Public relations isn’t an easy or simply profession to attach a standard definition to. In 2012, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) actually attempted to re-define the profession itself by accepted thousands of submissions from public relations experts before finally agreeing on a definition. While the actual daily work of a public relations professional tends to have a great deal of crossover within any organization, at its core the job entails a strategic communication process with the goal of building beneficial relationships between companies or organizations and their publics.
Telling a Story
However, there is a lot more to public relations than simply working to gain good press for an organization, entity or company. At the heart of public relations is the art of storytelling. A company or organization utilizes the skill set of public relations (PR) professionals to cultivate a story that will be of benefit to that entity. The PR professional works through their established relationships to portray the selected organization’s product, idea, reputation, or accomplishment in a positive manner. Of course, one of the end goals of shining this positive light on an organization is to garner media attention for the PR professional’s client. However, it is essential for the story to resonate deeper. Ideally, storytelling is meant to resonate with the public that the individual organization would like to know about the company and to have some affinity with the company and its brand.
Affinity for an organization is grown through storytelling and content creation. In order for an organization’s product, idea, reputation, or accomplishment to have some meaning, high-quality content must be created that can be found and is easily digestible to audiences. Examples of this include the creation of press releases, online content, blog posts, social media content, and media stories. Press releases are the most common type of content associated with the public relations field.
All About the Content
A press release is an extremely intricate piece of content that is crafted using information from the company about a specific announcement. Types of announcements that capture the attention of the media and their subsequent audiences include things like new product launches, informational releases, company announcements, and major awards or accolades. Members of the media are exceptionally busy, making a well-crafted press release the ideal way to share pertinent information in a compact manner. After a press release is shared with members of the media, the public relations professional continues to cultivate the storytelling process by working with the media to gain further mileage for each press release, typically in the form of media coverage or online publication. The establishment of strong connections with members of the media is a crucial part of the public relations professional.
A public relations professional typically seeks to garner earned opportunities to reach the organization’s public, typically through unpaid efforts that are a result of their relationships. By analyzing the organization and finding the positive messages that will best resonate with a particular audience, a public relations professional excels in creating a stellar reputation for that organization.
