relations and the Public Relations Society of America. The PR person or agency is responsible for placing the business entity before its publics in creating or increasing awareness of what the entity does and how it does it. It helps decision-makers see the entity or organization plays. It does not matter if it is a business organization, an academic institution or a government office. Senior managers are influenced both by the role of its PR or information professionals in the organization and by how the outside world views them. They must take appropriate care in providing objective information to the organization's audience while advocating for their profession. They both establish and take care of the reputation they establish. In so doing, they obtain understanding and support and influence the audience's opinion and positive behavior (Cartledge).

This second definition sees the purpose of PR activities as aimed at raising an organization's profile with the key people at the media (Cartledge 2003). PR professionals should keep their messages and proposals brief and succinct. The message should relate and connect to a current local economic activity to call attention. They should follow up on these proposals or news stories. It is their responsibility to acquire feedback on how the public views the organization through print and online sources. Based on the feedback, PR professionals should attune their campaign to what the public needs or wants to know and understand. They should consult the organization's management on the need to establish international contacts or arrange with a high-profile celebrity to endorse the organization's product or message to change or improve company image (Cartledge).

A third definition of publications links it with communications. Public relations lead an organization to become accepted, even revered for its ability to set or analyze trends, make predictions and the consequences of these and recommend policies to keep the client company at the lead (Wylie 1992). The purposes of PR are the responsibilities of its professionals or practitioners. These are the anticipate problems and create planned programs to solve or deal with these problems. PR is for improving and expanding understanding and changing behavior. It is for winning approval, strengthening and maintaining relationships necessary or desirable to the organization's current or future success. PR is intended to enable the organization, the clients and its publics to come to a common understanding and to do it before someone else does. It must establish, use and demonstrate current problems and install systems or actions, which will prevent them in the future. PR now only fixes problems but keeps them fixed (Wylie).