What is the Value of Public Relations in the 21st Century?
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) defines public relations as seen below:
Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.
Public relations is a management function for brands, businesses and organizations. It is a professional practice that builds and maintains a positive relationship with stakeholders.
The value of public relations in different functional areas
- Media relations: The knowledge of public relations serves as a guide in how a brand relates with the media. In the 21st century, the media has evolved from traditional to a mix of traditional and digital media. Public relations guide how brands should engage with the media as a stakeholder and netizens who have owned media and can influence a brand positively or negatively
- Government Relations: Businesses and organizations in some sectors relate very often with the government, especially those involved in policy-making. Public relations is the practice area that builds a mutually beneficial relationship between brands and the government
- Community Relations: This is important for large scale businesses and organizations whose operations can affect the host community. An example is a water corporation. These kind of businesses have several trucks driving into the community and are sometimes powered by generators which can increase the carbon and noise pollution in the host communities. Building and nurturing relationships proactively will help sustain the business in cases where there are issues or crises threatening their reputation.
- Customer Relations: A customer is a stakeholder with an influence and interest in your business or organization. Managing relationships, through quality service delivery and responses to complaints can build good relationships with stakeholders. Public relations professionals acknowledge that customers have a broad network of influence which can be utilized to damage the reputation. So, it becomes value to protect this reputation by ensuring customer satisfaction
- Investor relations: Large scale businesses and organizations that are quoted on the stock exchange with investors need to effectively utilize public relations expertise to manage these relationships. One way to proactively manage these relationships is to be on top of news in the media about your sector and inform the investors of what is of priority or with tendencies to potentially affect/support the business growth.
According to Sola Abulu, “The core focus in public relations (PR) is managing relationships, protecting reputation and building goodwill with identified stakeholders.”
In an article on “The Value of Implementing PR in Your Business” by Forbes, it was stated that
PR is about managing how others see and feel about who or what you’re representing, as well as presenting the information in the best possible light.
Feel free to watch our recorded webinar on Public Relations and Communications: Understanding the Basics
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