A strategic communication management process that Individuals and organizations make use of to build mutually beneficial relationships is called Public Relations. It is a specialized engagement plan using various communications mediums to create and manage a brand image that would help build a strong relationship with the target audience. The whole objective of this exercise is to maintain a positive and reputable brand image. The task is to make the brand seem like an honest, trustworthy, successful, transparent, and relevant brand in the eyes of the public, prospective customers, existing customers, partners, investors, employees, and various other stakeholders.
Make no mistake, Public Relations (PR) is different from Advertising! Unlike Advertising, PR Firms or PR personnel promote the brand for free, by making use of their relevant content appearing in industry and trade journals, magazines, newspapers, news channels, websites, blog posts and TV programs, which makes it look like an endorsement and acceptance of the brand by the public in general.
It’s PR that needs to be creative. It’s PR that needs to be new and different. It’s PR that needs to be original. The best way to establish a brand is to create a new category, and creating a new category requires creative thinking of the highest order
Public Relations has a broad scope and can be extended by many means such as
Media Relations
Investing in good relations with media and providing them with ‘news bytes’, and being a reliable source of content for their publication
Government Relations
Engaging with the government with regards to policy formation, CSR initiatives, employee protection, fair price regime, fair competition, and consumer protection
Investor Relations
Handling investors, their concerns, investor events, releasing financial reports and ensuring statutory filings, engaging with analysts and media houses
Industry Relations
Participating in industry forums, being part of industry delegations
Customer Relations
Frequent interaction with existing and prospective customers to understand their pain points, expectations, priorities, and roadmaps
Internal Relations
Spreading the ‘right word’ amongst the employees, addressing their concerns at a broad level, sharing the big picture.
Community Relations
Engaging in the social aspect of business and providing CSR support
Marketing Communications
Helping internal marketing Teams with media support and also during the planning of events and launches.
What is a Public Relations (PR) Software?
Public Relations Software is a solution stack that helps organizations to use the methods listed above to build brand awareness and is an efficient tool to communicate with the target audience. This tool helps to identify and communicate with media houses, journalists, social media influencers, freelancers, and bloggers with the sole aim of widening customer reach and brand reputation with positive communication highlighting the company, its products and solutions, and customer-centric approach.
Most PR Software comes with an in-built database of influencers, freelancers, and bloggers who can work in tandem with PR teams to connect to hundreds and thousands of followers in their specialized category. Together, they work to develop and engage in campaign management and manage workflow. As a part of such campaigns, these tools aid in publishing and distributing press releases. Smart technologies allow organizations to maintain a contact list management process wherein customized and personalized content is sent out as part of customer outreach. This software has scheduling features and can save the social media conversation in a library for feedback analysis purposes.
Clients are no longer satisfied with a campaign made up of media relations and most elements of digital marketing require tools. PR teams simply won’t be able to deliver a modern PR campaign without the use of better tools
Public Relations software is a collaborative tool that allows PR professionals to engage effectively with contacts. This type of software may also provide media monitoring functionality, competitive media analysis, broadcast solutions, and media information retrieval solutions to help PR professionals make knowledgeable decisions. This is a powerful tool for job estimation and accounting. Client communication features help PR professionals to maintain strong external relationships wherein they can share voice, video, and text messages to propagate their message.
Tools with robust analytics are useful for carrying out different PR tasks related to brand awareness, feedback management, and reputation management. These tools come handy for undertaking sentiment analysis.
