What is public relations?

It's ironic that an industry concerned with the art of communication hasn't found a better title with which to describe its role. Whilst the names of other communications disciplines, such as advertising and direct mail, immediately convey both the 'what' and the 'how', the term 'public relations' does neither. As a result, the role of a PR agency remains woolly and ill-defined.

This lack of clear self-definition has given PR consultants a major image problem. It has allowed the role to be defined by people outside the industry - usually in less positive terms than the industry itself would like: spin, propaganda, free lunches and (in the UK) the Labour Party.

So what might be a better title to describe the work carried out by public relations practitioners? In our opinion, the role can be encapsulated in just one word: advocacy. It's a word that immediately conveys what PR is, the primary definition in the Oxford Dictionary being to: 'publicly recommend or support'. And if you look at the synonyms of an advocate in the Oxford Thesaurus, you will find: champion, upholder, supporter, backer, promoter, proponent, exponent, spokesman, spokeswoman and campaigner.

All describe exactly what public relations practitioners do. They go out on behalf of their clients (or themselves) and put the most positive case forward to the target audience. Unlike advertising, which does essentially the same thing, advocacy implies (and is), a more personal two-way dialogue. Like advertising, though, the end objective is invariably to drive sales.

As to the 'how', most people probably associate the word advocacy with verbal communication between an advocate and one or more people. It's true to say that the great majority of most PR practitioners' time is spent doing precisely this - persuading journalists to write yards of favourable editorial coverage about their clients.

But the traditional news media is only one of many communications platforms from which PR practitioners can champion their clients. Others include the Internet (websites, forums, e-mail discussion groups), events (launches, stunts, conferences, hospitality), and direct mail.

Regardless of the platform used to communicate the message, successful public relations depends on 2 skills. The first is that you can champion your cause eloquently and convincingly. In other words, you need to be able to talk and write well.

These skills are common enough that many companies can and do carry out their own public relations in-house. But the best writing and speaking skills in the world are worth nothing without the creativity needed to get the attention of your target audience in the first place.

That's where consulttheguru.com comes in. We brainstorm attention-grabbing ideas for marketing your product through the media, the Internet, events and direct mail. Our experienced team knows what works, and what doesn't. So, if you've got the skills to implement our recommendations in-house, you can do exactly that, with none of the expense of hiring an agency to do it for you.

Last updated: January 2007

Related public relations idea guides and resources:

• When and how to use public relations
• Choosing a PR agency
• Writing a press release
• Targeting press releases
• Sending press releases
• The media embargo
• Ringing journalists
• Measuring and evaluating PR
• Consultheguru for a PR idea for your business