The Public Relations (PR) is a practice that helps the organization in connecting with the stakeholders and the general public, this effort is planned to establish and preserve a strong working relationship with regards to the organizational practices and also create or maintain the image depending on the need of the PR activity.
Communication is the key in any environment, be it personal or professional, and PR as a tool is a vital element in creating trust by effective communication, any lacking in communication may lead to consequences that impacts heavily on the image and also the running of the company in terms of profitability and sustainability.
PR is most required in a crisis situation to salvage an issue that concerns the general public and the stakeholders, the case study of BP’s failed PR strategy in response to the Gulf Mexico oil is an apt example of how not to do PR is a crisis situation, as the CEO’s Tony Hayward nonchalant response, led to a crisis that launched a full scale media onslaught and the effects are still felt by BP of the PR disaster.
The specialized functions of PR is to connect with the public that and it is the practitioners who perform the functions directed towards the following genres of public depending on the requirement that includes, community relations, employee relations, government relations, financial relations, media relations and public affairs (MediaMiser).
When the target is established, it is the turn of the functions and techniques to communicate the message in an effective manner that connects with the public in a persuasive manner.
Some of the commonly used tools used by PR professionals are as follows (IPR):
Press Release
Press Conference (Outreach Events)
Newsletter
Blogging
Social Media Marketing
The press release, is the most common and oldest form of PR, press conference or an outreach event is also one of the oldest form of PR technique widely used in an effective manner, newsletter as a PR tool is directed towards a targeted audience that is niche, since it entails general information and news that is relevant to the target audience.
In this era of digital and technological advancement, the communication can be more direct and effective with regards to reaching the public and interacting with them through blogs and social media channels.
The most effective tool in view of the aforementioned, are the Press Conference or Outreach Events, Blogs and Social Media.
The press conference is most effective in view of the fact that all the media personalities from newspapers, magazines, and other leading communication channels are present and besides, getting a media press kit that entails all the relevant and key information, the event raises the profile of the company, the event can be done for a launch initiative, charity event, crisis situation and post project conference to simply thank the targeted public.
Digital Communication is used extensively by PR professionals to create a viral effect for the communication and create engagement and interactivity with the target public. Since, the main aim of the communication is to generate a response from the public Blogs and Social media are the most relevant tool to build the image.
Blogging is effectively an online form of a press release and it is also extensively used as newsletters by companies to maximize the medium’s effectiveness in generating maximum PR. A blog is in essence; direct communication with the public and the engagement and interactivity helps in creating strong relationships that is the zenith of a PR function.
Social Media is one the major tool to share a compelling and intriguing story line to the public through different channels, i.e. Facebook, Instagram, twitter and a YouTube Channel. The PR mechanics of social media depends on the need of the organization.
The most vital aspect of the social media PR plan is that the message is there for all times for the public to read and interact whenever they want to, it is not a hit and miss like an outreach event.
The biggest positive can also be termed as a major negative, as it gives an open forum to criticize that, can snowball very quickly, there have been many cases of mishandled PR campaigns in the digital world that resulted in disastrous consequences for the organizations.
Starbucks and SeaWorld are the two biggest social media PR campaign fails of last year, and it showcases that social media campaigns, needs to be researched and most importantly convey a genuine message (Morris).
The main aim of PR is to create trust through the communication and persuade the public to change an opinion or belief system. The kinds of evidence that persuade people in PR have many theories and view point; however, the writer will showcase the 6 principles of Robert Cialdini from the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, and how they are applied in PR (Mireles).
The Principle of Liking: This principle is based on two factors, i.e. praise and finding similarities, and from a PR viewpoint, especially Blogs and Social Media are all about building communities and that is done by using the two mentioned principles in a persuasive manner effectively.
The Principle of Reciprocity: This principle is focused on give and take relationship, be it personal or professional, and in PR it is showcased by coverage, favors, word of mouth and network building both offline and online to generate a persuasive response from the public.
The Principle of Social Proof: PR use influencers to create a connect with the public, from an online perspective, people are persuaded by the number of likes, shares or viral the message becomes; it’s all about the content, the public is persuaded offline, by the public speaking event participations, white papers and articles to create a persuasive connect.
The Principle of Consistency: This builds trust and also connectivity by using multiple channels to send the same message, persuasion is more about the interaction of the public in a dynamic manner i.e. sharing a blog message or donating to a charity.
The Principle of Authority: The ability to show that the company is in charge in an effective manner and is playing a positive role for the public is the biggest persuasive element that an organization can showcase.
The Principle of Scarcity: The Public wants to be part of a group that is supposed to be exclusive and from a PR perspective, persuasion can be created by promoting an exclusivity to an event, group etc.
The principles can be used together or separately depending on the needs of the campaign, it is safe to say that persuasion is primarily based on trust and for any PR campaign it is of paramount importance to understand the pulse of the targeted public.
Works Cited
IPR. PR Tools and Techniques. Public Relations, 2012. Web 14 April, 2016.
Media Miser. Public Relations Specialized Functions, 2016. Web 14 April, 2016.
Morris. L. What can be learned from 2 of 2015’s biggest social media campaign fails. Click Z, 2015. Web 14 April, 2016.
Mireles. A. What Persuasion: 6 Principles That Power PR Success. Cision, 2014. Web 14 April, 2016.
