The Basics of Public Relations

By Samantha Skvarek
ss062718@ohio.edu

Communications is such a broad major to study. I think a lot of people study communications in order to just have a degree. The biggest career I see coming from communications is public relations. Public relations is the spread of information and create a positive relationship between an individual or a company and the public. 

            One of the biggest roles in public relations is communicating the message. It is important to plan out what it is you want to express to your audience. I really think that the speaker needs to keep their speech simple. I find from personal experience with public speaking that audiences lose their attention. Nothing speaks boredom like people on the electronic devices, falling asleep or even talking amongst one another.

 I think speakers need to keep it short and specific. Along with keeping their messages short and simple, they need to be aware of who their audience is. If the audience has no interest or the message does not pertain to them, they will not listen. By keeping the message short and simple, it also allows the speaker to control what the audience hears. I find that what the audience perceives from people is often not what we are saying.

Another role for public relations is a customer liaison. They are the middle man. They account for customer problems, questions, and concerns. They coordinate with the proper people to provide answers in a timely fashion. Along with getting the point across they really need good communication skills and like to deal with people.

A mediator is another role of someone in public relations. They are the go-between person. People in public relations create an image and relationship that everyone is happy with and fulfills all needs by those who are involved.

            Having lots of friends within the public relations field, I see that more and more of my friends take on the role of marketing. Marketing is the number one way to create a positive image for a company. By marketing the company, they can generate new customers and satisfy the customers they already have. I think the difficult part to taking the role of marketing is not only marketing the company, but coming up with new way so to market the company.

            You can see that there a lot of roles within public relations. It takes a person who loves to deal with people in an organized fashion. The list goes on as what people in public relations need to do or have the potential to do.