Is there a difference between PR and Communications?

The short answer is YES.

Difference between Public Relations & Communications

There is a big difference between Public Relations and Communications but many people do not know this – so think it is one and the same thing. To be fair, both are a part of the same practice area so it is understandable that people may think they are the same. Public Relations focuses more on managing relationships while Communications focuses on leveraging on the art and science of managing communication.

So lets start with some basic definitions:

Public Relations is defined by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) as: the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour

Oxford Bibliographies defines strategic communication as:

….. an umbrella term to describe the activities of disciplines including public relations, management communication, and advertising. However, strategic communication is also increasingly recognized as a developing subfield within communication. As such, it explores the capacity of all organizations—not only corporations, but also not-for-profit organizations (including advocacy and activist groups) and government—for engaging in purposeful communication.

The strength of the approach is its emphasis on strategy rather than on specific tactics as well as its focus on communications understood holistically.

Going by this definition, public relations is actually a sub-set of strategic communication. PR is one of several tools that can be used to manage stakeholder relationships, nurture brand visibility, protect reputation etc. But it works best when under the umbrella of strategic communication i.e. being guided by a purposeful and ethical agenda that is aligned to business or strategic objectives.

PUBLIC RELATIONS:

PR typically focuses on managing RELATIONSHIPS with stakeholder groups. A stakeholder is anyone with a formal or inflormal interest and/or influence in your business, organization, program, project, event, operations or activities. This could include formal stakeholders like investors, media, government, community etc.

In big corporations and institutions, traditional PR practitioners would be investor, media, government, NGO and community relations practitioners with deep and rich expertise in managing relationships with these groups of stakeholders for the benefit of the business, institution, brand or entity.  Traditional PR could also include managing relationships with informal stakeholders who develop influence through activism or campaigns.

The core focus in PR is managing relationships, protecting reputation and building goodwill with identified stakeholders.

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION

Strategic communication is all of the above and more. It focuses on influence and persuasion and is targeted at audiences as well as stakeholders. It is very broad in thinking yet niched in implementation. It identifies both those who are active on issues and activities as well as those who are likely to be active in the future. It is very purposeful in terms of how it operates and it takes a long-term view of how it operates in every environment.

While PR focuses on managing relationships, communications is more concerned with influencing narrative, sentiment, values, beliefs and consequentially actions and outcomes. Communication is focused on influencing how targeted groups think, feel and act. And it uses the science and art of communications enabled by digital technology to achieve this aim. This is why it is very important to act ethically in communication to ensure that messages are credible, factual and not deceptive.

Strategic communication makes no assumption about its audience and takes a great effort to identify and study targeted communities to determine what would resonate with the audience and how to convey meaning bearing in mind the prevalent beliefs and values that already exist.

PR focuses primarily on:

• stakeholders
• relationships,
• perception and actions

While communications tends to focus more on:

• audiences
• messages and  narratives
• sentiments and outcomes

(p.s. audiences are broader than stakeholders. Audiences include everyone directly or indirectly targeted or reached by your messages. They may or may not have direct or indirect influence or interest in your business or activities. Your interest in them may purely be based on their being part of generic demographic i.e. age, gender, location, media consumption habits etc.)

Depending on the situation that you may be in, you may need to lean into a more PR approach but your overall strategy needs to be rooted firmly in Strategic Communication because that is where the link to long-term strategy exists. Strategic communication is designed to be long-term in thinking by design. It aims to resolve the immediate problem or achieve the desired outcome but not at the expense of the wider stake in the ground.

COMMUNICATIONS EXPERTISE AREAS

Communications practise and expertise areas are very broad and cover every aspect of organizational management of any kind, including the following:

• Corporate communications – which is the practise of communications in support of a commercial business entity and its organization. It is focused on managing communications with internal and external stakeholders and audiences.

• Political communications is focused on managing communications with citizens, media, communities, institutions, government, opinion leaders, influencers and other stakeholders in the political space or to further a political agenda or achieve a desired objective or outcome

• Development communications is focused on managing communications with communities, government, media and other stakeholders in furtherance of a desired development agenda, program or project.

• Policy communications deals with managing compliance, implementation and outcomes of policy in line with set objectives and desired outcomes.

• Brand & Marketing communications enables brand to achieve their desired brand visibility and positioning in the market place. It also helps to develop brand equity and enable the entity to remain top-of-mind in its market and sector.

• Public-sector communications enables public office holders to implement a citizen-centric communications strategy that bridges the gap with the governed communities and protect instiutional reputation, promotes political stability and leadership credibility.

• Risk Communications enables public health organizations to manage risk and protect communities through targeted communication that enables communties to self-organize and manage health risks for the protection of the community and wider society. (This was used a lot during the pandemic. It requires a very scientific and sociological approach and often has to combat fake news and misinformation to be able to succeed. This is one area where the science and art of communications is key. It is important to understand values, mindset and prevailing beliefs that help or hinder the desired objective of the communication.)

• Technical Communications focuses on simplying complex technical information and conveying meaning and understanding to audiences in such a way that they are able to make informed purchasing decisions about technical products or services. This skills is highly in use in tech companies that sell products and services to consumers who are not necessarily tech savvy but are tech users.

• Financial Communications focuses on communicating financial communication in a way that is accessible and meangingful to targeted audiences (usually investors and shareholders) through a variety of methods including editorial and visual formats and styles. The desired objective is to ensure that the information is presented in a way that is accessible, credible and authentic. And meets the expectations of the targeted audience at all levels.

• ESG Communications is focused on communicating environmental, sustainability and governance activities of businesses in the energy and related industries. The audience is typically investors and shareholders who would like to ensure that their investments are being used in an ethical and sustainable way.

• Crisis Communication focuses on effective response and management of a crisis through communications with critical stakeholders and audiences in a way that protects reputation and relationships for the benefit of the brand, business or institution and for societal good.

• Change Communication deals with the use of communication to achieve organizational change or process transformation within an identified or targeted group or population with measurable actions and behavioral milestones achieved.

• Organizational Communication focuses on enabling an organization to work effectively by using communication as an enabler for collaboration, trust building, developing a share vision and promoting efficiency.

• Employee Communications is designed to bridge the gap between leadership and employees in a medium to large-scale organization, while Internal communication does the same thing but targets all groups and individuals recognized as being internal to the company i.e. may include third-party contractors, some suppliers, consultants and contract staff. Employee communications tends to focus on individuals in a direct employment relationship with the business, firm, entity or institution. IC is therefore much broader than EC. Even in the same organization, some messages are employee-specific or targeted at some groups of employees while others would target all employees and others within the wider perimeter.

However, there are also some important similarities with both practice areas. They are both designed to protect reputation and build up brand equity and visibility. They both enable delivery of a strategic business, organizational or operational agenda.

The most significant difference is that PR is always externally-focused whereas communication is focused on both internal and external audiences

You may also look at this video by Sola Abulu our Principal Consultant, where she talks about this. It is our most popular video on the SAA Learning Channel on YouTube. Please view, like and subscribe.