Public Relations

1
Public Relations

• A definition
• Public Relations is the development and
  maintenance of good relationships with different
  publics. The publics being the range of different
  groups on which the organisation is dependent.
  These include employees, customers, investors,
  legislators/government, the community, pressure
  groups and even the competition.

2
Public Relations

• Public Relations is about reputation the result
  of what you do, what you say and what others say
  about you. Public Relations practice is the
  discipline which looks after your reputation with
  the aim of earning understanding and support and
  influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the
  planned and sustained effort to establish and
  maintain goodwill and mutual understanding
  between an organisation and its publics.
  (Chartered Institute of Public Relations)

3
Public Relations

• 'Organisation' can be a government body, a
  business, a profession, a public service or a
  body concerned with health, culture, education -
  indeed any corporate or voluntary body large or
  small.
• 'Publics' are audiences that are important to the
  organisation. They can include customers -
  existing and potential employees and management
  investors media government suppliers
  opinion-formers local and wider communities.
• 'Understanding' is a two-way process. To be
  effective, an organisation needs to listen to the
  opinions of those with whom it deals and not
  solely provide information. Issuing a barrage of
  propaganda is not enough in today's open society.
  

4
Public Relations

• Lack of communication within different groups,
  lack of information about events, organisations
  or people leads to misunderstanding between the
  organisation and its various publics.
• Creation of an friendly environment,
  establishment of understanding and provision of
  information is what Public Relations is all
  about.

5
Public Relations

• Public Relations is an umbrella term that covers
  a variety of different areas and functions
  including
• Media relations
• Internal communications
• Community relations
• Customer relations
• Consumer affairs
• Employee relations
• Investor relations
• Political relations

6
Public Relations

• At its best, public relations not only tells an
  organisation's story to its publics, it also
  helps to shape the organisation and the way it
  works.
• Through research, feedback communication and
  evaluation, the practitioner needs to find out
  the concerns and expectations of a company's
  publics and explain them to its management.

7
The UK PR Industry

• The UK PR industry is the most highly developed
  in Europe.
• The rate of growth in the number of jobs in PR at
  all levels has been higher than that of any
  management function over the last fifteen years.
• This high growth rate reflects the recognition
  given to the public relations function.
• Increasingly, the individual holding overall
  responsibility for public relations with major
  companies is now part of the senior management
  team.

8
Public Relations v Publicity/Media Relations

• PR people are not purely publicists
• Publicity or Media Relations is just one of the
  functions of Public Relations
• PR people are not just expected to generate
  attention in the media
• The media is only one public of interest
• However as the media has the power to
  inform/influence all the additional publics of
  interest to you it pays to create, maintain and
  nurture positive media relationships.