Public relations as defined by the International Public Relations Association is “a decision-making management practice tasked with building relationships and interests between organisations and their publics based on the delivery of information through trusted and ethical communication methods”.
The main objective of public relations is to create and sustain a positive brand image/reputation through methodical deployment and interventions that portray brands as reliable, responsible, and symbiotic in their relationships with the public.
Public relations practitioners have traditionally deployed tools such as research, events, newsletters, press releases, press briefings, and more, to strengthen brand equity, via traditional media such as newspapers, radio & television. However, the recent technological revolution is causing a disruption that signals a new order of practice and service delivery.
Modern solutions have been introduced to tackle emerging challenges as entities steer toward to the digital world. The intrusion of technology and new media has introduced better and numerous channels through which public relations plans can now be executed. These communication channels include e-mail marketing, and digital content creation (social media marketing, SEO, SEM, E-commerce), amongst others. We are beginning to be dependent on new media in business, education, personal lives, and other areas.
In a bid to mitigate the global economic pressure on organisations, public relations professionals constantly assess the following factors:
- How Have Clients’ Needs Changed?
Due to the prevalence of social media, more clients have become familiar with the technology. This has made companies realize that advertising using sponsored ad tools alone does not always result in anticipated growth. Clients have had to turn to Public Relations because it gives more value to targeted audiences and best understands the interest of prospects that will buy products and services.
- Effect of Good Stories on Clients
The backbone of Public Relations has always been “good stories draw people.” When people scroll through their Facebook pages and see an interesting story about how someone used his craft knife to make six essential household items, attention is drawn to those brands and stories. This is exactly the way Public
Relations sell products and services. They tell stories that resonate attractively with the targeted audiences.
- The Way Global Brands Develop
Growing a company into a global brand is all about building a reputation and doing it over and over until millions of people love what you do. Through reputation management techniques, Public Relations grow small brands into global ones while leading growth in client base.