Public relations

Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the flow of information between an individual or an organization and the public. Public relations provides an organization or individual exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. The aim of public relations by a company often is to persuade the public, investors, partners, employees, and other stakeholders to maintain a certain point of view about it, its leadership, products, or of political decisions. Common activities include speaking at conferences, winning industry awards, working with the press, and employee communication

Essential functions of public relations include research, planning, communication, dialogue and evaluation.

Specific public relations disciplines include:

• Financial public relations – providing information mainly to business reporters
• Consumer/lifestyle public relations – gaining publicity for a particular product or service, rather than using advertising
• Crisis public relations – responding to negative accusations or information
• Industrial relations – providing information to trade bodies
• Government relations – engaging government departments to influence policymaking

Other public relations activities include:

• Publicity events, pseudo-events, photo ops or publicity stunts
• Speeches to constituent groups and professional organizations; receptions; seminars, and other events; personal appearances
• Talk show circuit: a public relations spokesperson, or the client, "does the circuit" by being interviewed on television and radio talk shows with audiences that the client wishes to reach
• Books and other writings
• Collateral literature, both offline and online
• Direct communication (carrying messages directly to audiences, rather than via the mass media) with, for example, printed or email newsletters
• Blogs
• Social media and Social networking services

???Try answering these questions based on your learning from the above blog???

Q:-Different aspects of promotional mix?how sales promotion is different from advertising?

Q:-In the present scenario compare the relevance of Public Relations?Compare the

 importance of advertising and public relations for a firm with a proper justification 

Q:-What is the main role of sales force?the advantage of using personal selling as means of promotion?