Public Relations

Public relation (PR) is the practice of managing the communication between an organization and its publics. Public relations gains an organisation or individual exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. Because public relations places exposure in credible third-party outlets, it offers a third-party legitimacy that advertising does not have. Common activities include speaking at conferences, working with the press, and employee communication. It is something that is not tangible and this is what sets it apart from Advertising.

PR can be used to build rapport with employees, customers, investors, voters, or the general public. Almost any organisation that has a stake in how it is portrayed in the public arena employs some level of public relations. There are number of related sister disciplines all falling under the banner of Corporate Communications, such as Analyst Relations, Media Relation, Investor Relations, Internal Communications or Labor relations.

There are many areas of public relations but the most recognised are financial public relations, product public relations, and crisis public relations.

• Financial public relations deal with providing information mainly to business reporters.

• Product public relations deal with gaining publicity for a particular product or service through PR tactics rather than using advertising.

• Crisis public relations deal with responding to negative accusations or information.

The Indusry Today

Advertising dollars in media products from corporations like News Corp.., Dow Jones, and CMP are under rapid decline in favour of direct advertising products offered by search engines and other tools. Traditional media publications are laying off jounalissts, consolidating beat reporters, shrinking their print editions, and many publications are shutting down entirely.

Blogs have lower over-head costs than tratidional media and are often said to provide better news coverage and analysis. Blogs are increasingly sprouting to replace traditional media with a more sustainable low-cost business model and are gaining more of a following.

The advent of social media is the most pre-eminent trend in PR today. It's important to note, while social media is on the rise, traditional media is yet to be taken over by the trend as of.

Social media releases, search engine optimization, content publising, and the introduction of podcasts and video are other burgeoning trends.

The need of Public Relations personnel is growing at a fast pace. The different types of clients that public relations people works for include, but are not limited to: the government, educational institutions and outlets, non-profit organisations, specific industries, businesses and large companies, athletic teams and entertainment companies, and international oppurtunities.

Differences between Advertising and Public relations:

If you're searching for a career or trying to promote your company, you may have questions about advertising vs. public relations. These two industries are very different even though they're commonly confused as being one and the same. The following ten properties just scratch the surface of the many differences between advertising and public relations.

1. Paid Space or Free Coverage

• Advertising:

The company pays for ad space. You know exactly when that ad will air or be published.

• Public Relations:

Your job is to get free publicity for the company. From news conferences to press releases. You're focused on getting free media exposure for the company and its products/ services.

2. Creative Control Vs. No Control

• Advertising:

Since you're paying for the space, you have creative control on what goes into that ad.

• Public Relations:

You have no control over how the media presents your information, if they decide to use your anfo at all. They're not obligated to cover your event publish your press release just because you sent something to them.

3. Shelf Life

• Advertising:

Since you pay for the space, you can run your ads over for as long as your budget allows. An ad generally has a longer shelf life than one press realese.

• Public Relations:

You only sumit a press release about a new product once. You only submit a press release about a news conference once. The PR exposure you receive is only circulated once. An editor won't publish your same release three or four times in their magazines.

4. Wise Consumers

• Advertising:

Consumers know when they're reading an advertisement they're trying to be sold a product or service.

" The consumer understand s that we have paid to present our selling message to him or her, and unfortunatley, the consumer often views our selling message very guardedly,"After all, they know we are trying to sell them."

• Public Relations:

When someone reads a third-party article written about your product or views coverage of your event on TV, they're seeing something you didn't pay for with ad dollars and view it differently than they do paid advertising.

"Where we can generate some sort of third-party 'endorsement' by independent media souces, we can create great credibility for our clients' products or services,".

5. Creativity or a Nose for News

• Advertising:

In advertising, you get to exercise your creativity in creating new ad campaigns and materials.

• Public Relations:

In Public Relations, you have to have a nose for mews and be able to generate buzz through that news. You exercise your creativity, to an extent, in the way you search for new news to release to the media.

6. In-House or Out on the Town

• Advertising:

If you're working at an ad agency, your main contacts are your co-workers and the agency's clients. If you buy and plan ad space on behalf of the client like Media Directors, then you'll also interect with media sales people.

• Public Relations:

You interact with the media and develop a relationship with them. Your contact is not limited to in-house communications. You're in constant touch with your contacts at the print publications and broadcast media.

7. Target Audience or Hooked Editor

• Advertising:

You're looking for your target audience and advertising accordingly. You wouldn't advertise a women's TV network in a male-oriented sports magazines.

• Public Relations:

You must have an angle and hook editors to get them to use info for an article, to run a press release or to cover your event.

8. Limited or Unlimited Contact

• Advertising:

Some industry pros such as Account Executive have contact with the clients. Others like copywriters or graphic designers in the agency may not meet with the client at all.

• Public Relations:

In public relations you are very visible to the media. PR pros aren't always called on for the good news.

9. Special Events

• Advertising:

If your company sponsors an event, you wouldn't want to take out an ad giving yourself a pat on the back for being such a great company. This is where you PR department steps in.

• Public Relations:

If you're sponsoring an event, you can send out a press release and the media might pick it up. They may publish the information or cover the event.

10. Writing Style

• Advertising:

Buy this product! Act now! call today! Hurry up! these are all things you can say in an advertisement. You want to use those buzz words to motivate people to buy your products.

• Public Relations:

You're strictly writing in a no-nonsense news format. Any blatant commercial messages in your communications are disregared by the media.