It seems that the public relations industry doesn’t do a great job at its own PR, because there aren’t a lot of people that can explain what the industry actually does. Most people know what construction workers, healthcare workers, or teachers do, but that’s not the case for public relations professionals. In fact, most people in the industry constantly have to explain to others that their jobs aren’t all about buying ad space, telling journalists what to write about, or even handing out free samples in public.
While PR professionals work on promoting their clients’ brands, it’s different from advertising and marketing because when it comes to public relations, there are both internal and external audiences, as well as earned, owned, and paid strategies. Whether it’s through traditional media outlets, social media, speaking engagements, or search engines, the job of PR professionals is to communicate with a company’s target audience through trusted, instead of paid, sources.
Persuasion
Public relations is all about convincing audiences, both internally and externally, to promote a company’s idea, make a purchase, support a brand, or recognize someone’s accomplishments. Essentially, public relations is a strategic communications process that’s able to build mutually beneficial relationships between brands and corporations and their target audiences.
Storytelling
People that work in the public relations industry focus on storytelling because the main task of their jobs is to create narratives that will advance a company’s overall business plans and promotional plans. Public relations can be used to build, improve, or protect a company’s reputation through traditional and digital media, social media, or even self-produced communication. Additionally, PR professionals work to analyze a company, find any potential positive messages inside, and then translate those positive messages into compelling stories that can build trust with the target audience. Not only that, but when a company is facing a PR crisis, those same professionals can help the business develop the best potential response and mitigate any damage to the company’s reputation.