The term "Public Relations", PR for short, comes from the English language and is generally used as a synonym for public relations. In general, PR deals with any kind of relationship formation that is intended to change and, above all, improve the perception of others. But it is not only about the perception of your company to the outside world. It can also refer to the communication within your company:
PR measures are mainly outward-looking. They serve to consciously shape the communication relations between your company and your potential interested parties. You should distinguish between interest groups that you yourself consider important (e.g. customers or partners) and groups that demand certain communication services from you (e.g. residents, environmentalists, or shareholders). This includes, for example, the disclosure of information, as in the case of the obligation to disclose information to public authorities or the obligation to provide certain company information if your company is listed on the stock exchange, for example. The mutual exchange of information or opinions with individuals and groups also falls under the PR aspect. In addition, public relations has the task of identifying the opinions and views of specific target and stakeholder groups, orienting its own actions on this basis, and comparing its own image with that of others. PR is thus a kind of cornerstone between the company and the public.
The demands on public relations, therefore, vary considerably depending on the assignment and target group. However, the four core competencies of PR always form the basis:
For many people, the terms marketing, advertising, and PR are all the same. Admittedly, the boundaries are becoming more blurred due to ever-increasing communication via social networks. No wonder: here, a wide variety of instruments from different disciplines are used together. Nevertheless, there are differences between the three terms:
Measuring PR success means measuring changes in reality and putting them into an impact context with the activities. However, due to the complexity of the correlations, direct proof of the effect of communication can rarely be provided. Measuring success is, therefore, an important, but also a delicate factor. As a rule, PR measures run for many months or even years. During this period your company, your environment, and your website are exposed to numerous influences on which public relations has only limited influence. For example, if the number of visitors to a website declines, this is often interpreted as a failure of online PR. The real causes, on the other hand, can be found in the marketing environment or in changes in the Google search algorithm. This significantly increases the difficulty of determining reliable key figures that reflect the "performance" of the press and public relations work. If you want to measure the success of PR, it is essential that you make your goals concrete, measurable, and realistic in advance. Exact key figures can be provided, for example, by the number of participants at an event, the concrete media response to a press release, or the visits to your homepage after a campaign. On the other hand, the collection of data is problematic in crisis PR. This often has the task of counteracting negative reporting and is generally scheduled at short notice. The changes themselves can be proven by opinion and image research and empirical social research. For example, regularly repeated surveys with control groups that have had no contact with the communication measures carried out allow conclusions to be drawn about the effect. Comparison with other organizations (benchmarking) can also provide you with information. However, this is relatively complex and possibly also expensive. It is easier to measure the concrete success of PR work, e.g. by means of qualified evaluation of publications. Clippings (publications) are sorted according to various criteria such as qualified mention, simple naming, product naming; type of medium; the number of readers; congruence with the target group, etc. Over a longer period of time, you can document a change in media attention. As a simple control of success, which is quite sufficient for small and medium-sized companies at the beginning, it is sufficient to document the clippings in the form of a press review.
If you would like to do public relations, many paths are open to you. There is no patent remedy. You can, for example, invest directly in your own team and hire an expert or draw on the long-standing expertise of an external agency. Everything has advantages and disadvantages.
The search for the perfect public relations and marketing communications agency is not always easy: you will have to do a bit of searching to find a suitable PR agency that can meet your individual needs. Here are some important tips to help you do this:
Check in advance by e-mail or on the phone whether the basic wavelength is correct. If this is the case, a personal meeting is necessary to get a good "gut feeling" for the agency and its employees and to lay the foundation for a future cooperation.
We at Thought Leader Systems are much more than a press office. Rather, we help you to establish yourself as a thought leader in the market and to secure your business success. Because we want your great ideas to prevail, ideas that make other people's lives better. We support your company with all the means at our disposal - whether with strategy, consulting, or software - so that you win the hearts and minds of people. Develop your impact and be recognized and appreciated by us as a thought leader in the market.
We at Thought Leader Systems have our roots in both medium-sized companies and internationally operating corporations and can look back over several decades in leading positions in the free economy. Our business model consists of management strategy, innovation, psychology, IT, marketing, sales, content management, public relations, and strategic communication. We make no distinction between on- and offline, between digital and print. Because we live in an age in which customers communicate via all media and channels.
That's why our team of digital specialists works together with advertising psychologists and experts in classical communication. We all help you to achieve a unique position in the market - also internationally. Contact us for public relations if you
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