Public Relations, often abbreviated simply to PR, is the part of businesses that aid in communication both outwards and inwards. The PR department is the one who deals with news sources, social media, and then also every level within the business. 

Having one department to distribute communique helps keep brands and company statements organized and comprehensive. With this, all peoples within a business will know all of the same information, as well as where the brand is and where the brand is going. Overall, the PR department incorporates all of the behind-the-scenes marketing and researching that shapes and creates what companies are. 

In Mastering Public Relations (2007), a novel from esteemed PR specialist Anthony Davis, Davis explains that PR can be encompassed with both research and practicing “responsible behavior,” which comprises the majority of “public interest.” For example, a blog business’s PR dept. would be looking for trending topics to write about. Whereas, the PR dept. of a technology company would be in charge of examining how competitors are advertising new products (because inventors will already be working on the new tech). 

A few responsibilities that a public relations manager would have, according to CynopsisMedia (2019), would include things like:

• Announcing timelines to news sources and helping the company stay within those times as well as project budgets. 
• Be able to supervise multiple campaigns, strategies, and all other maneuverings for various projects. 
• Know how to operate social media, including the many layers of SEO and the like thereof such as hashtags and following trends. 

With PR and Advertising often being coupled together, it is important to highlight the distinctions between the two. For instance, one component of PR that largely differentiates itself from an advertising department would be where a business’s budget goes. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statics, under “What Public Relations Specialties Do,” paints the picture that within a magazine – the PR part is the articles with positive limelight for brands and the Advertising part is the paid-for sections that more clearly trying to get customers to buy things. 

One reason why is it important for businesses today to have a PR dept. is because the work that the department would do has to be done either way in order to reach high levels of success. There is always the lucky winning-the-lottery break of “trending” online, but even then, a business has to know how to answer to the popularity that is received. Take, for example, the language used to different audience ages and locations – a company will always want to best represent their brand in every post and reply.  

For me, the reason why I want to go into public relations is that it requires one to commit to challenging tasks. As a profession, you take a company’s everlasting problem and try to solve it. With that problem being: reaching, keeping, and intriguing both customers and potential customers. And for those who highly enjoy problem-solving, research, and helping improve businesses, public relations is a complicatedly easy route to choose.

---

Cynopsis Media. (2019, August 30). Sr Manager, Public Relations. Retrieved from http://www.cynopsis.com/jobs/sr-manager-public-relations/
Davis, A. (2007). Mastering Public Relations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=ugbcCwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). Public Relations Specialists : Occupational Outlook Handbook: Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/public-relations-specialists.htm#tab-2