The public relations profession has two major public relations challenges. The first is the frequent association of public relations with “spin” — the intentional, unethical distortion of reality for competitive advantage. The second is the narrow association of public relations with publicity.

The result: Consultancies and clients alike have moved toward the term “communication” (in the singular or plural) to describe what we do and what our clients need. Is this a mistake?

Continue reading " Public Relations: It’s Not Just for Communication Anymore "

Change can be a good thing, right? That’s what we’re told throughout our careers and at almost every seminal moment in our lives.

When it comes to change in public relations, most practitioners readily embrace new ideas and ways of doing things. We thrive by implementing new concepts — from social media to blogger outreach — and using those to their advantage.

That’s what undergirded the “Public Relations Defined” initiative, which culminated a little over a week ago with the announcement of a new, modern definition of public relations.

It’s safe to say that most PR professionals have had a chance to voice their opinion. From the hundreds of blog posts, tweets and other commentary, there is no shortage of opinion.

For the most part, the “change is good” mantra is the reaction PR practitioners seem to have in response to the new definition. The overriding sentiment is positive.

Sure, there are some who criticize. That’s fine. In fact, we expected a diversity of opinion, regarding the initiative itself and its outcome. Or, as Stuart Elliot wryly put it in his New York Times column announcing the new definition, there was no “small amount of sniping, snide commentary and second-guessing.”

It’s unfortunate, but he’s right.

At the same time, a plethora of industry luminaries, including Jim Grunig, Neville Hobson and Jeremiah Owyang (analyst at the Altimeter Group) have given their blessing to the new definition.

Grunig says he’s “reasonably happy” with the new definition. Hobson called it a “far more contemporary interpretation of how the profession practices its craft.” And Owyang tweeted that the modernization of the definition of public relations “makes sense in the two-way sense that social has changed.”

Those are three influencers that any PR practitioner would be thrilled to have on board for a client campaign. And each supports the new definition.

Continue reading " Embracing Change: Reactions to the New Definition of Public Relations "

Following 1,447 votes, hundreds of submissions, abundant commentary and nearly a year of research, we are pleased to announce the winning modern definition of public relations. Based on a public vote, held Feb. 13–26, of three candidate definitions, the profession’s choice for the modern definition of PR is:

“Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”

Listed as Definition No. 2 in the public vote, it received 671 votes, or 46.4 percent, of 1,447 total votes.

Simple and straightforward, this definition focuses on the basic concept of public relations — as a communication process, one that is strategic in nature and emphasizing “mutually beneficial relationships.” “Process” is preferable to “management function,” which can evoke ideas of control and top-down, one-way communications. “Relationships” relates to public relations’ role in helping to bring together organizations and individuals with their key stakeholders. “Publics” is preferable to “stakeholders,” as the former relates to the very “public” nature of public relations, whereas “stakeholders” has connotations of publicly-traded companies.

You can read more about this exciting announcement in Friday’s New York Times advertising column.

Continue reading " A Modern Definition of Public Relations "

Last year, PRSA decided its definition of public relations, last updated in 1982, was in need of refreshing. The decision was based largely upon comments made across various social media platforms that said, well, PRSA’s definition of public relations needs refreshing.

So we embarked on an effort to modernize the definition of public relations that we use on our website and in our materials. Our goal was to create a baseline definition that captures the core essence of what it is public relations professionals do; one that every professional could reference, use and improve upon by adding context specific to what they do, and how they do it.

Because our definition is often used or referenced by others, we invited the profession to tell us what it should say. We asked 12 other professional organizations, from the Arthur W. Page Society and IABC in the United States to CPRS in Canada and CIPR in the UK, to help us. We also wanted to give professionals from around the world a way to take part.

Continue reading " Public Relations Defined: Our Teachable Moment "