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Public Relations Public relations is how any business, no matter how big or small, interacts with its clientele, partners, investors, and potential customers to sell it goods and services. Public relations are an absolute integral part of an establishment’s ability to advertise Its goods and services to the general public in a positive way. Public relations simply stated Is the ability of a business to build key relationships between its organization and its audience.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia defines public relations as the “activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment”. In this definition, public relations is described as a process rather than a departmental agency. In some of the more successful businesses, public relations departments exist within. For smaller businesses, they may elect to contract public relations work out to specialized firms. The American Heritage Dictionary defines public relations as “the art or science of establishing and promoting a favorable relationship with the public”.
The American Heritage goes on to say that “public relations is the methods and activities employed to establish and promote a favorable relationship with the public”. It is important to understand that public relations agencies are an Integral part of a businesses success In maintaining positive relationships with their consumer base and the general public. According to Worried, “public relations is a promotion intended to create goodwill for a person or an institution”. There is one common thread that truly identifies public relations within in all three of the aforementioned definitions.
Goodwill, positive, constructive are all adjectives used to describe the purpose of public relations. Public relations mall function Is to bring public and private policies In to pleasant fruition. The reason so many deflations exist for public relations Is that generally, an attempt to describe what public relations does is presented rather than a definition of what it is. In the three definitions presented in this paper, all mentioned what public relations specifically is and then briefly translated what public relations does.
The two differentiations are closely related; however there are some contrasting elements. In the first definition presented by Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, public relations Is described as an activity and a policy utilized to gain the preceding two from American Heritage and Worried, however the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia definition makes no mention of the fact that public relations is a promotion to create a sense of goodwill for a person or an institution. Both the American Heritage and Worried definitions make mention of the goodwill factor.
In this paper, the definition of public relations was presented. A personal definition was given to start the paper, as well as three supporting definitions from scholastic references. A contrast and comparison between the definitions of public relations was additionally conveyed. Lastly, and explanation as to why there are so many differing definitions of public relations was discussed. Public relations is a necessary means for businesses of all kinds to reach out and touch their customers.