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What is PR?

So you want to work in PR. You want to be a company’s loud hailer. But what is public relations really all about? And what’s the difference between PR and Corporate Communications? Here’s the very basics…

By Emily Morrison

Introduction

PR, or public relations, is the bridge between an organisation and its “audiences”.

An organisation will have a number of audiences – eg consumers, investors, employees, government. The challenge in PR is deciding the audience you wish to communicate with, then finding a way to reach that audience. The better the communication between you and your audiences, the higher the profile and the better the reputation of the organisation you are working for.

A PR person normally communicates exciting changes within a company, eg new products, new offers, new people. Though sometimes a PR person has to try and keep an organisation out of the press to preserve its reputation (eg if it is involved in something controversial, or going through a crisis).

A common way of communicating with any audience is by issuing a press release to relevant media, which informs journalists, who then inform their readers. In simple terms, a PR person is a story-teller. Their task is to tell interesting stories about their employer or client. If they succeed, the story is picked up on by the media who in turn tell the public.

What is the difference between ‘corporate communications’ and ‘PR’?

The truth is that for many people, the terms are interchangeable – they mean the same thing. However, some people within the industry would disagree.

For example, someone who does internal communications would probably say they were in the ‘corporate communications’ industry (or the ‘comms’ industry, as it’s often called), but not PR.

Sometimes ‘PR’ is specifically associated with media relations – dealing with the press. Those who deal more directly with other audiences – eg employees, investors – may be more likely to say they are in ‘corporate communications’.

However, in our guide we tend to use ‘PR’ and ‘corporate communications’ interchangably.

Some aspects of ‘corporate communications’ can cross over with the ‘marketing’ sector, so if you are interested in corporate communications it may be worth checking out our guide to marketing too.

Some random PR stats…

The UK public relations industry has a £6.5bn annual turnover.

It is one of the top three career choices for graduates.

Public relations presents excellent career prospects: the profession is healthy, vibrant and growing, with an estimated 48,000 people working within PR in the UK today.

There is a whole array of new communication tools and channels such as blogs, wikis and podcasts that allow PR professionals to target their prime stakeholders.

Source: CIPR 2004