What is public relations? (PR)

Public Relations (more commonly abbreviated to "PR") is the name given to a series of tactics that aim to protect a person or organisation's reputation. PR is a focused effort to promote the activities that are being carried out in a positive light.

Ultimately, PR aims to get positive sentiment in front of any given target audience, whether that is customers or additional stakeholders - or both. Not all PR coverage is positive, however, so measuring sentiment is important when evaluating any public relations activity.

Traditionally, public relations (PR) was very focused on engaging with journalists to seek coverage of a press release. In more modern times, PR  has broadened to include digital PR (related to SEO) as well as stakeholder engagement.

What tactics are classed as PR?

Modern-day PR tactics include:

• Press release creation and distribution 
• Media relations - the process of engaging with the press (i.e., journalists) to secure press release coverage or to pitch proactive opportunities, many shown below
• Thought leadership - positioning content pieces that aim to showcase an individual as an expert in their field 
• Forward features - identifying a list of themes or topics that publications are going to cover and pitching your own relevant content angles 
• Reactive commentary - providing comments around things already in the news, i.e., data breaches, the cost of living crisis, Love Island, and so on
• Crisis comms - reacting to negative publicity, on or offline