Public and Media Relations
© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.Before you learn more about public and media relations, you should get a basic impression of what they are. See What's "Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations and Publicity, and Sales?".
Public relations includes ongoing activities to ensure the organization has a strong public image. Public relations activities include helping the public to understand the organization and its products. Similar to effective advertising and promotions, effective public relations often depends on designing and implementing a well-designed public relations plan. The plan often includes description of what you want to convey to whom, how you plan to convey it, who is responsible for various activities and by when, and how much money is budgeted to fund these activities. Similar to advertising and promotions, a media plan and calendar can be very useful, which specifies what media methods that are used and when.
Often, public relations are conducted through the media, that is, newspapers, television, magazines, etc. Publicity is mention in the media. Organizations usually have little control over the message in the media, at least, not as much as they do in advertising. Regarding publicity, reporters and writers decide what will be said.
Regarding public relations, consider: What groups of stakeholders do we want to appeal to and how? What impressions do you want each of your stakeholder to have? What communications media do they see or prefer the most? Consider advertising, collaborations, annual reports, networking, TV, radio, newsletters, classifieds, displays/signs, posters, word of mouth, direct mail, special events, brochures, neighborhood newsletters, etc. What media is most practical for you to use in terms of access and affordability? What messages are most appealing to each stakeholder group?
Sections of This Topic Include:
Managing Your Public Image (Public Relations)Managing Media Relations
Additional Information for Nonprofits
General Resources
Managing Your Image (Public Relations)
You should care deeply about the image that you portray to major stakeholders of your business, for example, to current and potential customers, employees, investors/funders, suppliers, local and state agencies, etc. The following links are to information that will help you design and carry out an approach to ensuring a strong public image for your company.What's "Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations and Publicity, and Sales?"
Some Major Methods of Advertising and Promotion (of products, services and company)
Public Relations -- Wikipedia
About Public Relations
list of PR links
Online Public Relations
Managing Media Relations
Public Relations on the Web - Web Marketing Today Info CenterNetAction Notes 20
Publicity Articles - how to write press releases and where to send press releases.
Managing the Media
lists of samples of press releases, product accouncements, etc.
The Importance Of Effective Communication In The Media
Additional "Managing Media" Information for Nonprofits
Six Simple Steps for Turning Your Organization into a Heavily Quoted SourceBasic Press Outreach for Not-for-Profit and Public Sector Organizations
How to Reach Out to the Media
Action Without Borders
20/20 Vision
Coyote Communications
For activists:
Managing the Media: A Guide for ActivitistsFAIR's Media Activist Kit
Netaction notes
Links to media organizations
Media Activst's List
"New Ideas" is a free quarterly newsletter from the Center for Strategic Communications, devoted to ideas for nonprofits on developing communications strategies. To subscribe, call (212)-965-0180.
General Resources
Business Resource CenterExtensive free articles and links on effective public and media relations, written by practitioners.
Public Relations Toolkit: How to PR
For the Category of Public Relations:
Related Library Topics
Recommended Books
General Information
The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.
Also See
Marketing -- Recommended Books
