Types of Public Relations & Channels

Build an effective public image and foster relationships with stakeholders.

When you have to invest tons of time and energy into developing and supporting products, it can be difficult to find the bandwidth to build and improve relationships with customers. Many small-to-midsize business (SMB) leaders know that public relations (PR) can be a valuable tool, yet they don’t understand which types of programs are the most effective. So, instead of trying to design a winning strategy, many companies avoid PR altogether, resulting in lost opportunities.

To solve this problem, this article outlines the different types of PR and how to choose the most effective approach for your company. With these insights, you can decide which kinds of PR can help you accomplish your goals and how to implement them to reinforce your brand perception.

What is public relations?

Public relations is the discipline of managing the dissemination of information about your organization to the public. It involves strategies designed to build and maintain an effective public image and foster relationships with stakeholders.

For an SMB, PR can play an important role in:

• Improving brand visibility. A series of PR campaigns enables you to get your brand in the public’s eye and control how it’s presented.

• Establishing trustworthiness. You can use a PR campaign to reinforce your ability to fulfill promises and put the needs of customers and other stakeholders first.

• Managing your reputation. With PR, SMBs can take a proactive stance when it comes to managing crises, addressing concerns, and eradicating misinformation, all of which protect your reputation.

Because branding, advertising, and PR all involve interfacing with the public around your brand, it can be easy to conflate the three. But PR is unique from branding in that branding often uses visual elements and brand positioning strategies, while PR focuses on designing specific messaging for a relatively narrow range of channels, such as your website or those of news media outlets.

PR differs from advertising as well because an ad campaign also uses publishing a range of marketing collateral, such as print and digital media, via paid channels. PR, on the other hand, uses narrower, more focused messaging. Also, while both branding and advertising often involve promoting a specific product, PR tends to focus on the company behind the product instead of one of the goods or services it sells.

Different types of public relations

What are the types of public relations? There’s a range of different PR campaigns, each with its own focus and techniques. Many also ask, “What are the types of publics in public relations?” As you’ll see in the list below, some PR campaigns are aimed at different “publics” or groups of people, such as those in social media communities, investors, and employees.

1. Media relations

Media relations centers on building relationships with media outlets and journalists so you can get the press coverage you need to improve your brand perception. Media relations also includes managing inquiries from the media about your company, its offerings, and how it handles adverse situations.

2. Content marketing

With content marketing, you can create and distribute relevant content that positions your brand as an authority in your industry. In this way, you support the trustworthiness and credibility of your brand and products.

3. Social media management

While managing your social media presence, you use each platform as a brand-building machine. Social media is an effective PR tool because it lends itself to community engagement and genuine interactions with your target audience.

4. Event and community marketing

Event- and community-based PR centers on hosting and sponsoring public-facing events and initiatives. As part of a PR strategy, presenting your company in the context of an event allows you to showcase your grassroots connections and willingness and ability to interface with the public.

5. Crisis communications

Crisis communications are elemental in many successful companies’ PR strategies because they help build trust with the public. In fact, in a recent survey, 81% of companies reported that their public relations departments are involved with their formal crisis communication plans—even though PR crises account for a mere 6% of crisis events. This underscores the value of turning any crisis, regardless of its nature, into an opportunity to present your company in a positive light.^[1]

6. Investor relations

Investor relations is an important facet of PR because it engenders a sense of transparency with current and future debt- and shareholders. Using clear, candid communication, you foster confidence in the integrity of your organization and the people who power it. At times, a PR campaign can also be used to repair reputational damage amongst investors, especially in the wake of a scandal or other public, negative event.

7. Employee communications

PR aimed at your employees can be just as impactful as that designed for the general public because the right messaging can reinforce their devotion to your company. By reaching out to your employees through newsletters and announcements, you reassure them that you don’t take their feelings and perceptions for granted. In addition, you can use PR to clear up misconceptions about company decisions and policies.

8. Thought leadership

A thought leadership PR campaign involves positioning executives or other experts in your company as innovative leaders so they can land speaking engagements, interviews, or blogging opportunities. Each time they present, they bring your brand along with them. As a result, your company is seen as being on the cutting edge and the kind of organization that supports forward-thinking people.

Choosing the right PR tactics for your business

According to Gartner, leaders in communications need to modernize their PR methods to drive active support in the increasingly networked and intricate stakeholder environments of today. This involves making stakeholders’ interests foundational to your PR strategy.^[1]

Use a stakeholder-centric approach

When asking yourself about the different types of public relations out there, the strategies you come up with all need to have the same focus: Your stakeholders. One way to put stakeholder interests at the center of your PR program is to use a stakeholder-centric, as opposed to company-centric, approach.

A company-centric approach involves uni-directional messaging from your company to media outlets, websites, or people your target audience interacts with. While this can be effective, it depends on messaging in only one direction, which limits your opportunities for gathering and applying feedback.

On the other hand, a stakeholder-centric PR strategy focuses on establishing two-way lines of communication with a range of stakeholders. With this approach, you listen to stakeholder input and craft your messaging and the outlets you use accordingly.

For example, you could issue a straightforward survey to investors asking questions such as:

• What concerns you the most about the direction of this company?

• Which world or local events do you feel may impact this organization’s bottom line the most?

• Over the last year, has there been anything about this organization’s decision-making that you feel is problematic?

Then, after collecting and analyzing the answers, you can craft your PR messaging in a way that acknowledges—and alleviates or mitigates—investor concerns.

Use your corporate narrative to drive your PR

Your companies may benefit from allowing PR initiatives to cascade from your corporate narrative. Your narrative may include your vision or mission statements, as well as public-facing statements and brand elements that speak to your company’s values.

For instance, suppose your company has publicly committed to listening to the ideas and concerns of customers and investors. However, over time, you realize that few, if any, decisions factor in consumer input.

To reestablish your organization as one that listens to the public, you could run a PR campaign that involves both soliciting and applying customer feedback. In the campaign, you can ask for feedback, acknowledge the input you received, and then describe how you applied it to adjust your offering or decision-making processes.

Ensure your PR program spans the four primary mediums

The four primary PR mediums include community relationships and social, traditional, and owned media. From a PR perspective, owned media encompasses messaging on platforms that your company owns and has control over, such as its website or blog.

It’s not uncommon for communications professionals to be adept at leveraging PR in one or more of these mediums yet not use others to the full.

For example, a company may have a regular, strategically-designed newsletter for current and prospective investors. However, the company website may not have as much information. By way of contrast, some organizations may have leaders who are adept at social media. As a result, the company’s social presence is robust. At the same time, however, they rarely reach out to traditional media platforms, such as TV news outlets, to establish or foster relationships with them.

By segmenting and then evaluating your PR strategy according to these four mediums, you increase the chances of designing a comprehensive approach without any problematic gaps.

For many, it makes more sense to hire a PR agency versus doing it in-house. This avails you of the expertise of seasoned professionals while also putting you in a position to benefit from their established connections.

Start fine-tuning your PR strategy now

With the insight in this guide, you now understand the different approaches and tactics you can use to power your strategy. You also understand the value of prioritizing stakeholders and using your corporate narrative as a PR launching point.