Definition: Public Relations

With the advent of social networking and the world of Web 2.0, how we define public relations is ever changing. With a focus on how the outside world views a company, public relations is closely linked to other activities that keep a company visible and on the radar screens of prospective clients, colleagues, referral partners, the media and more.

With more and more people getting their information from non-traditional sources, savvy business entrepreneurs must get on board with new media strategies and use them to their advantage. Although a well written press release will always be golden, new ways of approaching PR in the world of Web 2.0 encourage businesses to reexamine how they define Public Relations.

Historically public relations has focused on things such as publicizing successes, announcing changes, and getting positive public and media attention. These goals continue, but the way they are done has shifted dramatically with blogs, podcasts, online video, internet news wires, and social networking.

A big trend in PR is on relationship building as a PR and marketing strategy. Relationship building is a subtle way to gain the coveted know-like-trust factor with potential clients and customers. With so many media and marketing messages overwhelming the public, businesses have to work hard at getting people to trust them enough so they’ll buy. A broad based, multi-strategy public relations campaign can give an all around positive impression of a company.

Here are 5 key questions to ask before embarking on a public relations campaign:

1. Who is my ideal client or target market?
2. Are the strategies we use aligned with the interests and habits of our target market?
3. How can we facilitate relationship building? (This is where you want to check out social networking, blogs, podcasts, etc)
4. What key media contacts can we cultivate and how can we leverage those?
5. What is our budget and how can we get the most for our money?