More Complex Than an Average Spin

PR isn't about just spinning the truth

What is Public Relations?

The point of Public Relations is to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization. An organization gives a PR practitioner the general direction they want to move in, and the PR professional makes it happen via a thorough PR plan, newsworthy press releases, and a lot of audience listening. Some might think of ABC’s Scandal when they think of Public Relations, but there’s more to it than spinning crises into favorable situations (no offense to Olivia Pope). There is a lot of planning that goes into PR, but we’ll get there.

Oh, you mean like Advertising?

No, it’s different. The main difference is Advertising depends on paid media—the ads they place during television broadcasts or even the ads that pop up on Twitter timelines, while PR earns media coverage through press releases and media events. The goal of both is similar, but advertising is usually geared toward one product, while PR often manages the overall reputation.

Must-Haves for Successful PR

The first step to understanding PR is to know the PR Paradigm: Research, Plan, Communicate, Evaluate.

Research is straight-forward; it is necessary to understand the audience and the current environment in which information will be released.

The planning stage might take a bit longer, but a successful plan will make it easier to communicate.

Communicating the message is important because the results (leading to evaluation) of how the message is received by the audience will tell the PR professional whether the first two steps were effective.

Evaluating is the last component of the cycle, but if the plan could be improved, the evaluation would tell the PR person how to move forward.

Earned Media is part of the evaluation stage. It is a visible and measurable result of the communication stage. PR professionals can track their press release and see the different media sources their story ended up in.

A third must-have is GOST. [Goals, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics] is a layout for a PR plan—this allows PR professionals to come up with proactive and reactive strategies and tactics to accomplish the organization’s set goals and objectives.

PR’s Best Friend

The Press Release is a PR practitioner’s greatest tool. It allows them to let the public know about newsworthy occurrences and will also bring attention to the organization if the press release is truly newsworthy.

The Document to Guide it All

The PR plan was mentioned above. Its use is to list the steps of GOST and how it will achieve the organization’s goals. The more detailed a PR plan is, the easier it will be to implement.