What is public relations?

Whether you know it or not, if you have a business you participate in public relations in some way. So What is public relations? It’s a formal name for the marketing activities you do on a regualr basis. That’s it. There is nothing secret to it.

Public relations can be considered anything that gains attention for your business. Different PR firms offer different services, but generally services include getting media attention and getting general publicity.

Getting media attention
This can include writing press releases, submitting press releases to media, submitting them to online sites, buying ads both online and offline and interacting with the media by pitching stories or acting as a liasion.

Getting general publicity
This can include website design, managing social media, organizing events and even organizing publicity stunts designed to appeal directly to audiences.

All of these services may sound like you would need a professional to handle them. And depending on the amount of publicity you need and the importance of the message you need to get across you may indeed need a professioinal public relations campaign. However, for most everyday publicity needs you can probably handle it yourself.

In fact, the biggest aspect of public relations that you probably need will be the press release. Press releases can be submitted both online to submission sites and offline to media. And don’t think you need to limit yourself to one all-encompassing press release. Narrow your focus and submit fairly often. Whenever you’ve got a new hire, a new product line, a significant change in your company, an important partnership, you can submit a press release. Each time you submit one use it as a excuse to begin building a relationship with the reporter.

DIY public relations is easy. Leave the fancy words to the professionals, to handle your own PR campaign you need an anouncement and a simple write up to submit to the media. What marketing efforts are you already making that you can combine into a structured DIY public relations campaign?