Public Relations for the Newcomer

Public relations, also known as PR in tighter circles, are the art of constructing and marketing a positive public image of organisations, people, products and services of a high profile nature. This is done with the intended result of swaying the public opinion about the organisation in question favourably.

The ability to sway the public opinion is a difficult one to master. This is why certain techniques are used in order to determine what would be the best course of action for a specific organisation on a case-by-case basis. For example, an organisation that is seen in a negative light by the public can use public relations to change its public image.

According to the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management acceptance of the Stockholm Accords, those who use the power of PR in conjunction with public opinion must uphold one of three roles in order to sway the opinion in a positive way:

·         Contextual leadership; when a public relations specialist evaluates the high profile company or person and takes on a leadership role in which he sheds the proper light on the organizations ideas or purposes. In other words, this leader of the company shows the public the positive things they want to see or hear about the company to attempt to persuade them to thinking along the lines of the organization.

·         Communicative Organisation; using numerous studies and polling or surveying techniques and their answers as a base for determining how communications and marketing information can affect the organisational leadership and bolster their public profiles for targeting the organisation’s effectiveness. This is also called a demographics study of a target audience.

·         Value Creation Network; is the determination of an organisation’s network structure of important or high profile people in that network then directing that person to do and say the right things which will ultimately help outsiders see that person and his organisation in a good light.

The Importance of PR

Public relations can help an organisation flourish or it can help drive the organisation into the ground; the outcome depends on the strength and effectiveness of the message communicated about the organisation to the public. The way to send that message is by using the demographics of a target audience to understand what the public needs to hear. Then, using one of the three roles, PR specialists gain an intimate knowledge of what the organisation has to offer and what they need to change in that organisation so the target audience will respond to the information presented about the organisation positively.

Using all the information, the PR specialist will target specific demographics to find the target audience to which the company wishes to make an appeal about the product or services they offer. After the PR specialist has found the right audience, they use the organisation’s information again to determine the proper way to construct a message intended to sway the public opinion of the organisation. If the Public relations messages are targeted in the right way, the public opinion will sway in a way that they will agree with the message and see that company in a positive light.