Explaining PR to Uncle Joe

For no reason in particular I woke up this morning with graduation on the mind. Oddly enough, my only concern was how I was going to explain my major, and what I plan to make a career out of, to my family. It was difficult enough during the holidays and I would rather not repeat that spiel again come May 8th. So, I did the only logical thing I could come up with: turned to Google. I knew I couldn't be the only one with this problem and I was right. For those of you who may face this same issue, I've complied a few of the best explanations to help your family and friends understand exactly what we do.

• "Public relations (PR) is the use of communications to manage public perception of an individual or an organization." What Is

• "Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics." PRSA

• "A public relations specialist is an image shaper. Their job is to generate positive publicity for their client and enhance their reputation. The client can be a company, an individual or a government. " The Princeton Review

• "PR agencies and advertising agencies share the same goals:  promoting clients and making them seem as successful, honest, important, exciting or relevant as possible.  But the paths to creating awareness are vastly different. PR agencies, as opposed to advertising agencies, promote companies or individuals via editorial coverage." Forbes

• "It’s my job to talk to the public about my clients, and to help my clients listen to what the public is saying about them. My ultimate goal is to get positive attention for my clients, which may mean securing news stories, getting people to talk us up on social media, planning cool events, or anything else creative I can come up with." Talent Zoo

• “I help companies communicate with people – customers, employees, legislators. And with you! If you’ve read a story in a newspaper or on CNN.com on a new product, a PR pro shared that with the reporter and lined up the interviews. If you see a business leader delivering a speech, a PR pro probably wrote it. If you happen across a really cool event in Bryant Park, a PR pro likely played a major part in the idea behind it. We work with executives to figure out the smartest, most effective ways to engage with people, let them know what’s going on with the company, and get their thoughts and feedback.” Communications Catalyst

• "You make your clients look good by coordinating interviews and providing information about them to the media." Business Insider

Sure, most of these definitions are blunt or don't cover the full breadth of what we do, but for the purpose of having your relatives get a grasp of our industry, these should do just fine. We are taught to be concise after all!

PR’s Generation Gap

At Sunday dinners, I can usually predict the questions my Poppop will ask me: ”How are your classes?” “Are any boys bothering you?” “You’re not walking anywhere alone, right?” However, at our last family dinner, he threw me a curve ball by asking, “So what exactly is it that you do?” I had no response. An image I saw from a PR daily article popped into my head.

Before I could respond, he asked “spin stuff?” My mouth dropped open. My Poppop has been known to use four-letter words from time to time, but I could not believe he used THIS four-letter word! I started rambling off anything to make him believe PR is anything but spin. But looking back it makes me wonder, is there a generation gap surrounding PR?

Of course in the picture above there is a big question mark above “what my parents (and grandparents) think I do.” Being a veteran, my Poppop thinks of PR as propaganda rallying for the World Wars and protesting Vietnam. PR professionals were the ones “behind the scenes” to play up JFK’s young, attractive image and use it against Nixon.  He remembers them as the ones who “spun” scandals to cover political leaders. Remember learning about the Watergate scandal? How about Clinton’s famous lines “I did not have sexual relations with that woman?”

How do people see PR now? Well, the Samantha Joneses of the world would describe it as event planning, attending galas and getting your client to appear at the hottest places.  Just take a look at “what my friends think I do.” Not to mention, the belief PR professionals are glued to their smart phones tweeting like crazy (we DO still check Facebook!).

Both generations have it wrong! PR involves so much more than rescuing a politician or planning a gala. It takes the ability to think on your feet. The press release is not totally dead, so you need to be a strong writer. PR people must keep up with the latest news. You must understand the media’s side and know how to pitch journalists. Having a business sense is also highly recommended. PR is job that takes years to build up credibility and only a second to destroy it. If we really did “what our friends think we do” there would be a lot more broken AP style rules in our writing.

There are a million ways to describe what “we actually do.” But is there just one definition? Definitely not. How do you define PR?

This guest blog post was written by PRowl Staff Member Lauren Bentley.

What PR is and what it is NOT

“Oh you’re majoring in PR, that’s so exciting…but what is that exactly?” This is a pretty common question for me when I tell people my major. PR Daily recently posted two articles about what public relations is and what it is not that I think really clear up this question.  Public relations is not “a business function that deals with the media and/or bloggers and NOTHING else” and it is not “the only place to house social media.”  We are definitely in a world ruled partially by social media and yes, it does play a key role in the PR world but it is not the only tool that public relations professionals rely on.  PR is about using different outlets for different clients based on what’s best for them and what is best for getting their message out to the public.  Public relations doesn’t just deal with the media, it deals with many different audiences from many different areas. 

Journalists hate PR and PR professionals hate journalists.  That seems to be the common understanding of the relationship between PR and journalism.  PR Daily addresses the relationship by stating that PR is not “journalism’s peon [or] always best carried out by former journalists [or] a vocation that idiots who could not make it as journalists go into.”  Those are indeed some of the stereotypes that go alongside PR and its relationship with journalism, and the PR world is working hard to get people to see past them.  This relationship exists because, as the article posted by PR Daily states, PR is “misunderstood—especially by journalists.”

PR is not synonymous for “spin,” and that’s what many people seem to believe and this is a big part of the aforementioned misunderstanding.  When it comes down to it, PR is “an industry with enormous growth potential” and “a craft that requires fundamental understanding of human needs and wants.”  Public relations lives and breathes and it is a business revolving around people.  PR professionals, hopefully, are emotionally intelligent people with their client’s best needs at heart. According to PR Daily it’s “something oodles of people are passionate about” and that is wonderful to hear.  It’s a great industry that is only going to continue to grow and the sooner people learn what PR is and what PR is not, the better.  

To read more about what PR is check out this article on PR Daily and to find out more about what PR is not refer to this article from PR Daily.

This guest blog post was written by PRowl Public Relation's staff member London Faust.