Let us be clear about the meaning of public relations.
Essentially, public relations is about creating understanding through knowledge, and this often involves effecting change. Public relations is therefore a form of communication. It applies to every sort of organisation, commercial or non-commercial, in the public or private sector. Public relations consists of all communications with all the people with whom the organisation has contact.
For some people, the definition of PR sounds a lot like what social media, advertising, or influencers do!
While certainly they differentiate from each other, They all sure fall under the wider umbrella of marketing, but Public Relations involves a variety of programs designed to maintain or enhance a company’s image and the products and services it offers. The implementation of an effective public relations strategy is one of the components to a marketing plan, as it plays an integral part of the marketing mix.
PR has a credibility that advertising does not. PR provides a positive perception that advertising campaigns can exploit, as people tend to believe to a much higher degree what they read in newspapers and magazines, and what they see on TV and listen to on the radio over what they read and see in an advertisement. Basically an article or a news flash has a much greater impact than an ad.
This is summed up by the saying: “ADVERTISING IS WHAT YOU PAY FOR, PUBLICITY IS WHAT YOU PRAY FOR”
-(PRovoke, 2019)
