What Public Relations Does

What pub­lic rela­tions does is not a secret.

However, it’s com­mon for PR to be shrouded in an air of mys­tique. Not many know exactly what pub­lic rela­tions does for an organisation.

Marketing, of course, is anoth­er story. Almost every­one knows what mar­ket­ing does: pro­mot­ing a brand and its products or services! 

Let’s unveil what pub­lic rela­tions does.
After all — it’s not a secret.

Here we go:

What Public Relations Does

“Public rela­tions budgets and resources are often less well-defined and less accep­ted than mar­ket­ing budgets and resources, but both dis­cip­lines con­trib­ute to the bot­tom line.”
Source: Public Relations for Marketing Professionals ¹Haywood, R. (1998). Public rela­tions budget and resources. Public Relations for Marketing Professionals, 83 – 96. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​0​7​/​978 – 1‑349 – 14365-8_5

“Public rela­tions and mar­ket­ing both use rela­tion­ship-build­ing tech­niques, but their mis­sions and philo­sophies are fun­da­ment­ally dif­fer­ent.”
Source: Public Relations Review ²Broom, G., Lauzen, M., & Tucker, K. (1991). Public rela­tions and mar­ket­ing: Dividing the con­cep­tu­al domain and oper­a­tion­al turf. Public Relations Review, 17, 219 – 225. … Continue read­ing

Public rela­tions is fun­da­ment­ally dif­fer­ent from mar­ket­ing. Let’s use the Stakeholder Model to under­stand bet­ter what PR pro­fes­sion­als do.

Corporate Communications

(Sometimes used inter­change­ably with “Communications” and “Inhouse PR” as a gen­er­al term.)

Corporate com­mu­nic­a­tions = an organ­isa­tion’s stra­tegic use of mes­saging to shape its repu­ta­tion, artic­u­late its vis­ion, and engage with key audi­ences across intern­al and extern­al chan­nels.

Targets: External and intern­al pub­lics, busi­ness journ­al­ists, reg­u­lat­ory insti­tu­tions, part­ners, sup­pli­ers, vendors, etc.

What if an organ­isa­tion depends not just on wheth­er people buy its products or ser­vices but also on what people think of your organ­isa­tion and how it con­ducts its busi­ness? What if people want to dis­cuss crit­ic­al top­ics with the organisation?

Unfortunately, pro­mot­ing your products and ser­vices to these people won’t cut it. However, pub­lic rela­tions has pro­fes­sion­al know-how in this area.

“Corporate com­mu­nic­a­tion is a new [editor’s note: pub­lished in 1996] and grow­ing dis­cip­line that focuses on com­mu­nic­a­tion with­in organ­iz­a­tions, relat­ing to man­age­ment, busi­ness, and organ­iz­a­tion­al aspects.”
Source: Management Communication Quarterly ³Argenti, P. (1996). Corporate Communication as a Discipline. Management Communication Quarterly, 10, 73 — 97. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​1​7​7​/​0​8​9​3​3​1​8​9​9​6​0​1​0​0​0​1​005

Media Relations

(Sometimes referred to as “Press Office.”)

Media rela­tions = a brand’s tar­geted use of com­mu­nic­a­tion to foster pos­it­ive inter­ac­tions with journ­al­ists, edit­ors, and media out­lets and to gain favour­able cov­er­age.

Targets: Journalists, edit­ors, influ­en­cers, etc.

Some third-party pub­lish­ers don’t accept pay­ment because their live­li­hood depends on objectiv­ity. Journalists (and influ­en­cers with journ­al­ist­ic ambi­tions) fall into this cat­egory. Their unbiased approach makes them highly influential.

For instance, you can­not send your ads to a journ­al­ist. They will refer you to their mar­ket­ing depart­ment and ask you to pay!

However, a PR pro­fes­sion­al under­stands how to cre­ate mater­i­al that a journ­al­ist (or an ambi­tious influ­en­cer) will want to fea­ture to their audience.

“Organizations’ media rela­tions activ­it­ies can influ­ence media con­tent and opin­ions, but suc­cess depends on more than just dis­trib­ut­ing news releases.”
Source: Public Relations Review ⁴Turk, J. (1985). Information sub­sidies and influ­ence. Public Relations Review, 11, 10 – 25. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​6​/​S​0​3​6​3​-​8​1​1​1​(​8​5​)​8​0​078 – 3

Investor Relations (IR)

Investor rela­tions (IR) = an organ­isa­tion’s delib­er­ate com­mu­nic­a­tion efforts to build trust and main­tain trans­par­ency with investors, ana­lysts, and the fin­an­cial com­munity.

Targets: Shareholders, investors, mar­ket hubs, mar­ket ana­lysts, fin­an­cial insti­tu­tions, trade journ­al­ists etc.

In some organ­isa­tions, huge ones, there are vari­ous fin­an­cial stake­hold­ers: share­hold­ers, investors, fin­an­cial insti­tu­tions, etc. You can­not “mar­ket” to these groups; their inform­a­tion­al needs dif­fer from those of poten­tial consumers.

However, we under­stand how to engage in two-way com­mu­nic­a­tion with­in pub­lic relations.

“Investor rela­tions officers sig­ni­fic­antly influ­ence cor­por­ate dis­clos­ures and play a cru­cial role in private com­mu­nic­a­tion between IROs, ana­lysts, and investors.”
Source: Journal of Accounting and Economics ⁵Brown, L., Call, A., Clement, M., & Sharp, N. (2019). Managing the nar­rat­ive: Investor rela­tions officers and cor­por­ate dis­clos­ure✰. Journal of Accounting and Economics. … Continue read­ing

Digital PR

(Sometimes referred to as “Digital Communications,” “Online PR,” or “Online Communications.”)

Digital PR = the stra­tegic use of online com­mu­nic­a­tion to build brand com­munit­ies, foster engage­ment, and man­age repu­ta­tion in the digit­al space. ⁶Silfwer, J. (2017, November 20). What is Digital PR? Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​w​h​a​t​-​i​s​-​d​i​g​i​t​a​l​-​pr/

Targets: Inbound web traffic, brand com­munit­ies, sub­scribers, fans, fol­low­ers, influ­en­cers, social net­works, etc.

Not all online traffic is paid for by ads. People search organ­ic­ally for inform­a­tion, know­ledge, inspir­a­tion, enter­tain­ment, etc. Some people even wish to be more than just cus­tom­ers — they want to be fans, fol­low­ers, and subscribers! 

And yes, pub­lic rela­tions is equipped to cater to the inform­a­tion­al needs of fin­an­cial stakeholders.

“Online pub­lic rela­tions can enhance vis­ib­il­ity and build rela­tion­ships with the pub­lic, pro­mot­ing organ­iz­a­tions and products through dia­lo­gic com­mu­nic­a­tion.”
Source: Procedia — Social and Behavioral Sciences ⁷Petrovici, M. (2014). E‑Public Relations: Impact and Efficiency. A Case Study. Procedia — Social and Behavioral Sciences, 141, 79 – 84. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​6​/​J​.​S​B​S​P​R​O​.​2​0​1​4​.​0​5​.​015

Public Affairs (PA)

Public affairs (PA) = a brand’s inten­tion­al use of com­mu­nic­a­tion to engage with gov­ern­ments, poli­cy­makers, and com­munit­ies to influ­ence pub­lic policy and social impact.

Targets: Voters, polit­ic­al journ­al­ists, polit­ic­al ana­lysts, colum­nists, interest groups, etc.

For some organ­isa­tions, the gen­er­al pub­lic’s opin­ion about spe­cif­ic issues mat­ters. For an elec­tric car man­u­fac­turer, what people think of soci­ety’s elec­tri­fic­a­tion mat­ters because, in a demo­cracy, pub­lic opin­ion will ulti­mately shape pub­lic policy.

In pub­lic rela­tions, we have the skill set to nav­ig­ate and man­age pub­lic per­cep­tions and shape opin­ions long-term. While advert­ising can sup­port such endeav­ours, the driv­ing force is usu­ally pub­lic relations.

“Integrating cor­por­ate plan­ning and pub­lic affairs per­spect­ives is cru­cial for organ­iz­a­tions to effect­ively respond to envir­on­ment­al change and adapt to social and polit­ic­al tur­bu­lence.”
Source: Long Range Planning ⁸Post, J., Murray, E., Dickie, R., & Mahon, J. (1982). The pub­lic affairs func­tion in American cor­por­a­tions: Development and rela­tions with cor­por­ate plan­ning. Long Range Planning, 15, 12 – 21. … Continue read­ing

Lobbying

Lobbying = the focused use of advocacy and com­mu­nic­a­tion to dir­ectly influ­ence legis­lat­ive and reg­u­lat­ory decisions in favour of spe­cif­ic interests or causes.

Targets: Politicians, legis­lat­ors, gov­ern­ment offi­cials, com­mit­tees, influ­en­cers, etc.

At times, it’s a good idea to present your organ­isa­tion’s ideas dir­ectly to those in charge of mak­ing the decisions, like politi­cians, legis­lat­ors, ana­lysts, top­ic experts, etc. And these groups are rarely con­vinced by mar­ket­ing messages.

“Lobbying can be viewed as a form of legis­lat­ive sub­sidy, provid­ing policy inform­a­tion, polit­ic­al intel­li­gence, and legis­lat­ive labor to stra­tegic­ally selec­ted legis­lat­ors, assist­ing nat­ur­al allies in achiev­ing their object­ives.”
Source: American Political Science Review ⁹Hall, R., & Deardorff, A. (2006). Lobbying as Legislative Subsidy. American Political Science Review, 100, 69 — 84. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​7​/​S​0​0​0​3​0​5​5​4​0​6​0​6​2​010

Internal Communications (IC)

Internal com­mu­nic­a­tions (IC) = an organ­isa­tion’s delib­er­ate use of mes­saging to align, inform, and motiv­ate employ­ees while fos­ter­ing a pro­duct­ive work­place cul­ture.

Targets: Coworkers, poten­tial recruits, etc.

Most organ­isa­tions have employ­ees. Their opin­ions and atti­tudes towards the employ­er often decide wheth­er the organ­isa­tion will rise or fall. Aiming mar­ket­ing cam­paigns at them rarely resolves any issues. 

Public rela­tions has a long and proud tra­di­tion of improv­ing all types of com­mu­nic­a­tion with­in an organ­isa­tion. (It’s also a major field of aca­dem­ic research!)

“Strengthening intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tion through vari­ous meth­ods, includ­ing face-to-face com­mu­nic­a­tion, can improve employ­ee engage­ment and build trust between man­age­ment and employ­ees.”
Source: International Journal of Business Communication ¹⁰Mishra, K., Boynton, L., & Mishra, A. (2014). Driving Employee Engagement. International Journal of Business Communication, 51, 183 — 202. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​1​7​7​/​2​3​2​9​4​8​8​4​1​4​5​2​5​399

Crisis Communications

(Sometimes referred to as “Crisis Management.”)

Crisis com­mu­nic­a­tions = a brand’s rap­id, stra­tegic deploy­ment of com­mu­nic­a­tion to mit­ig­ate repu­ta­tion­al dam­age, address urgent chal­lenges, and restore pub­lic trust dur­ing crit­ic­al situ­ations.

Targets: Crisis vic­tims, wor­ried pub­lics, the gen­er­al pub­lic, cowork­ers, journ­al­ists, influ­en­cers, cus­tom­ers, share­hold­ers, etc.

Sometimes, things go wrong. In such situ­ations, paus­ing all mar­ket­ing cam­paigns is often a good idea. No one wants to see an ad for your busi­ness when people suf­fer or have got­ten hurt. 

We have developed a tried-and-tested tool­box in pub­lic rela­tions to assist organ­isa­tions in deal­ing with chal­len­ging scenarios.

“Effective crisis com­mu­nic­a­tion strategies, tim­ing, and situ­ation­al factors can guide man­agers in achiev­ing desired out­comes and enhan­cing cor­por­ate repu­ta­tion dur­ing crises.”
Source: Business Horizons ¹¹Coombs, W. (2015). The value of com­mu­nic­a­tion dur­ing a crisis: Insights from stra­tegic com­mu­nic­a­tion research. Business Horizons, 58, 141 – 148. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​6​/​J​.​B​U​S​H​O​R​.​2​0​1​4​.​1​0​.​003

Marketing PR

(Sometimes referred to as “Marketing Communications.”)

Marketing PR = a brand’s tac­tic­al integ­ra­tion of com­mu­nic­a­tion and pro­mo­tion­al efforts to enhance product aware­ness, drive sales, and sup­port mar­ket­ing object­ives.

Targets: Potential cus­tom­ers, exist­ing cus­tom­ers, trade journ­al­ists, mem­bers, affil­i­ates, etc.

Journalists and influ­en­cers are some­times inter­ested in con­sumer offer­ings, too. Potential cus­tom­ers are inter­ested in learn­ing about new products or ser­vices, and journ­al­ists might be curi­ous, too. This often hap­pens when there are big launches or sig­ni­fic­ant tech­no­lo­gic­al advancements.

This is where mar­ket­ing and pub­lic rela­tions “cross swords.” While mar­ket­ing uses paid cam­paigns to pro­mote products or ser­vices, pub­lic rela­tions pitches those products or ser­vices to journ­al­ists (and influ­en­cers with journ­al­ist­ic ambitions).

“Integrating mar­ket­ing com­mu­nic­a­tions across tra­di­tion­al and new media can improve the effect­ive­ness and effi­ciency of mar­ket­ing pro­grams.”
Source: Journal of Marketing ¹²Batra, R., & Keller, K. (2016). Integrating Marketing Communications: New Findings, New Lessons, and New Ideas. Journal of Marketing, 80, 122 — 145. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​5​0​9​/​j​m​.​1​5​.​0​419

Industry PR (B2B)

(Sometimes referred to as “B2B PR,” “B2B Communications,” or with more spe­cificity, like “Tech PR,” “Telecom PR”, “Medical PR,” etc.) 

Industry PR (B2B) = a busi­ness’s pur­pose­ful use of com­mu­nic­a­tion to build cred­ib­il­ity, foster trust, and estab­lish thought lead­er­ship with­in its pro­fes­sion­al sec­tor.

Targets: B2B cli­ents, B2B pro­spects, trade journ­al­ists, trade organ­isa­tions, niche influ­en­cers, etc.

In many indus­tries, organ­isa­tions sell products and ser­vices to oth­er com­pan­ies. Marketing can be cru­cial, espe­cially if there are thou­sands of poten­tial cus­tom­ers. However, many niches are small and depend­ent on per­son­al relationships.

Many organ­isa­tions also depend on func­tion­al rela­tion­ships with vendors, dis­trib­ut­ors, part­ners, sup­pli­ers, etc. Public rela­tions is the way to com­mu­nic­ate with these organisations.

“Contemporary pub­lic rela­tions for B2B involves 7 dis­tinct types of fram­ing: situ­ations, attrib­utes, choices, actions, issues, respons­ib­il­ity, and news.”
Source: Journal of Public Relations Research ¹³Hallahan, K. (1999). Seven Models of Framing: Implications for Public Relations. Journal of Public Relations Research, 11, 205 – 242. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​2​0​7​/​S​1​5​3​2​7​5​4​X​J​P​R​R​1​1​0​3​_02

Learn more: What Public Relations Does

What Is Public Relations?

Public Relations (abbre­vi­ated “PR”) is the stra­tegic and tac­tic­al use of com­mu­nic­a­tion to estab­lish and sus­tain pro­duct­ive rela­tion­ships with pub­lics, stake­hold­ers, and influ­en­cers.

PR is some­times called ‘Strategic Communications’ or simply ‘Communications.’ Public rela­tions pro­fes­sion­als some­times jok­ingly say that PR also stands for ‘Perception Management’ or ‘Personal Relationships.’

The PESO mod­el explains the cent­ral dif­fer­ence between marketing/​advertising and communications/​PR:

Marketing/​Advertising

Communications/​PR

PR pro­fes­sion­als have vari­ous spe­cial­isa­tions (based on the Stakeholder Model), includ­ing cor­por­ate com­mu­nic­a­tions, investor rela­tions (IR), media rela­tions, digit­al PR, pub­lic affairs (PA), lob­by­ing, intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tions (IC), crisis com­mu­nic­a­tions, mar­ket­ing PR, and industry PR (B2B).

Learn more: Public Relations Meaning — What Is PR?

Public Relations Definition

What is Public Relations?

In many organ­isa­tions, PR is often called ‘Strategic com­mu­nic­a­tions’ or simply ‘Communications.’ 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. ¹⁴From 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). ¹⁵Morris, 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. ¹⁶Silfwer, 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). ¹⁷Silfwer, 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. ¹⁸Silfwer, 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. ¹⁹Silfwer, 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