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9 MIN

What Is
Modern Public
Relations? 15
De!nitions
From
Experienced
PR
Practitioners

EDYTA KOWAL, DIGITAL MARKETING /

CONTENT MARKETING / PUBLIC
RELATIONS EXPERT, CEO EDYTAKOWAL.PL
@edyta_kowal

What is PR nowadays? Can you share

with me your public relations

definition? I bet you do.

“We live in a constant communication

cycle. Anyone can become the next

opinion leader. In the face of these

changes, the role of public relations is

changing”– declared our CEO, Joanna

Drabent, last year. Quite logical.

Communication is nowadays more

contextual, personalized, geolocated,

and just-in-time, and consumers are

more enlightened and empowered than

ever. We all have to adapt to the digital

transformation. But do we, people

responsible for communication,

understand it?

Our small experiment with the fax

proves that not necessarily. PR experts

still use heavy, outdated o!ce app

suites and spreadsheets or even fax

(yes!) to manage their daily activities.

It takes too much time. (BTW: That’s

why we created Prowly)

Anyway, What Is
Public Relations
Today?
“The formal practice of what is now

commonly referred to as public

relations dates back to the early 20th

century. In the relatively brief period

leading up to today, public relations

has been defined in many di"erent

ways, the definition often evolving

alongside public relations’ changing

roles and technological advances,

which we mentioned above.” This is

what PRSA has to say on the topic.

Different
Organizations,
Different Public
Relations
De!nitions
IPR puts it simply:

In 1982, the PRSA National Assembly

adopted this definition: “Public

relations helps an organization and its

publics adapt mutually to each other.”

In 2011‒12, PRSA spearheaded an

international project aimed at

updating the definition of public

relations. It included a crowdsourcing

campaign and a public vote that

resulted in the following:

The Chartered Institute of Public

Relations (CIPR) stresses a di"erent

aspect of public relations. It underlines

that every organization, no matter how

large or small, ultimately depends on

its reputation for survival and success.

And in today’s competitive market,

reputation can be a company’s biggest

asset – the thing that makes you stand

out from the crowd and gives you a

competitive edge. E"ective PR – we

read in CIPR statement – can help

manage reputation by communicating

and building good relationships with

all organization stakeholders.

Read related article: Public Relations.

The Ultimate Guide for 2020

The main definition of public relations

used by the PRIA is almost the same.

However, with the massive change in

the communication process brought

about by the information era, public

relations – explains the PRIA on its

website – could be easily described as:

What Does Public

Relations Mean to
PR Practitioners?
For Jason Falls (the author of the

article “Social Media Is The

Responsibility Of Public Relations”),

what is most telling in your social

media e!orts, is the message. And

that is for him most likely already

being supplied by your public

relations or communications arm.

Falls underlines: “As soon as three to

five years from now, I see social media

marketing as an almost exclusive

domain of public relations

professionals, so long as we get our

collective heads out of our asses and

learn how to do it. Some of us are

there. Many of us are not. Too many of

us think social media is newspapers in

Eastern Europe.”

Here Are 15 Public

Relations
De!nitions From
Experienced PR
Practitioners:

Danielle Hibbert, Senior

Project Manager at
Belfast-based consumer
PR agency Clearbox

In 2006, for me, it was simply about

building and managing a brand’s

reputation – how companies or

individuals are perceived, how they

perceive themselves and how any

disconnect between the two can be

addressed. This relied heavily on

strong media relations and resulted in

positive coverage in newspapers,

magazines, TV, and radio. Job done.

In 2016, reputations are still at the

heart of PR, but the road is longer and

has many more twists and turns.

Today, for me, PR is about the art of

communicating, creating debate,

shaping personalities, influencer

relationships, producing quality

content, and owning the conversation.

We also can’t ignore the rising

importance of search engine

optimization as an objective in our PR

campaigns.

Rafał
Sałak, Communications
Lead at Prowly

Public relations is communication of

an intended message that aims to

result in a shift of audience’s attitude

(towards a person, brand, event, etc.)

Jordan Townley, PR &

CSR Specialist

For me, the definition of PR is

reputation management. It’s ensuring

that your brand has a clear message

and successful PR is ensuring that

message is e!ectively represented and

interpreted to the right audience.

E!ective PR is about being proactive,

not just reactive to situations or

brand/business activity. With the rise

of PESO (Paid, Earned, Shared, and

Owned), PR’s need to focus on content

with transparency is key.

Charlie de
Mierre, Creative
Director at Porter
Novelli London

PR is the art of convincing others

(consumers, media, influencers, etc.)

of a company, brand, or product’s

relevance, rather than simply telling

them. PR agencies have always worked

to provide their clients with reasons to

be talked about and to help them

identify and communicate a purpose

in people’s lives. It’s been the only

way to grab the audience’s attention

without paying for it. And in a rapidly

evolving digital world, this is what

consumers are demanding more and

more. They have become disillusioned

with companies who have crumbled in

the face of social and digital

transparency and are now proactively

choosing brands that are authentically

on their side. They want brands with a

purpose, brands that give customers

good and relevant reasons to choose

them. And that’s why PR is becoming

an increasingly powerful discipline –

because we’ve been doing just that for

years.

Stephen
Waddington, Chief
Engagement Officer at
Ketchum

Public relations is the practice of

understanding the purpose of an

organization and its relationships

within society. It is the planned and

sustained activity of engagement

between these two parties to influence

behavior change, and build mutual

understanding and trust. Engagement

between an organization and its

publics is the core of public relations

practice. It is a two-way process by

which an organization communicates

with its publics and vice versa.

Ian Mude, Group

Development Director
at Be Heard

Katarzyna
Kamińska, Contributor/W
at 150sec.com

Angu Ransom, Founder

at RANSBIZ

Edyta Kowal · Mar 1, 2016

@edyta_kowal · Follow
What does PR mean to you?
@KataKaminska @JimmySpeath88
@HashtagCuisine @azehrams
@IanMaude writing blog post &
appreciate your contribution

Ian Maude
@IanMaude · Follow

@edyta_kowal @KataKaminska @JimmySpeath88

@HashtagCuisine @azehrams Done well: clear,
consistent message. Done badly: the opposite.
5:01 PM · Mar 1, 2016

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Read 1 reply

Kristen Tischhauser,
Managing Partner at
talkTECH

Public relations is the act of spreading

awareness on behalf of a company,

product, brand, or individual.

Publicists do this for their clients by

garnering media coverage, creating

partnerships, owned content strategy,

etc.

Grzegorz
Miller, Blogger at
Social-pr.pl

Public relations: everything that’s

done in order to create or maintain a

subject’s public image in a specified

target group. The subject of these

activities could be a product, a

company, or its department, an

individual, or an idea. The target group

could be narrow (for niche products)

as well as very broad (for example a

whole social group). PR is carried out

with various tools – both traditional,

like media relations, advocacy, or

employer branding, and modern, like

social media relations.

Filip
Kochan, Communications
Officer, Poland and the
Baltics, World Bank

We are living in an era when huge

amounts of information are available

wherever we are and whatever we do.

Radio, television, printed press, social

media, blogs, internet portals – a