A lot of times, whenever the term public relations is mentioned the question is asked, “What exactly is that?” “Isn’t PR just like advertising?” “All you do is talk to people, that’s easy!” So here we are going to answer some of these PR myths.
What is Public Relations?
Just the other day I was told “PR is easy, all you do is talk,” that is not true. Public relations is a lot more than just “talking.” This tells me that some people do not fully understand what PR is. Yes, a PR professional does public speaking and interviews but there is so much more to it. According to Webster’s Dictionary public relations is the business of inducing the public to have understanding for and goodwill toward a person, firm, or institution; also, the degree of understanding and goodwill achieved. Public relations is the shaping and maintaining an image of a company or client. This is done in various ways by doing press releases and media alerts, which help get media attention to the client. It is the PR professional who organizes community and volunteer events for companies. They are the ones that form relations with future investors.
PR vs. Advertising
A lot of people believe that advertising and public relations are close to the same thing but that is not true. With public relations the job is to try and get free publicity for the company. In advertising the ad space is being paid for and it is known what will go on the space and when it will be shown. In public relations, there is no control on how the media will present the information or if they will present it at all. Since in advertising the ad space is paid for the advertiser is able to show the ad over and over for as long as the budget allows. In PR a press release is only sent once, a media alert is only sent once, the exposure that is given with that is only once.
You have to have been a reporter to do PR
Yes, it does help to have the writing background and have worked with reporters to know the way the newspaper media works. There have been a lot of reporters and broadcasters that have turned to a PR career but there are also many people that have started PR right out of college. Public relations is an industry that continues to grow. It is not a profession that requires you to have a license or a test to be passed. With today’s society that demand of knowing information is growing. There are new ways of how to communicate always being invented. Organizations are beginning to turn to social media such as Facebook and twitter to promote themselves. More jobs in PR are being offered with companies, entertainment, non-profit organizations, politics, and the government. PR is everywhere and as long as the demand for information continues to grow the PR industry will continue to grow.