What Public Relations Is and Is Not
According to Sola Abulu, “The core focus in public relations (PR) is managing relationships, protecting reputation and building goodwill with identified stakeholders.”
A stakeholder is anyone who has a formal interest in your business, organization or institution. Your stakeholders are your consumers, investors, media organizations, host community and in the digital age; your stakeholder is anyone in the media with interest in your brand whether formally or informally through digital activism.
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) defines public relations as seen below:
Public Relations is the discipline which looks after 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 public.
What Public Relations Is Not
- Public relations is not communications:
The practice of public relations differs from communications even though they are interrelated. Public relations has to do with the outward facing responsibilities of a brand and its approach to managing relationships with stakeholder groups. It is actually a sub-set of communications.
Strategic communications professionals are trained in the art and science of communications for effective business or organizational outcomes.
A strategic communications mindset allows public relations professionals practice with business goals in mind. Strategic communications involves messaging, audience and outcomes. It focuses on influence and persuasion through a purposeful use of communication to achieve business goals. Read this article to learn more about the difference between public relations and communications.
Difference between Public Relations & Communications
- Public Relations is not Media Relations
Media relations encompasses an organization’s use of the media to pass across information of its goals, visions, impact and roadmap. It is an expertise area in public relations.
The media and media organizations are stakeholders of every organization. They can determine the growth or longetivity of a brand by their influence and interest in issues concerning the organization. Therefore, in maintaining a positive relationship with stakeholders, brands also adopt strategies to engage with the media. This is called media relations.
“Media relations involves working with media for the purpose of informing the public of an organization’s mission, policies and practices in a positive, consistent and credible manner. To be an effective communications practitioner, it helps to know how the traditional media works, especially if you are in a sector or business that is relevant to governments, global investors and institutions. It is immensely helpful to understand the media landscape and build your understanding of how to navigate the space for the benefit of the organization.”
~ Sola Abulu
Public relations differs from media relations and communications. It is a practice area that focuses majorly on external stakeholders, relationships and business actions that can affect the outcomes either positively or negatively.
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Sola Abulu & Associates is a strategy and communications consulting and training firm committed to enabling businesses, brands and organizations to achieve their objectives through strategic communications, organizational effectiveness and reputation risk management
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