Source: Katalisnet
Public Relations, the art of conveying a message to a certain audience in a certain way to ensure the key message and main understanding of the message itself is well understood by the audience. Oftentimes, when people think of a Public Relations practitioner, they automatically will assume of someone who only needs to be seen and look good while being seen. Assumptions based stories will only tell 5% of the original story, as how people see painters or actors and actresses, on a surface level they are “just doing this” when in reality, there is a deeper picture and knowledge to be able to master “doing this”. Same goes for PR, people assume all you need to do is talk, public speak, lobby and write articles, though it is not wrong, it doesn’t tell the whole picture.
Imagine a profession is like an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg can be seen above sea level, but we can’t fully observe the whole iceberg without taking it out of the sea. The magnitude, the size, even to how many chunks of ice there are, can be seen and understood if one sees the whole picture and understands how to do the calculation.
In PR, the “unseen iceberg” is a lot of things, such as: media relations, event management, vendor management, client servicing, and even all the way to the miniscule works such as proof-reading. To truly understand the scope of PR, we need to understand how the market or audience functions. Once we get the general knowledge, we assess what works and what doesn’t, then we create a message that would fit best to the audience, and lastly we search for activation. Seems simple enough, right? Well yes and no, yes being it looks simple, but one wrong move or even one wrong letter can ruin a whole campaign. Even if the campaign was successfully conducted, if the audience gets the wrong message, then it wasn’t a successful campaign. If the media or the government isn’t responsive to the campaign, then it wasn’t a successful campaign. A PR practitioner needs to know how to shape opinions.
As a lot of people already know, a PR practitioner needs to understand public speaking and copywriting, it’s obvious, but one of the more underrated or unknown skills of a PR is their “people skills”. This includes media relations, government relations, investor relations, customer relations, and a lot more. Keeping all the stakeholders happy is a must.
Other set of skills that are required of a PR practitioner, include: time management, work management, event management, leadership, the list goes on. However, being one has a “fun” side to it. Imagine yourself crafting a message so clear, so unique and so memorable that it’s planted within people’s minds. People you pass by singing that jingle or that tagline you’ve been working so hard on, people recreating or joining your campaign, it’s truly one of those sights to behold. PR is much more than just speaking and writing, PR shapes the way people think.
