The Wonderful World of PR (part 2) - skills and studying

What is PR? blog series by final year student Lindelani Moyo. Read post one here.

In this second post in the series, we will look at the differences between public relations, marketing, and advertising, listed the skills you'll need in the industry right now and what you’d learn on a PR degree.

 

Explaining the difference between Public Relations, Marketing and Advertising

We discussed what public relations is in the previous post and acknowledged that PR is its own discipline. It is also important to recognise that:

     

Public relations is not advertising.

  And

Public relations is not marketing.

 

These areas to intersect but they have distinct differences:

 

• Advertising: Advertising is a one-way communication strategy that uses paid media techniques such as commercial placement, television advertisements, and social media ads to communicate the selling of a business's goods or services to its target customers and prospective buyers.
  
  

• Marketing: Marketing refers to the activities that a company engages in to encourage customers to purchase a product or service. The "marketing mix" is the foundation model for this term, which includes the four "P's": product, location, positioning, and promotion, but notice there's no "PR"! Companies use these marketing tools to pursue marketing objects in their target markets.

Marketing alongside public relations has developed over the years and has become increasingly far-reaching and multifaceted in its methodologies to capture the interest of its target audience.

How can Public Relations help a company?

As briefly discussed in part 1, public relations can assist a company in establishing relationships with the public and developing a strategy to engage and communicate with its stakeholders in order to influence and drive their decision to work with, shop with, and support it.

Here’s an example:

Imagine you’re opening a new restaurant. PR can invite bloggers, food critics and local journalists to the launch with the hope that they'll enjoy their meal and dining experience so much that they'll write about it and share it with their audience on social media.

The important thing to remember is that these invited guests are under no obligation to discuss their restaurant experience, so posting it will earn you exposure through their organic tweets. 

Source

Why chose a career in Public Relations?

It's easy to recommend public relations as a career to someone who enjoys using social media and wants to work with celebrities, but it's also an interesting subject to study, and earning a degree in it can provide you with many transferable skills and prepare you for an exciting career... and one that can pay well!

For those who consider themselves to be 'creatives types'. there's plenty of opportunities in PR. You'll need to come up with innovative ideas, develop memorable campaigns and create compelling content that makes people stop, think, laugh and even change their attitude or behaviour. There are also opportunities for you to work more closely with a brand on the art and design side if you believe that's where your talents are better suited, or you can pivot and use your organisational skills to work within an operations team and map out all of the steps required to resolve a crisis. In fact, if you can stay calm under pressure, you could have a whole career in crisis communications!

The impact of the pandemic has demonstrated that public relations is a resilient industry, as recruiting for roles continued, and PR practitioners were able to operate from home and execute campaigns effectively. The importance of clear and consistent communications became more evident than ever before, and PR professionals has a very important part to play in helping the organisations they represent navigate their way through the challenging and changing landscape.

What skills are needed in PR?

Source

Every year, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) produces a survey on data collected from professionals across the UK on issues that are impacting on the PR industry. 

According to the CIPR, the top five skills that you will need in this current industry are: 

• Copywriting and editing: Copywriting is the process of creating original content to appeal to a target audience. Editing is the process of selecting and altering information in order to create a finished piece of content. 

 

• Media Relations: Media relations can be described as a company's interactions with editors, reporters and journalists.*
  
  

• PR programmes/campaigns: Campaigns/programmes in public relations are a collection of activities aimed at achieving a specific goal, usually influencing public opinion or managing public perception.
  
  

• Crisis, issues management: The term "crisis management" refers to a situation that began as a problem but has since been elevated to a crisis that requires immediate attention in order to be resolved.

 

• Strategic planning: Strategic planning is an organisation's process of refined planning by defining their strategy to pursue a specific objective. 

What would you learn on a PR degree? 

Since the PR industry is constantly evolving, it is likely that the modules of the PR degree you select will be tailored to the demands of the industry at that moment.

• Communication - Not only will you learn how to correctly communicate with other PR professionals and the media, but you'll also learn how to write a compelling press release. You'll also learn how brands promote their products and services to a variety of audiences, and manage their reputation within a digital environment.

 

• Creativity - Content is a prime feature when working in public relations and it is likely that you will be working on your editing skills and learning how to create compelling content that will garner the interest of a variety of audiences and be using different media forms to do it, such as photography, blogs and infographics.
  
  

• Industry practice - PR degrees tend to develop your understanding of the media and will teach you about communication theories and how you can apply them to real-world issues in the field.

 

Choosing to pursue a PR degree will allow you to learn about the ins and outs of the field whilst also preparing you for real-industry work. Many opportunities will be provided for you to network with some of the UK's top PR firms, work on real campaigns, and pitch ideas to clients.

Find out more on how the PR and Media course at Birmingham City University will prepare you for a fast-paced and rewarding career.

 

*Media Relations