Public Relations practitioners undertake a variety of PR activities throughout the communications life cycle as they seek to identify and build relationships with the media and understand and influence the conversation about them, their industry and competitors across print, broadcast, online and social media.
External Communications – Messages disseminated through paid, owned or earned media to external audiences.
Internal Communications – Planned messages disseminated to employees through a variety of communications channels, including newsletters, bulletin boards, payroll stuffers, posters, etc.
Media Relations – Dissemination of purposefully planned and executed messages to selected media to further the interest of an organization or person without specific payment to media. Media relations relies on finding and connecting with journalists and influencers who can help amplify messages.
Paid Advertising – Preparation, purchase and placement of purposefully planned and executed messages in selected print, broadcast, online or social media to further the interest of an organization or person.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – Recognition of a corporation’s obligations and responsibilities to communities by making monetary and resource contributions to charitable organizations.
Corporate Sponsorship – Providing support to an event or a cause by devoting corporate resources in exchange for an opportunity to enhance good will, product image and sales.
Lobbying – Direct attempts to influence legislative and regulatory decisions in government.
- In Canada, the Lobbyists Registration Act governs who and how lobbying can be done
- In the US, there are stringent lobbying disclosure regulations
Promotion – Using techniques such as events, promos, ads and stunts to create and stimulate interest in a person, product, organization or cause.
Publicity – Information about an organization, person, issue or cause published or broadcast in the news media because of its value or relevance/importance to the community or the media outlet’s audiences.
Public Relations Research – The term public relations research does not describe specific types of research methodology such as content analysis, public opinion polls or readership surveys. Instead, the term refers to any type of research that yields data for use in planning and evaluating public relations efforts. Four basic categories of public relations research activities are most common: media monitoring, public relations audits, communication audits and social audits. Public relations research can be formal or informal, primary or secondary, qualitative or quantitative, etc.