Here's a brief look at Public Relations from Robert Wynne:
Public Relations, explained last month a digital marketing expert wanted to include our firm’s public relations expertise in a new business pitch. ”How many impressions can you guarantee the client each week?” he asked. Hard to believe, but even a seasoned marketing professional doesn’t understand the basics of public relations.
Public Relations, explained last month a digital marketing expert wanted to include our firm’s public relations expertise in a new business pitch. ”How many impressions can you guarantee the client each week?” he asked. Hard to believe, but even a seasoned marketing professional doesn’t understand the basics of public relations.
For my
friend, and all the friends of the PR pros who read this column, the
family members who don’t understand what we do, and for entrepreneurs
who need to understand public relations and how it can help their
business, let’s explain Public Relations.
It’s not advertising. We don’t buy impressions. We don’t guarantee placement. But
the coverage we get, in the media, online, social media, TV and other
places, usually has much more credibility than paid endorsements. Public Relations consist of the following:
· Persuasion
· Information
· Communication
· Third-party validation
· Public opinion
· Public policy
· Promotion to drive sales, revenues or donations.
Wikipedia has a great overall definition:
“…
The practice of managing the spread of information between an
individual or an organization and the public. Public relations may
include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their
audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not
require direct payment. The aim of public relations by a company often
is to persuade the public, investors, partners, employees, and other
stakeholders to maintain a certain point of view about it, its
leadership, products, or of political decisions. Common activities
include speaking at conferences, winning industry awards, working with
the press, and employee communication.”
The Public Relations Society of America, PRSA, notes the concepts have been modernized. “The
earliest definitions emphasized press agentry and publicity, while more
modern definitions incorporate the concepts of ‘engagement’ and
‘relationship building.’” An international effort to update the
definition led to the PRSA to note:
“PR is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” At least we hope so. As
any PR person who has pitched a reporter knows, and any reporter who
has to field calls from publicists has learned, the relationship can be
mutually beneficial, antagonistic or indifferent at any time. It
depends on many factors including the news value of the story, the
relationship between the two parties, the reputation of the subject, and
the ideology of the media outlet.
The Princeton Review presents a very direct, some would say blunt, view of the industry.
“A
public relations specialist is an image shaper. Their job is to generate
positive publicity for their client and enhance their reputation. The
client can be a company, an individual or a government. In the
government PR people are called press secretaries. They keep the public
informed about the activity of government agencies, explain policy, and
manage political campaigns. Public relations people working for a
company may handle consumer relations, or the relationship between parts
of the company such as the managers and employees, or different branch
offices. Though the job often involves the dissemination of information,
some view this cynically as “spin doctoring.” … The successful PR
person must be a good communicator-in print, in person and on the phone.
They cultivate and maintain contacts with journalists, set up speaking
engagements, write executive speeches and annual reports, respond to
inquiries and speak directly to the press on behalf of their client.
They must keep lines of communication open between the many groups
affected by a company’s product and policies: consumers, shareholders,
employees, and the managing body.”
For more information on what public relations agencies do, please see my previous column.
Like many industries, PR can be divided into specialties:
· Industry-specific: Consumer-Lifestyle, Higher Education, Legal, ...
· Crisis Communications
· Government Relations
· Internal Communication
And of
course, the internet and social media is a significant revolution. The
biggest change for Digital Public Relations is this – you don’t need the
traditional media as your megaphone, you can go directly to the
consumer or audience via Twitter, Facebook, email, text, your website,
etc. The upside is immediacy for your message without a filter. The downside is reaching that audience. It’s easier for a celebrity or a name brand than an unknown person or business.
There are many great resources to explain this phenomenon. From the website Business2Community:
“PR
has always been about creating a favorable operating climate for a
company or organization. Digital PR is no different. It’s about building
that presence online, understanding the digital landscape you operate
in and developing strong relationships with all the players in your
social graph. The techniques include SEO, content development, social
media, online newsrooms, websites, blogs and online media coverage.
Online Reputation Social media and consumer generated content can have a
rapid effect on your reputation – both positive and negative.
Understanding SEO (search engine optimization) is not just a vital skill
for PR practitioners today – it’s crucial. Should an online crisis hit
your business the event itself will be bad enough, but the aftermath of
the negative content online can extend the effect of the crisis well
into the future. Every time someone does a search for your company’s
name that pesky negative content will show up. Search engines index
content on relevance. If you don’t understand how the search algorithms
work and how to move that content down the rankings, it will linger like
a bad fish smell. Building relationships Digital PR makes use of social
media platforms, networks and tools to interact with people online and
build relationships. The social media part is the content and
conversations on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and YouTube. The
Digital PR part is the support functions needed to make those
conversations relevant and effective – research, social audits,
identifying influencers, developing and distributing the content.”
A good
example of Digital PR includes the response of Southwest Airlines to a
plane skidding on the runway of LaGuardia Airport in July of this year
on Twitter and Facebook with screen shots of the posts thanks to the
Likeable blog. Southwest responded almost instantly with updates on the situation and reported the news directly to the public. There’s also a great source, the Digital PR Guidebook from PR News Online with many more examples and essays.
For non-crisis PR, some brands are getting creative with digital platforms. J.
Crew obtained media coverage for choosing to release its catalogue on
Pinterest and Oscar de la Renta played the PR game well for premiering
its lineup on Instagram. Whether these are marketing tactics, PR stunts
or genuine evolutionary steps, they are working. When’s the last time you heard anything about Oscar de la Renta?
No
discussion about Digital PR would be complete without a discussion of
Content Marketing, the subject of a previous Forbes Column.
The
website WhatIs defines it as “the publication of material designed to
promote a brand, usually through a more oblique and subtle approach than
that of traditional push advertising. The essence of good content
marketing is that it offers something the viewer wants, such as
information or entertainment. Content marketing can take a lot of
different forms, including YouTube videos, blog posts and articles. It
shouldn’t really seem like marketing — in some cases, in fact, it should
only be identifiable as marketing because the advertiser is identified
as the content provider.”
A contact in higher education notes research universities are leveraging their content to gain much more media coverage. The
traditional research stories or essays, which used to be hard copy tip
sheets for reporters on who to call for experts, are now ‘legitimate
content’ for a media industry that operates with fewer reporters and
resources. My source notes web portals picking up their material
verbatim in some cases. Universities can now talk directly to the reader
about faculty thought leadership in many venues, rather than rely on
reporters as the sole channel for explicating faculty’s knowledge.
This
trend applies to academic institutions, think tanks and possibly
corporate or government research labs that are reasonably neutral. This
may be much harder for consultants and companies pitching products. In
other words, “Research concludes our shampoo has 97 more tingling
action!” press releases are still not working.
Feel free to share this with your friends, colleagues and parents. And don’t forget to email a copy to the next person who asks you to guarantee something. You
can always tell them you won’t guarantee X number of impressions, but
you can be sure that when you get something placed in front of the right
people, you can guarantee they will pay more attention to it compared
to a banner ad online or coupon in the newspaper.
Also check this older article out.
Also check this older article out.
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