7 Differences between Public Relations and Communications
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) defines public relations (PR) as “the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its publics”.
The Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) defines Public Relations as “A strategic leadership role that builds trust, reputation, lasting relationships, and drives inclusive development through ethical, transparent, and culturally respectful communication.”
Strategic Communications is defined as the purposeful use of communication by a brand, business, organization or institution to fulfill their mission and achieve their desired objectives or results.
Both PR and Communications work together to build reputation and influence public perception or build brand loyalty but they do so in different ways. And there are varied opinions about this within the profession. Some people believe that PR and Communications are inseperable while others believe they are completely distinct and different.
At SA&A, we believe that PR and Communications are uniquely distinct fields with a lot of similarities and points of alignment and integration. However, there are notable areas of difference.
In this article, we highlight the areas of difference.
- PR is 100% externally focused – A major difference is that Public Relations is 100% focused on external stakeholders. There is no such thing as internal PR in that sense. There is only internal communications because your employees are not members of the “public” and are an intrinsic part of the brand and the business and organization.
- PR is more focused on telling goodnews stories – PR is highly promotional in nature. This is one feature that strongly differentiates it from Communications. PR tends to focus on telling the most positive story possible – even if it mean embellishing facts or minimizing the negatives. Strategic communications takes a more purposeful approach and is excellent at communicating dilemmas; and sharing good and bad news stories. Strategic communications focuses on how to transmit the message as intended with desired results achieved. It does not matter whether the message is a good story or not.
- Image and perception is very important for PR – Public Relations elevates image-making and perception management to the highest status, while communications tends to focus on long-term reputation. For instance, a PR approach in crisis management would focus more on making the organization look good. A strategic communications approach is more concerned with managing reputation and doing the right thing as well as being seen to do the right thing. In communications, action is as important as optics. In traditional PR, optics is everything
- PR is very in-person, experiential and relational – Public Relations is relational by nature and prioritizes personal relationship-building. Example – the red carpet interviews, podcast appearances etc are all part of the PR plan for a new movie release or product launch. Meet and greet with customers, consumers, fans etc That is PR. Communications on the other hand is about winning over hearts and minds with messaging and content – either in person or at a distance i.e. remotely via social media or even indirectly over other media platforms. Communications targets groups of people; demographics; audience or stakeholder profiles. PR deals with named individuals with unique identities and peculiarities.
- Communications passes on hard truths with ease – PR finds it very difficult to communicate hard truths because by nature it is very promotional and positive in tone. Communications has the leeway to adjust its tone and language to the mood of the moment. So if transmitting a message about a tragic incident at a production facility, strategic communications helps you find the appropriate tone without denying or deflecting liability. A PR approach is not required for message crafting in that context. A communications approach is needed.
- Driven by personal insights and intuition – PR is driven by personal insights and intuition. It is very personal and relies on the ability to drill down to the most personal preferences at an individual level to ensure that the event or meeting experience is very positive. Communications can help to craft the messaging that would be delivered to the individual(s) and also ensure that there is alignment and consistency in written and location design experience. But the in-person protocol, welcome, meet and greet as well as the hosting of the special guest is 100% a PR affair. Ability to read body language in real-time (and adapt as required) is also very important in this space.
- Communications is driven by hard data and digital analytics – Although both PR and Communications make use of data and analytics, communications relies on it more because it is not as up-close as PR. It does not have the advantage of being able to apologize in person, so it needs to ensure that the messaging is de-risked to the extent that a subsequent apology is not needed.
Communications enables you to target a very broad space of attention. It is borderless. PR is locationally present and active. Both are needed for different reasons towards the same goal.
It is important to understand these differences a practitioner so that you know when to drop the PR hat and put on the Communications cap. Understanding the points when both must work together and the areas in which PR must take primacy and where communications must be elevated is key. This is what determines the level of expertise and experience you have as a Communications professional.
A lack of understanding about these differences is what causes a lot of mis-management of communications in corporate business and political settings. Some situations require a communications approach i.e. non-promotional; factual, authentic, clear, transparent and concise. Others may require a more promotional and self-projecting approach. Knowing when and how to deploy each tactic is important.
Sola Abulu & Associates (SA&A) is a strategy and communications training and consulting firm dedicated to enabling businesses, brands and institutions to achieve their desired objectives through strategic communications, organizational effectiveness and reputation risk management.
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