In the digital world, PR is all about sharing information among individuals and businesses. Public relation includes an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using organic or non-organic modes. PR can be done by using information and spreading among the audience from various media platforms.
What is PR?
Public relation professionals help any business or individual to develop a cordial relationship with people through paid or unpaid communication platforms. These platforms include traditional media, social media, and in-person engagements. Digital PR professionals help clients defend their reputation during any crisis.
As the old saying goes: “Advertising is what you pay for; publicity is what you pray for.”
As per PRSA (Public Relations Society of America), Public relations helps organizations and its publics adapt mutually to each other. Public relations broadly applies to organizations as a collective group, not just a business and public encompass the variety of different stakeholders.
“Public Relation in the true sense is about human connections and the art of mastering human connections at a deep level.” -Renee Blodgett of Magic Sauce Media.
Traditionally, PR has is about focusing on cultivating relationships on media. But in the new age, digital world conversations among the peers can capture higher Google ranking. Google ranking is capable of influencing any opinion.
The positive aspect of public relation
A PR professional is one who works with an organization, company, government or as an individual. The PR person will cultivate a story that portrays his client’s reputation, idea, product, position or accomplishment is a positive manner. PR professionals are more like storytellers. They tell their stories through unpaid or earned media.
The unpaid methods include traditional media, social media or speaking engagements which are highly effective platforms to reach the general public. Suppose you are working for a small fashion designer in L.A. and the company won the “Best Fashion Designer Award in L.A.” The PR specialist will ask a news reporter to write a story about the accomplishment and spread the news in public.
This will not only build goodwill and credibility in public it will also help the public receive relevant information about the recognition. If you are a consumer looking for a fashion designer, this announcement will you to make the right choice.
Public relations is also extended to the government sector. PR professionals execute the political campaigns or explain the government’s new policy to the public. PR professionals work towards maintaining the positive relationship between their clients (Government) and the general public by giving them all the information about the new policies.
The negative aspect of PR
PR is not just used for spreading positive information. It is also used to do the damage control that the client may face in the course of business or profession.
In the 80’s there were numerous bottles of Johnson & Johnson Tylenol product that were laced with cyanide by an unknown person killing seven people. Johnson & Johnson immediately made a public announcement to stop using the product. The PR team declared a national warning statement to consumers to not purchase the product. Later on, the company issued a new tamper-resistant seal and appointed 2000 sales personnel to deliver the product to the medical stores to reintroduce the safer bottles.
In the above case, a simple advertising campaign will not work. PR professionals portrayed a story that for Johnson & Johnson puts consumers ahead of profit. With damage control and PR strategy was used to save people from consuming cyanide.
PR professionals are good at handling positive and negative aspects of advertising and public relations. PR professionals play a major role in advising the management for best practices, policies, actions, conducting networking programs like fundraising to help people understand about your organization’s goal.