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Even you can make PR work

Public relations or PR seems esoteric. PR seems something only a few experts comprehend or let alone do. Yet almost anyone, even you, can understand and make public relations work. One might ask why it works.

Our simple answer is: our experience tell us PR simply works.

According to the United Kingdom’s Institute of Public Relations, “public relations is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its publics.” In short, public relations is about forging good relationships between an entity, usually a business group, and the community which it interacts with. PR is concerned about how this affinity is created and maintained. Planning and persistent efforts are required to make this work.

Public relations is not just for big corporations or politicians, as is usually supposed. All sectors and actors from small companies, community organizations, religious groups, advocacies, to personalities can benefit from good public relations. It works for you. Here’s why.

Perception

This key word  almost always comes up when you talk about public relations. Perception differentiates a glass half full with one that is half empty. Mutual understanding starts with a positive perception. The consequences of what you say, what you do, and what others speak about you are crucial dimensions of public relations. Our experience taught us that making public relations work means managing perceptions well.

[bcct tweet=”Making public relations work means managing perceptions well.”]

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With this perspective, PR thus involves managing more than just mainstream (print, radio and television) and digital media. It means crafting and spreading appropriate messages that connect with the target audience.

Now managing perceptions is something that can’t be done just overnight. Reputations take time to build and at the same time extremely fragile that even a single mistake can break one. But effort in this realm would surely earn tangible benefits for your organization.

This is because good perception will make the public more inclined to either give your brand or new product a try, be more ready to be convinced by your ads, become partners with your organization, aspire to be part of your team, and even support you in times of crisis.

Growth

While managing perception means better publicity in the short term, we aim to build a good reputation in the long term. From a strategic point of view, good reputation accelerates growth of one’s business.

[bcct tweet=”Good reputation accelerates growth of one’s business.”]

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Of course, this means that we consider the stage of development of your organization. A smaller business entity would have a different PR requirement from bigger and more established companies. Entrepreneurs who are just starting out would likely prioritize growth but with a bootstrap marketing budget. Thus the need for emphasizing communication methods like the word of mouth, simple brochures, and a helpful website.

Meanwhile, an established company would already need to be more active in relating with the community through sponsorship and corporate social responsibility projects. It should have established a distinct identity and reputation and establish an active relation with members of the mass media.

Uplift Lives

A strategic view of public relations however does not just stop at one’s long-term business growth as an objective. Strategic PR impacts positively on people’s lives. Our experience taught us that PR works best when it uplift lives.

[bcct tweet=”Our experience taught us that PR works best when it uplift lives.”]

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More than fostering positive employee relations for instance, we ask, are they growing professionally, socially, and economically as the business grows? In the social media world, our employees are brand ambassadors in their own social networks. They help grow the business as we help them grow as professionals.

More than corporate social responsibility, good strategic public relations means fulfilling community obligations as good corporate citizens. CSR is a way of giving back to the community. The exercise of good corporate citizenship, on the other hand, means doing good for society and the environment is corporate DNA.

Access

Years of making PR work inevitably involves establishing access. For clients and brands, this means access and excellent relations mainstream and digital media.  It also means access by journalists and bloggers to sources of information. Moreover, we also build access to markets and nurture relationships with government.

Public relations works because we build, establish, manage, and nurture access and relationships among our various stakeholders.

[bcct tweet=”PR works because we build, establish, manage, nurture access & relationships.”]

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As we build our capability within the context of ASEAN economic integration, PRWorks has developed the Visayas and Mindanao as our turf in the Philippines.

Through the years, we have proven that public relations work in managing perceptions and fostering good relations with the public.

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