What is Public Relations?

WHAT IS PUBLIC RELATIONS?

Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Russell Quirk and I’m one of the co founders of Proper PR, the public relations agency. And I’m going to answer a very important question, which is, what is Public Relations? Most people think they know what PR is, and I’m afraid most people are sorely mistaken. I’ll tell you what it isn’t. PR is not advertising.

PR is worth more than advertising

Now, that may now make you think, okay, well, on that basis, PR is not for me, as someone that runs a business that needs leads, website traffic and so on. But let me tell you what PR definitely is. It’s better than advertising. Advertising is what you would perhaps call contrived. Advertising is a message and a graphic, whether it’s on a Google page, or on a radio ad, or a tv ad, or on a billboard, which is something that everybody knows you have created to get to an audience, to convince them to buy your stuff on the basis of you telling them things that, well, let’s face it, you would tell them anyway, wouldn’t you?

Credible third party endorsement

Because adverts are blatantly seen as biased. They are contrived. However, PR is rather different. PR is somebody else, another medium, whether it be a journalist or a publication, telling that audience that your product or service is notable, that your service or product is good and is perhaps worthy of consideration. And the reason, therefore, the PR is far, far more powerful than just advertising alone is simply because it’s done by way of third party endorsement.

Let’s be clear, let’s be honest. If someone sees your brand in the Daily Mail, or on the BBC, or on sky, or in the Daily Express, or Forbes, or the Huffington Post, or a trade publication or whatever, and it’s mentioned in dispatches, so to speak, particularly with some data or some research or some revelation wrapped around your brand whereby you are seen as the experts, the thought leaders, but talked about by that publication, rather than it being directly by you as an advertiser, then clearly that message carries much, much more weight. It’s authentic. It’s much more genuine, and therefore it’s trusted and it’s also therefore, credible. So PR is incredibly important.

Build your reputation

I wouldn’t say it’s the only thing that you should do as someone that is tasked with making sure that you’re marketing correctly, marketing with the goal in mind, of making sure that you create business revenue. Ultimately, PR is one of many marketing channels that perhaps you should consider. It goes hand in hand with social media, with email marketing, with digital display ads, potentially with other forms of above the line advertising like tv and radio. But it’s a very very important foundation, a real baseline to show people that you are being talked about by third parties in a good way, in a glowing and positive way. It helps reputation.

Never underestimate the power of PR

The other thing that should not be underestimated with PR, particularly digital PR, is the fact that when you are mentioned at volume, at scale, on digital platforms, so on MailOnline or on the Times app, on websites that relate to the news, that then sends a signal to Google, particularly if you do it on a regular basis, if it’s consistent that you are being talked about again by third parties, and on that basis, Google also starts to trust you, your brand and your website. And lo and behold, over a period of time, not instantly, but over a period of time, your website ranking, your performance in terms of your searchability. When people are searching for phrases that relate to your specific product or service, your business, you start to rank higher in terms of your website being served up. As a result, for those people that are googling a certain thing, googling to find a particular type of business or product or service. So in a rather long winded way there, I’ve hopefully explained what PR is and its benefits, but in particular what it isn’t.

It isn’t advertising, thank goodness. Anyway, if you are interested, particularly as a property firm looking for property PR or an automotive company looking for PR, of any description, in talking more about public relations, what it does, how it can help you, and how we do things rather differently from a content, a data and a research perspective. Get in touch Russell at Properpr.co.uk or in the first instance to go to our website, which is fun enough. Properpr.co.uk

Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Bye.