Public Relations is NOT Media Relations
I woke up this morning feeling quite good, and planning my to-dos for the day. Signed in for work via the staff Whatsapp Group (how is your SME coping with WFM and staff resumptions? We simplified things at Mosron Communications! Lol)
And then I check my Whatsapp Groups — to see what news I have missed out on, what new development has come up in the last 10 hours in Digital Marketing and Public Relations. That is how I came to see this tweet thread: https://twitter.com/tori_crandall/status/1280460136625188864?s=09.
At first glance, it is an excellent thread that addresses a critical question about the difference between public relations and marketing. Public Relations is core storytelling, focused on organisational reputation building — not product sales. On this, I agree 100%.
Incidentally, that thread also exposed one of the fundamental problems that has faced core Public Relations professionals over the years: the assumption that public relations = media relations.
One of the biggest challenges PR is facing is this narrative Victoria is pushing, and perhaps one of the reasons why Tech PR has somewhat been reduced to how much media coverage you can get. PR is not just Media Relations. That is the least but unfortunately most visible PR function.
Public Relations includes corporate communications — providing strategic story telling for the organisation through compelling content creation — website, corporate presentations, idea arrangement to show the WHY. Corporate Communications includes making sure that official correspondence are properly written and error-free. The importance of this is often downplayed but check out how an error cost Pepsi $32m.
Public Relations tells the public why they should trust the ORGANISATION, not necessarily focusing on any specific product.
PR includes stakeholder engagement — from employees, to management, to government agencies, shareholders, investors — think of anyone who has some form of influence or impact on your business: it is PR’s responsibility to help identify, develop and manage such relationships.
Should we talk about the critical role Public relations plays during a crisis? Crises Communications is one aspect that organisations agree that PR experts need to come on board.
PR does not sell. But it helps organisations open the doors to places where sales and regulatory conversations take place.
Let’s bring it home: during the lockdown in Nigeria, some companies were exempted from the stay-at-home directive so that they could move goods around. I can speak authoritatively that for some 50–60% of the companies exempted, their Public Relations and Communications Directors held several meetings to ensure that their company was included in the exemption list.
This information will never make the news, but without the result of PR’s intervention company operations would have shut down completely.
That is core stakeholder management.
Many organisations know that they need communications and public relations, they are just not quite clear on what exactly such role should perform. I shared a generic description of the functions of such unit here.
Let’s talk about how Public Relations Aids Marketing and Business Development
For us at Mosron Communications, media relations is not part of our top 4 value proposition when discussing with prospects and clients. It is very easy to get carried away with being in the news, without examining or measuring the specific impact of public relations to core business objectives.
Public Relations activities can be measured. An example is when you publish a press release or write a proper article. Make sure someone on the team is checking Google analytics for the website or brand. Within 24 hours, there will be an increase in site visitors. There will also be an increase in search terms related to the business.
Also monitor LinkedIn: there will be a market increase in the number of people who are searching for, and looking at the profile of CEO.
Is that not direct impact? People are now more curious. When marketing/business development moves in, reception is easier, conversations are shorter because the prospect has prior information about the company and they trust the company to an extent.
Where a typical sales cycle can be 12 months, with proper PR, that period can be reduced significantly. I say that PR provides a soft landing for business development and sales to close deals.
Business executives can be excused when they confuse Public Relations with Media Relations. But where public relations professionals reduce our work to just this subset, it becomes quite clear why executives insist that “if we are not in the news, you are not working” 😭😭😭
( Mosron Communications has had good success here managing media engagement for client organisations, including planning and hosting virtual press conferences during the lockdown. We shared a step-by-step process document, including a checklist to guide activities from planning to post-event follow up. Download a complimentary copy here.)
I write on Public Relations and Communications, lead the team at Mosron Communications, Founded Nigerian Women in PR, provide personal PR consultancy to senior business executives and talk about credible investments that assure financial freedom. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter; I’d like to know you better!
