Letter to Cousin

Lisa,

I wanted respond to your questions regarding public relations and what it is. Some people are saying that the new term for P.R. is Strategic Communications. No matter what you refer to is as you are working with people to help them to understand you or your company better.
In helping me to understand the ideas of PR the definition has been a great tool to many people and myself.
Public relations is the art and the social sciences and analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organization leaders and implementing planned programs of action which will serve both the organization and public interest.
There are a lot of things that are involved when it comes to working in public relations. Some of the many task that come with the industry consist of advising management on policies, plan and conduct meetings, participate in policy decisions, talk to editors and reporters, listen to speeches, plan and manage events and conduct tours.
There are three main areas that we focus on when it comes to working with people and the media. The message, audience and media. You need to know the message that you or your company wants to present or portray. You need to become familiar with the information and know how to best answer people’s questions or whom you can direct them to in order to get their questions answered. Second comes knowing your audience and who the message is being directed too and how to present it. You need to make sure the writing, language and the simplicity can be understood by the people you are directing the message. Lastly you need to know how to present your message to the media and how to get yourself out there. You want it to be provided to everyone you can but it needs to portrayed in the right light and presented in the right way. There are so many great benefits from the different aspects of the media and a broad group of people that can be reached by the different media aspects.
The three best ways to get the information the public is through television, radio and print. Each of these aspects of the media can be a great tool when it comes to presenting your message.
Television is a great way to present a message if you want it to be portrayed by video clips, live scenes and pictures. You can have live interaction with spectators and get their reaction. The one downside that comes with television is that they will only see it once and for a few minutes. Radio is another great way to present a message because listeners are very faithful and very loyal when it comes to the radio and if they hear something enough they are more likely to buy your product or accept the information that is being stated. Lastly the newspaper or print is a great way to present your message because people can read the message multiple times and this is a great way to present a message if it is something that is complicated or it’s a delicate message that you are releasing. It gives people time to think about it and let is sink in and to allow them to study it. The great thing that comes with the newspaper is you have time to put your message together.
There are so many things to write about when it comes to public relations. You write about what is going on within the company to stockholders. You may have to write a story in a magazine about big changes that are happening within the company or a product. You may hold a press conference to discuss things the media may have questions about or that you want to announce. Often times when something new is coming out or changing and you want the media to know. You will hold a press conference to announce the information and answer any questions people may have.
The big thing to remember when it comes to public relations is. It takes days, weeks, months or even years to attract people. Be patient because there is no quick fixes what took a longtime to build can come tumbling down and take a long time to rebuild.
Hope that this helps you to understand what public relations a little better and how it works. Good luck in school and work.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey Wright