Well it’s the beginning of the school semester and it’s time for the age-old question your professors ask you – what is PR? Now, if you are just starting out on the PR track this is may be all new to you and you may not know the spectrum of what it means to work in the public relations world just yet. For all you juniors and seniors, you were probably asked this in each class the day after syllabus day. It is an important topic to discuss because it opens up the class to discuss just how broad public relations is and all the fields you can focus your skills on. Today I’m going to create a brief list of the most common responses for you to use as your go-to reference in order to prevent awkward silences and stares.
1. Media Relations
Media relations, along with the rest of this list, includes various aspects of what it means. One part of media relations is interacting with journalists, or others in traditional media. By maintaining a good relationship with the media, it allows your business or client to thrive. You can have a better chance of you story or event being publicized, and journalists will come to you first if there is any crisis at your business. School districts and the government strongly rely on media relations.
2. Brand Reputation
Brand reputation is extremely important to businesses. Day-to-day brand reputation makes customers happy, and helps to make a business seem credible. This can be done many ways: traditional media, social media and through community outreach. Social media has become an easier way for customers to really get to know businesses and see and interact with people who work there. A good way to maintain a positive brand is to set up ways for your business to give back to the community.
3. Campaigning
Campaigns are a fun,intricate aspect of public relations, especially political campaigns. They are either a hit or a miss, and takes a lot of planning before a campaign is launched. Political campaigns are usually longer to plan out, and it lasts for quite some time. Other campaigns can include promoting a limited-time special or launching a partnership with a non-profit. Campaigns are great ways to promote a business because they usually have so much meaning behind them.
4. Crisis Control
Crisis control is an aspect of public relations we all hope to never encounter, unless you’re into that stress. Crisis control is extremely important because businesses could sink if not done correctly. Public relations can help to bring the business back afloat. Crisis control, depending on the severity, could even lead to rebuilding of a brand and/or business.
With four general topics under your belt about public relations, I hope this can add some more general knowledge to those who are starting their PR college career. What I’ve learned so far is that the best part about being a public relations major is the unlimited possibilities of what you can do with your degree.