What is Public Relations? The Definition of PR in 100 Words or Less

Image is an important aspect of brand awareness that influences whether your potential customers know, like, and trust you. Where advertising is beyond a brand’s control, public relations (PR) is an effective way to add to the conversation.

There is an old saying, “Advertising is what you pay for; Advertising is what you pray for. “

Public relations is not an easily defined profession. In fact, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) accepted some in 2012 thousand Submissions before you finally agree on one:

So how can an organization capitalize on its beneficial relationships with the public and turn them into good press? As the old saying goes, are you really “praying” for something when using a strategic process to get results?

If public relations is a bridge for that relationship, then public relations professionals are Bridge builders. Let’s talk about them in a little more detail:

What is a PR professional?

A public relations professional is responsible for creating and executing a public relations strategy and helping a company or individual build a positive reputation through a variety of unpaid or deserved channels and formats, including the press, social media, and personal engagement. They also help clients defend their reputation during crises that compromise their credibility.

To understand this, you need to first look at the two sides of PR: the positive storytelling side and the negative damage control side.

Positive public relations

If an organization is proactive about its image, it is likely to invest in positive public relations, where a public relations professional helps convey the brand’s reputation, idea, product, position, or performance in a positive light.

So you can think of PR professionals as storytellers, so to speak. Unlike advertisers who tell stories through paid methods, PR professionals tell their stories through unpaid or earned media.

These unpaid or earned ways include:

• News and press
• Media contact
• Social media
• Lecture obligations

Remember, a PR professional isn’t just trying to reach a paying customer … they’re trying to reach everyone.

Example of positive PR

For example, let’s say you work for a small interior design company and your company just received an award: “Best Interior Design Company in Chicago.” A public relations specialist could write a press release and contact reporters to write a story about this accomplishment to get the news out to the public.

Not only will the PR professional build a credible reputation for your interior design company, but they will also help the public get relevant information about this award. If I’m a consumer looking for an interior designer this announcement might help me too.

Public relations work also extends to the government. Public relations professionals can run political campaigns or explain new government policies to the public. In this case, you can see public relations professionals working to maintain a healthy and productive relationship between their clients (the government) and the public, who have a right to know about new guidelines.

Damage limitation in PR (negative public relations)

PR isn’t just used for positive storytelling. It is also used to mitigate damage that could weaken a customer’s reputation.

When the public discourse about a particular brand is in a negative mood, perhaps due to negative advertising or news, the job of a PR professional is to advise the organization on how to proceed.

Eventually, when conversations take place, an organization should share its side of the story. However, how they react will affect the public’s perception. If done badly, it can make the situation worse.

A PR professional is then hired to:

Example of mitigation in PR

In the early 1980s, cyanide was added to numerous bottles of Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol product by an unknown person, killing seven people. This caused widespread panic and could have resulted in the end of Tylenol products.

Johnson & Johnson took aggressive public relations measures to limit the damage: first, the company pulled all of its Tylenol products off the shelves and issued a national statement warning consumers not to buy or use Tylenol. Then Johnson & Johnson developed a new tamper-evident seal and directed 2,000 salespeople to give presentations to the medical community in order to reintroduce these new, safer Tylenol bottles.

This effective PR strategy saved both Johnson & Johnson’s reputation and the product – in fact, Tylenol stock climbed back to 24 percent just six weeks after the cyanide crisis.

In the case of Johnson & Johnson, a simple advertising campaign would not have worked. Instead, PR was necessary: ​​PR professionals were able to spread a story that portrayed Johnson & Johnson as a company that puts consumers above profit. In addition to weakening Johnson & Johnson’s reputation, PR has been used to prevent more people from consuming cyanidated Tylenol, and then to inform the public that Tylenol is safe again. A win-win-win.

PR as an important marketing strategy

You can see from these examples that public relations professionals can deal with a variety of good and bad circumstances and must address these events so that the public and the customer can maintain a beneficial relationship. Public relations specialists also play a role in advising management on the best policy decisions or action, and in running programs such as fundraising or networking events to help the public understand the organization’s goals.

PR isn’t just used to influence a story after it happens – it’s also used to write that story in the first place.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in April 2018 and has been updated for completeness.