Inbound PR

Chapter 1Getting the BasicsPR and Inbound

What Is Public Relations?

Whenever we try to explain a term, we tend to start with the textbook definitions that students learn when they go to university.

Public relations (PR) certainly is a mystery to many people, including some working in the industry or studying it.

The Public Relations Society of America which is the leading PR organization in the world, defines public relations as “the strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its publics” (PRSA, 2017).

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations the other leading PR body based in the United Kingdom—argues that “public relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behavior. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its publics” (CIPR, 2017).

Now admittedly, these two definitions are a bit hard to grasp as they entail a number of buzzwords such as “mutually beneficial,” “influencing,” “goodwill,” and so on.

If you read Guy Kawasaki's book The Macintosh Way (1989, 123), you'll see a quote by Jean-Louis Gassee—a former Apple executive—explaining that advertising is saying that you're good, whereas PR is getting someone else to say that you're good.

This definition is easier to grasp, right?

It doesn't tell us exactly what PR people do, but at least ...