The Gist Of The Public Relations Profession

Public relations is not propaganda!

 

Many misconceptions about the nature of the public relations industry or profession have been arising over the years, as I have stated in my blogger profile the main aim of this blog is to tackle all the myths about PR and to really help people get an understanding of what it is and its role in the corporate world. The most common and not so flattering misconception is that public relations is a propaganda machine, contrary to popular belief it is not so. People generally think that any person who is not even qualified can practice PR and that is not the case, as a person studying PR and about to enter industry soon I have the credibility to say that it is a difficult industry ans one cannot just practice it without a qualification.
                                                          


 What public relations is really about

Here is a more generally used definition of public relations:

public relations plural of pub·lic re·la·tions (Noun)

Noun The professional maintenance of a favorable public image by an organization or a famous person. The state of the relationship between the public and a company or other organization or a famous person.

source:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/public+relations

It is basically the creation and maintenence of relationships with internal and external stakeholders  of an organisation. In life generally everything is ultimately dependant on people  thus it is important for any organisation to maintain goodwill with its publics. Reputation is everything and people are very unlikely to gravitate towards an organisation that is not reputable so basically PR is an important business function.



Here are more misconceptions about public relations:

Pr is merely being nice and friendly’

MANY people believe that PR is nothing more than being nice and friendly to others, a role that anyone who is good-looking and has a pleasant personality can play for an organization. These are, of course, good basic attributes for a PR person to have, but it takes much more than that to be a PR professional.

For one, PR requires good communications skills, both oral and written.

For another, PR is not just a trivial or superficial preoccupation but a serious and full-pledged profession requiring sufficient academic preparation, training and work experience. And by the way, PR professionals need not be pleasant and likable all the time. They can, and should be serious and tough—yet still diplomatic when the situation calls for it.

‘PR is an art’

THERE are also those who look at PR as being purely an art, a task that requires creativity and imagination and even intuition. Yes, PR is an art, and needs all these. But it is also a science. Professional PR is both, not just one or the other.

PR does not just entail coming out with brilliant, out-of-the-box ideas. It also involves knowing how to bring these to reality through a systematic approach involving research, planning, budgeting, management of the projects, and evaluation and measurement of results.

‘PR is just publicity’

THERE are those who think that the job of a PR person is simply to get as much exposure in the media for a company. Not true. Publicity is just one of the tools used in PR—one of the main ones—but it is just one of many at his disposal, to be harnessed as needed and appropriate. In fact, there are times when being low key and avoiding the limelight may be the best course of action for a PR professional to advise the company to take.

‘PR is the same as advertising’

THERE are also people, even in business and industry, where one would think her or she would know better, who equate PR with advertising. Basically, advertising involves producing advertisements about a company’s products and services for print, radio, TV and other forms of media, for which the corresponding space or time allotted are paid for.

The job of PR, on the other hand, is to gain positive coverage for the company in the media by convincing the journalists of the newsworthiness of the information or messages that are being conveyed to the public through them. This is in addition to using various other tools to convey a company’s messages to its publics through such tools as special events, speeches at various fora, publications such as flyers, pamphlets, books, films, etc. The list is almost endless.

‘Only big companies need PR’

THERE are also those who think that new, start-up companies do not really need PR, that only big and established ones do. It is precisely when they are just starting that companies need PR most—to get their organization, their products and their services known and supported by the public.

It is vital for new companies to get expert PR advice from the very outset. Any PR misstep early in the life of a company can have longterm repercussions which may take long for the firm to recover from, if ever.

‘PR is just a staff function’

MANY CEOs believe that the role of PR is not that important, that it can be delegated to a junior officer or even a staff member in the HRD or Marketing Department who has some communications skills. This may have been the case in the past but no longer.

Successful corporations have come to realize that PR should be a management function—of top management even. If the CEO of a corporation does not have any PR sense, or does not listen to PR advice, then sooner or later PR gaffes will be committed. These could subject the company to public criticism or even suits that could cost a company an enormous amount of money in fines and damages.

‘No ethics in PR’

PROBABLY the worst misconception about PR is that there is no ethics in PR, that anything goes, so long as they promote or protect the company’s interests or help achieve its objectives. This is really an unfair indictment of the profession.

While PR professionals are no saints, most of them are basically decent, God-fearing, law-abiding human beings who try their best to tread the straight and narrow path of truthfulness, honesty and fairness in all their actions. They do fail now and then for they are also human after all. But they revert right back to doing the right thing if and when they do something wrong.

PR men are often perceived to be engaged in lying and deception most, if not all, of the time. If at all, the worst sin they can be accused is trying to accentuate the positive about a company, which is but natural and to be expected. But if they come out with outright lies, it could prove counterproductive, as “the truth will out” sooner or later. And then they will lose their credibility with the media, which will no longer use materials coming from them.

PR men are also accused of trying to corrupt media or politicians and government authorities through bribery. This could backfire because again the “truth will out in the end.” And the more honest and ethical elements in the media and government will denounce or expose them before long, bringing down not just their reputation but of the companies they represent, as well.

‘You use pr only on a need basis’

SOME think a company need only call on PR help when needed, such as when launching new product or service or celebrating important company milestones or confronted with a crisis, such as if a company’s products are denounced as harmful to health of consumers or an explosion occurs in its factory.

This can be likened to not having a regular doctor looking after one’s health on a close and continuing basis. Having a permanent PR counsel is tantamount to having someone who knows the company’s history and its products and services “inside out” so to speak. He would have already templates and plans in place to deal with any PR requirement or situation such as a PR crisis, where quick response counts for a lot.

We don’t expect misconceptions about PR to disappear with one or even several articles that seek to correct and dispel these. The PR professionals themselves must persist in their PR for PR campaign through all the media of communications where they can do so. But even this may not be enough.

In the end, the perception of the PR profession depends on how the PR professionals in this country conduct themselves, day in, day out. Nothing can replace actual performance, for, in PR as in anything else in life, action speaks louder than words.

Source:http://businessmirror.com.ph/index.php/en/features/marketing/16745-common-misconceptions-about-pr-or-why-pr-itself-needs-pr