The Public Relations Definition

Looking for the pub­lic rela­tions definition?

Defining pub­lic rela­tions (PR) is no easy task.

We are a pro­fes­sion with the power to help brands com­mu­nic­ate bet­ter, but we struggle with defin­ing ourselves — the irony isn’t lost on anyone.

Still, after many years of the­or­et­ic­al and prac­tic­al tri­al-and-error, I’ve cre­ated a help­ful defin­i­tion for my daily PR life.

Here we go:

What is Public Relations?

PR is often called Communications (or even Strategic com­mu­nic­a­tions) in many organisations. 

In the cor­por­ate world, the PR func­tion is often referred to as the ‘Communications Department,’ just as the advert­ising func­tion is typ­ic­ally referred to as the ‘Marketing Department.’ 

Public rela­tions pro­fes­sion­als some­times jok­ingly say that PR also stands for ‘Perception Management’ or ‘Personal Relationships.’

But—what is pub­lic relations?

The Public Relations Definition

The PR expert Rex F. Harlow once tried to gath­er all avail­able defin­i­tions of pub­lic rela­tions (PR), but he allegedly gave up after find­ing over 500+ dif­fer­ent ver­sions. ¹From the early 1900s to 1976, Rex F. Harlow, a well-respec­ted expert on pub­lic rela­tions, gathered around 500 dif­fer­ent defin­i­tions of pub­lic rela­tions (Cutlip et al. 2006). ²Morris, T., & Goldsworthy, S. (2008). From PR to pro­pa­ganda. 97 – 111. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​0​7​/​978 – 0‑230 – 59485-2_7

Amongst so many defin­i­tions of pub­lic rela­tions, here’s the one that I find to be most useful:

Public rela­tions (PR) = the stra­tegic use of com­mu­nic­a­tion to estab­lish and sus­tain pro­duct­ive brand rela­tion­ships with pub­lics, stake­hold­ers, and influ­en­cers. ³Silfwer, J. (2015, November 7). What is Public Relations? Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​w​h​a​t​-​i​s​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

Please note:

Publics = psy­cho­graph­ic seg­ments (who) with sim­il­ar com­mu­nic­a­tion beha­viours (how) formed around spe­cif­ic issues (why) impact­ing a brand (to whom). ⁴Silfwer, J. (2015, June 11). The Publics in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​u​b​l​i​c​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

Stakeholders = rep­res­ent­at­ives of vari­ous ves­ted interests dir­ectly or indir­ectly con­nec­ted to a brand. ⁵Silfwer, J. (2021, January 5). The Stakeholders in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​t​a​k​e​h​o​l​d​e​r​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

Influencers = inde­pend­ent con­tent cre­at­ors with influ­en­tial plat­forms and fol­low­ings of poten­tial import­ance to a brand. ⁶Silfwer, J. (2020, January 15). The Influencers in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​i​n​f​l​u​e​n​c​e​r​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

Learn more: Public Relations Definition

Publics, Stakeholders, and Influencers

While mar­ket­ing primar­ily focuses on tar­get groups (demo­graph­ic seg­ment­a­tion), pub­lic rela­tions is focused on pub­lics, stake­hold­ers, and influ­en­cers (rela­tion­al seg­ment­a­tion):

Publics = psy­cho­graph­ic seg­ments (who) with sim­il­ar com­mu­nic­a­tion beha­viours (how) formed around spe­cif­ic issues (why) impact­ing a brand (to whom). ⁷Silfwer, J. (2015, June 11). The Publics in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​u​b​l​i​c​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

Stakeholders = rep­res­ent­at­ives of vari­ous ves­ted interests dir­ectly or indir­ectly con­nec­ted to a brand. ⁸Silfwer, J. (2021, January 5). The Stakeholders in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​t​a​k​e​h​o​l​d​e​r​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

Influencers = inde­pend­ent con­tent cre­at­ors with influ­en­tial plat­forms and fol­low­ings of poten­tial import­ance to a brand. ⁹Silfwer, J. (2020, January 15). The Influencers in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​i​n​f​l​u​e​n​c​e​r​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

Learn more: Publics, Stakeholders, and Influencers (to be published)

Alternative Public Relations Definitions

Here are a few addi­tion­al definitions:

“Public rela­tions is the stra­tegic prac­tice of influ­en­cing atti­tudes and beha­vi­or through com­mu­nic­a­tion, which seeks to cre­ate and main­tain mutu­ally bene­fi­cial rela­tion­ships between an organ­iz­a­tion and its pub­lics.”
— Public Relations Society of America

“Public rela­tions is the art and social sci­ence of ana­lyz­ing trends, pre­dict­ing their con­sequences, coun­sel­ing organ­iz­a­tion­al lead­ers, and imple­ment­ing planned pro­grams of action, which will serve both the organ­iz­a­tion and the pub­lic interest.”
— IPR Commission on PR Education

“Public rela­tions is the pro­cess of cre­at­ing, build­ing, and main­tain­ing rela­tion­ships with key stake­hold­ers in order to achieve organ­iz­a­tion­al goals and object­ives.”
— Chartered Institute of Public Relations

“Public rela­tions is an organ­iz­a­tion­al func­tion and a set of pro­cesses for man­aging com­mu­nic­a­tion between an organ­iz­a­tion and its pub­lics.”
— International Association of Business Communicators

“Public rela­tions is the man­age­ment func­tion which eval­u­ates pub­lic atti­tudes, iden­ti­fies the policies and pro­ced­ures of an organ­iz­a­tion with the pub­lic interest, and plans and executes a pro­gram of action to earn pub­lic under­stand­ing and accept­ance.”
— Institute for Public Relations

“Public rela­tions is the man­age­ment of com­mu­nic­a­tion between an organ­iz­a­tion and its pub­lics, through the use of tech­no­logy, social media, and oth­er forms of com­mu­nic­a­tion to achieve mutu­al under­stand­ing, real­ize organ­iz­a­tion­al goals, and serve the pub­lic interest.”
— The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management

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Introducing Public Relations

• What is Public Relations?
• The Public Relations Definition
• The Stakeholders in Public Relations
• The Influencers in Public Relations
• The Publics in Public Relations
• What Public Relations Does for an Organisation
• PR Approaches: Excellence, Rhetorical, and Critical
• The Four Models of Public Relations
• The PESO Model: Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned Media

Public Relations History

• Examples of PR Disasters

Publics in Public Relations

• John Dewey and the ‘P’ in Public Relations
• Publics vs Target Groups (to be published)
• Seriality (Context Matters)
• Five Types of Publics

Comparing Public Relations

• Good PR vs Bad PR
• Public Relations vs Marketing
• Public Relations vs Journalism
• Public Relations vs Media Relations
• Public Relations vs Publicity
• Public Relations vs Advertising (to be published)
• Public Relations vs Public Affairs (to be published)

Public Relations Resources

• PR Things To Do (Get 100+ Ideas)
• Doctor Spin’s List of PR Blogs

Learn more: All Free PR Courses

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