What is Public Relations? The short answer is that they are the companies that help brands promote their products. The long answer? Public relations is a strategic communication process companies, individuals, and organizations use to build mutually beneficial relationships with the public.

Most brands will utilize a public relations firm in some way. It could be as simple as just having them handle their social media presence. Yet it could go deeper, such as having the public relations firm work with influencers to get their brand out onto social media and such.

What can they do?

This is a great question. A lot of people don’t really know the full scope of what a public relations firm cam do. Let’s dig into it a bit. Below are some of the functions within a public relations firm:

  • Crisis Communications
  • Executive Communications
  • Investor Relations Communications
  • Marketing Communications
  • Media Relations
  • Content Creation
  • Events
  • Social Media
  • Reputation Management
  • Speechwriting
  • Brand Journalism

Now, I know that list is quite long. However, this isn’t everything that a public relations firm can do. A PR firm is, quite literally, a do-it-all firm!

Influencers

Now, as an influencer, I’ve worked with many public relations firms. Most are super helpful and fabulous to work with. I’ve had one or two that haven’t been so fabulous, but it’s really not the norm. Generally, they will email me and pitch a brand to me. At that time, if I’m interested, I will email back with information on my part. We will then email back and forth to work out specifics and get the campaign under way. This is a form of brand advertising. I will then work on a campaign on my website, as well as social media outlets, promoting the brand and/or a specific product from them. 

Speech

Any time you see someone from a brand giving some kind of speech, most likely their PR firm is responsible for writing it. That’s another thing that they do. They will either write the speech or work closely with the speaker to help them tweak one they’ve written. This helps the brand to ensure they are saying the correct things, using correct grammar, etc. 

Events

Most of the time PR firms will help set up any kind of event that a brand/business is hosting. They do this to ensure it runs smoothly and gets the brand “out there.” PR firms will work on the advertising for the event, and send out invitations. They may not necessarily plan the event, as an even planner will likely do that, but they work very closely with the planner. There are certain images that a brand wants to project and the PR firm will help that happen.

Public Relations firms are great to have.

A brand would do well to have a PR firm on hand. Now, obviously there are a ton of firms to choose from, and it’s hard to know where to start. While I know that a brand is going to want a firm with experience, sometimes a startup PR firm would be just as great, and it would also help that firm get off the ground. It’s definitely something to consider, because everyone has to start somewhere!

Majenica

"Time spent with cats is never wasted." ~ Sigmund Freud