How to get the most out of public relations

Although there is a consensus among organizations, no matter whether they are corporations, small companies, public or state institutions or others, that communication is important and that it is necessary to manage it, it is often heard of disagreements about the position and the perception of this activity within the organization. Each communication expert has a task to impose themselves with their own expertise and personality, but there are also important pre-conditions in the organization that can contribute to achieving a better PR result. I will outline three prerequisites I find important after taking into account my experience in the field and numerous conversations with colleagues from PR - the position of the PR department in the organizational structure, the strategic perception of the PR function and the fact that PR is not just media relations.

1. The position of the public relations in the organizational structure – a natural position of the PR department is with the Management Board and it is necessary that a PR professional reports to the CEO or the Management Board. Namely, communication activities involve a lot of activities that permeate the entire organization and the only one that has an overview of all activities is the Management Board. But, in reality, the PR department is often found within one of the segments, that is, most often in the marketing or the human resources segment. The fact is that these segments are focused on their business and they do not have time to engage in numerous company activities that often require communication expertise, so it is not logical for the PR department to be within one of the segments. For example, how much will the marketing lead demonstrate understanding for solving issues with local authorities or arranging some kind of protocol with state institutions? Most likely not, because his/her interest is devoted to the promotion of the company’s products or services.

2. Public Relations - Strategic or operational function? – Does a PR practitioner take part in important meetings of the Management Board and is he/she on the source of information? If not, then PR has no strategic importance, but it is treated by the company as operational support. In other words, the Management or some of the segments make the decision about communication activities instead of PR and they even choose some tactics (eg. a press conference or an interview). Consequently, in that case the function of PR is to perform logistics and the media part of the job such as preparing invitations for the press conference or arranging the interview. Such an approach is wrong because the main question is whether the top management choose the right communication strategy and tactics in relation to the goals they are trying to achieve. Most often communication is very touchy and certainly an expert in that field will have more understanding and knowledge how to handle issues. That is why it is important to include a communications expert at the beginning of a discussion on a particular topic because his/her thinking may be valuable to the company's business, and potentially prevent some unwanted situations.

3.Public Relations is not just the media relations - there is much said about public relations not being just the media relations. The PR department communicates with a number of other publics - employees, customers, partners, unions, the local community, state structures, banks, and so on, but it seems that it is still considered that PR handles the media almost all the time. The reputation of the organization is undoubtedly important and the media are an important factor in building that image, but the reputation has to be built through other publics as well. For example, it is extremely important to dedicate time to internal communication - the best company’s and brand’s ambassadors are employees. There are also customers – the sales department is in constant contact with them, the marketing department forms campaigns, but PR is the one that should control the communication. What about suppliers who need to know about the strength and the reputation of the company? Or taking into account the relations to local communities which have a large effect on companies’ businesses? It is obvious that if having PR experts, the least you can do is to include him/her in the communication with various stakeholders that matter to you. Thus, the PR professional will get a complete overview of what is going on in the organization, more information and then the results will not be missed.                       .

Of course, PR departments can function even if these preconditions do not exist, but the experience shows that the ultimate communication effect is much smaller. Likewise, preconditions without quality and continuous work of the PR professional will not give the ultimate result. It should not be forgotten that, combined with these preconditions, patience is extremely important because communication primarily represents establishing of relationships. And this does not happen overnight, but often years are needed to build trust.