CHAPTER SIX: Public Relations Practice

Public relations practice covers a wide range of topics ranging from the different skillsets required by PR practitioners operating in companies of different natures to the challenges and pressures faced by PR agencies and their employees regardless of where and how they operate.

I would like to focus on one very important and sometimes overlooked aspect of the public relations practice - the fact that PR cannot be generalized and lumped into one broad category of practice. There are many forms of PR and many ways of conducting PR. The responsibilities of a public relations practitioner and the skills that he or she needs are influenced greatly by the nature of the organization that the practitioner is working for.

THE NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION

The increasing number of non-profit organizations (NPO) means and increasing demand of public relations practitioners who can work for these organizations. In NPOs, the PR practitioner needs to be multiskilled - a jack-of-all-trades, in other words. This is due to the nature of how these companies operate. Areas which are specifically and strategically divided in the corporate sector like marketing, fund-raising and public relations tend to overlap when it comes to NPOs.

There are also a few key differences between the PR practice in the not-for-profit (NFP) sector and the corporate sector. For instance, the two main attributes that NPOs must have are governance and accountability. The organization MUST be properly governed and has to be accountable for everything that it does. For example, money that is collected from fundraisers and donations must be properly and securely channeled to fuel the intended purposes.

For a fresh graduate like me (in about a year's time :)), NPOs are a good place where I can start off and gain experience while honing my skills in the trade. The reasons for this can be found in a very useful list that I came across while reading the course text by Joy Chia and Gae Synnott:

• work with small budgets
• builds up experience in fundraising and promotional areas
• develops people skills (dealing with volunteers)
• cause-based - your objectives, goals and values are clear
• learn importance of communication with target audience
• learn how community organizations work

THE CORPORATE SECTOR

The main aim of the corporate sector is to generate profits, provide returns to shareholders and to continually build and improve their businesses. Clearly, this is a stark contrast to what NPOs exist for and thus, the role of the PR practitioner in this arena differs as well.

Organizational structure plays a key role here as it directly impacts factors like the job scope of the PR practitioner and who the PR practitioner is supposed to report to. For example, a PR agent in a large multi-national company might be required to report directly to two bosses - their line manager and the functional manager.

Compared to NPOs, the line of work of a PR practitioner is the corporate sector tends to be more specific and specialized. This is partly due to the more structured nature of corporate organizations and that departments are clearly defined.

There are several aspects that comprise the public relations umbrella in the corporate sector:

Media Relations

Developing and maintaining strong relationships with national and local media, journalists and organizations.

Government Relations

Maintaining relationships with members of the government (like politicians) to better understand government and political processes.

Shareholder Relations

Point-of-contact for shareholders, providing them with relevant information about the company.

Public Relations

Understand and respond to public's expectations and perceptions of the company and leading community investment programmes.