Putting the “Strategic” in PR Practice

Strategic communication is defined as the purposeful use of communication by a business or organization to achieve its objectives in measurable terms.

~Sola Abulu

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations provides the definition 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 publics.

Public relations involves the way in which organizations, businesses, institutions and brands relate with the public. It is focused on creating and maintaining positive relationships with stakeholders.

The value of public relations is in creating goodwill, space and support for a business, organization, brand and ultimately for a positive reputation

~Sola Abulu

The above quote is derived from our recorded webinar on Leveraging Public Relations in the Digital Age. Watch the full video here

For relationships to be built, messaging is required. This is where an intersection between communications and public relations exists. However, the strategic approach to messaging and relationship building ensures intentionality and can help businesses and organizations achieve their desired outcome from the activities.

Why Should Public Relations Efforts be Strategic?

• Brands leverage on already-built relationships with stakeholders during crises to solve problems more effectively, de-escalate the negative news and maintain a good reputation.
• Public relations is very relevant in institutions and corporate organizations and a strategic lens in the practice of it inspires the desired outcomes. During the global pandemic for instance, institutional bodies like the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) carried out an awareness campaign and utilized stakeholder management strategies to effectively communicate with different stakeholder groups. This was a strategic approach to public relations which shaped the choice of communications channels for this campaign. Social media platforms alone were insufficient for this because there are stakeholder groups that can be better reached through town hall meetings, religious centers and other forms of mass media.
• Organizations, businesses, institutions and brands that are strategic start out by analyzing the business agenda and goals at every given time. It is from the business goals that they identify opportunities for public relations activities. This way, engagements are targeted to relevant stakeholders which leads to growth in the overall business outcomes.

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Sola Abulu & Associates (SA&A) is a strategy and communications consulting and training firm focused on enabling businesses, brands and organizations to achieve their desired objectives through strategic communications, organizational effectiveness and reputation management.

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