Definition of Public Relations
According to the American Heritage Dictionary online, public relations is defined as, "The methods and activities employed to establish and promote a favorable relationship with the public." What does this mean?
So speaking to a general audience who is interested in being a part of promoting public relations, what does this mean their job will consist of?
Generally you will be responsible for promoting company knowledge on progress and products, public knowledge on progress of the company and products, maintaining a positive company image with the press and the public, and promoting new ideas and promotions within the company to increase productivity.
To promote company knowledge on progress, upcoming releases, and products, can be a lot easier that promoting public and media knowledge on the same, and in some instances can even be fun. In general an employee is going to believe in the company they work for already, so you're job will be much easier as you won't have to install belief in your company or their products before hand. Rather you will simply be trying to create excitement about upcoming advancements for the company or product releases.
To create such excitement within ones own company can generally be done through emails. Most companies provide their employees with a company email address expressly for the purpose of being able to send such updates and announcements. If you are sending positive news it is easy to send out an excitedly worded email and make the whole company aware of whatever information you are releasing very quickly. If you have to release negative news it will be better to call a company meeting and tell them in person. By telling someone in person questions can be answered face to face and any anger or fear can addressed by the bearer of the news at that time not allowing the employee to sit and stew on the information before hand.
How can promoting belief in your company within the company be fun? It is always a good idea when releasing a new product or the announcing of company success to throw a company party. This can be done after hours when employees can come dressed comfortably and feel free as they are on their own time table, or if the budget and time don't allow a big after hours party, a simple lunch to make the announcement can be fun as well. These times allow not only the employees to get excited about the company but also to grow closer as employees and reaffirm their dedication to their job by doing so.
If you are responsible for creating a positive image to the press and or general public, your job has just been a lot more difficult. Making public announcements, statements, or sending out news, can be very difficult because you are targeting an audience that may know little to nothing about your company. Thus you must fist establish belief in the company. This is going to call for much more planning.
The planning in these situations is usually done by a public relations committee. This way the goal can be clearly stated and jobs can be divided up between individuals so as maximize each individual section of the plans potential while not overloading any one employee. Such a committee will also need to nominate a spokes person or a face for their campaign. As well one person will need to be in charge of following up daily with each member of the committee to find out how their separate projects are going and lend help where needed.
In all ways you are promoting public relations, whether throughout the company, the press, or the public, you will want to keep good notes on the success and failures of each campaign so that the successes can be repeated making for a much more successful campaign as the company continues forward.
Public relations is promoting good relationships within a company, a group, the press, or the general public.
For more information on this subject please see:
http://www.publicrelationsideas.com/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=public+relations
