The primary goal of public relations is often to provide favorable media coverage. However, that is only one kind of PR. Public relations include handling your social media engagement, key relationships, community involvement, crisis management, and communications with internal stakeholders inside your company.
However, distinct PR practices don’t exist in separate silos. There is an overlap throughout the functions. Staff communications and media relations are at the core of any crisis PR initiative. Community relations, customer relations, and strategic communication are also a part of public relations.
Understanding public relations types is essential if you consider hiring a PR firm for selective promotion and marketing tasks. Here is everything you need to know about the different roles and public relations types you can benefit from.
Table of Contents
Understanding the Public Relations Types
Media Relations
Many people believe that media relations and public relations are the same or have the same functions. Though they share the same objectives, they are used for different purposes. Building a relationship between a company and its public is the goal of public relations.
On the other hand, media relation is a component of public relations that is entirely concerned with cultivating connections with media professionals to obtain free media coverage by collaborating with bloggers, journalists, broadcasters, and influencers.
This calls for lengthy meetings with media people and journalists, carrying out social media marketing campaigns, and print and electronic ads. All these efforts do take time and effort. However, PR professionals invest years in developing open and honest relationships with journalists.
Plus, the PR experts such as Los Angeles PR work hard to create compelling and interesting stories about your brand, services, or products.
Naturally, one advantage of maintaining fruitful, long-lasting connections with journalists is that they may approach you for a quotation, industry knowledge, or even use you as a case study for their next article.
It promotes you and your brand as leaders in the market. Additionally, media outlets are considerably more likely to run good news stories about you if you and your organization are open, honest, and accessible, even in times of crisis.
Community Relations
The main goal of community relations is building your organization’s reputation in the neighborhood, especially where your business is headquartered. These days, community relations must be integrated into a brand’s overall PR plan rather than serving as an afterthought.
A brand that invests in the community is always more attractive to the prospect than one that doesn’t. Additionally, strong ties to the community can improve a business’s bottom line.
Why should you consider implementing a communication relations PR program?
- Obtaining community support for a project, such as housing development or the construction of a new supermarket
- Presenting your brand as an appealing place to work in to attract and keep local talent
- Increasing the visibility of your brand’s goods and services so that the neighborhood becomes brand ambassadors
- Giving back to your neighborhood to improve the ethical standing of your business
This kind of PR includes posting frequent updates on the company blog. Another option is to support local events and encourage staff members to volunteer their time or skills to a nearby nonprofit.
Alternatively, it can mean being active in neighborhood improvement projects in the area where you work. Note that you need a face-to-face public consultation with locals if you’re looking to win support for a new project.
Maintaining a positive working connection with reporters from the neighborhood newspaper or media houses is also a good idea. They should access your exclusive stories so that your brand receives favorable coverage when needed.
Crisis Communication
A founder gets into an unpleasant argument with someone on social media, a product needs to be recalled, or a worker accuses the business of wrongdoing: all these situations require carefully planned crisis management.
Any of these issues could damage the reputation of your business and must be resolved immediately. Crisis management is one of the forms of PR that help businesses deal with uncertain and unfavorable situations.
Planning is the key to surviving a crisis. Seek a crisis management team’s assistance immediately before it starts to ruin your brand’s image.
Before an incident happens, make sure you have a crisis communication plan to reduce the impact of bad press on your brand. You should know your spokesperson and the strategy he has to deliver crucial messages.
Make sure your spokesperson has any necessary media training. The time to learn on the job is not during a crisis. Also, figure out how your brand will disseminate the news. It can be through a news release shared on Twitter or a company press release. In addition, the CEO can hold a press conference.
It would be best to decide how to communicate and update your staff. Keep your staff from hearing about the catastrophe on the news with the rest of the population. Establishing a trusting tie with the media is beneficial so that they can stand behind your organization in a crisis.
Tip: It is best to rely on the expertise of a professional PR agency to handle the crisis if you don’t have an internal crisis management team.
Public Affairs PR
Building relationships with the government, politicians, and other important decision-makers, including civil servants, trade organizations, think tanks, and industry groups, is the goal of public affairs. It is also known as lobbying, which aims to promote change in positioning or legislation.
The primary responsibility of a PR professional in public affairs communication is to ensure that everyone knows your organization’s viewpoints. Your staff or in-house team needs to be clear about the potential positive and negative effects of any changes to a policy on your company. This also requires communication with the highest level of decision-makers.
A public affairs expert also provides market information and insights to aid policymakers in their decision-making. Submissions to internal and external briefing papers, government consultations, one-on-one meetings, receptions, and conferences are all ways to accomplish this.
In addition, the creation of policy submissions for white and green papers, and responses to select government committees, is also the responsibility of public affairs teams.
Naturally, media management for public affairs PR also entails sending press releases and articles to the media to change public opinion, but with a political slant.
Online and Social Media Communications
According to Forbes, businesses need a strong online presence to differentiate themselves from rivals in today’s world of communications. Online PR is crucial for establishing brand partnerships through blogs and social media, generating leads, and attracting potential talent. In addition, customers increasingly use the internet to conduct research before making a purchase choice.
Organizations and PR professionals should have the right skill set to select the best social media platforms and digital channels to accomplish their communication goals.
Public Relations offers various services divided into countless types and categories. PR professionals have fundamental abilities across the board to assist your brand in achieving commercial success in a wide range of areas for business. Working with a great team is essential for success in technology or worldwide PR.
Employee Communication
The workforce of a company is its most vital component. Without it, no business can function properly. Therefore, to maintain business operations, prevent issues, and ensure staff is operating to the best of their abilities, employers should effectively manage relationships in the workplace.
While the employees are the most effective brand advocates, they can also be the fiercest critics of a business. Therefore, businesses must create initiatives that keep teams informed and motivated.
Employee communication is important in any situation. Making your workers feel content, valued, and motivated is internal PR or internal communications, and it’s quickly rising to the top of PR strategy’s priority list of many businesses.
Employee communication PR includes:
- Organizing events, such as lunches for employees
- Creating regular communications and internal newsletters to keep staff informed
- Introducing a well-being program for counseling employees
- Implementing Knowledge sharing programs for maintaining employee relations
- Planning Comprehensive onboarding programs
- Employee questionnaires and surveys
- Initiating change management programs to handle an office relocation, working, or a company merger
- Liaising with resolving disputes and unions
- Giving workplace awards
- Starting work-life balance programs and initiatives
Summing Up
A successful organization must build a strong relationship with its stakeholders and consumers, and PR may assist in this process. People avoid using a company’s goods or services if the general opinion of its buyers is not good. Thus, you can hire a professional PR agency to manage your public relations needs and maintain a strong position in the market.
