What is Public Relations?

Public relations is the management activity that provides accurate and timely information which compels people to enable an organization to achieve its mission. Good pr achieves awareness, appreciation, and action.

Essential Elements of PR

Successful pr relies on understanding of mission, audience, message, and media.

Mission: What are the goals of the organization? What are its plans and its programs? What is the evidence that it has accomplished prior goals?

Audience: Who are the people on whose actions the organization depends for success? Internal audiences include staff and volunteers. External audiences: donors, kindred non-profit organizations, corporate partners, and government agencies.

Message: To motivate each audience, answer this question: How does engaging with our organization benefit them? Knowing each audience and their desires allows creation of simple statements encourages each to act in your best interests.

Media: Audiences are motivated by media they have come to trust. Leaders of business, government, funding agencies, civic and non-profit organizations, and educational and religious institutions tend to rely on traditional print and broadcast media. Increasingly the general public gathers information from social media. However word of mouth – what your friends tell you – is the most trusted media. Thus everyone associated with an organization is a communicator!