What is Public Relations (PR)?

According to Fraser P. Seitel, an American PR expert, public relations is a process of influencing the thoughts and perceptions of the community, through positive qualities presented in an appropriate style, based on a two-way communication process.

It is believed that the thoughts and perceptions of the community about a business or organization have an important influence on the performance of that business or organization. In terms of business performance, research shows that when faced with a choice, consumers tend to choose to buy products that they have a good impression of the brand rather than products that they have a bad impression of. For this reason, businesses today do not hesitate to invest a large amount of money in public relations to create goodwill and build good relationships with the community where the business operates.

The process of influencing the community’s views includes the following steps:

• Research: Research to understand the attitudes and thoughts of the target community towards the issues that the business or organization is interested in.
• Action: Determine the specific actions that the business or organization needs to take to attract the attention of the target community.
• Communication: Communicate the actions that the business or organization has taken to the target community so that the community knows, understands, accepts and supports them.
• Evaluation: Measure the effectiveness of communication activities to determine whether the thoughts and perceptions of the target community have changed in the direction that the business or organization desires.

In the above steps, step two “Action” is important, you cannot just talk but can make the community think positively about you, Westerners have a saying “you can’t just close your eyes “Drinking perfume on a skunk”. Actions must precede words.

Professor Melvin Sharpe offers five principles that apply to the public relations process.

1. Communicate honestly to build credibility.

2. Be open and act consistently to build trust.

3. Act fairly to create goodwill and reciprocity.

4. Maintain continuous two-way communication to prevent discord and build long-term relationships.

5. Study the environment and evaluate to propose actions, or adjustments, necessary to create harmony in the relationship between businesses, organizations and communities in society.

Today’s public relations professionals play two roles. On the one hand, they are interpreters who convey the philosophies, policies, programs, and practical activities of the board of directors of a business or organization to the community. On the other hand, they are the ones who convey back to the community the attitudes of the business or organization.