Debunking the myths of PR

Bill Gates once said that if he was down to his last dollar, he would spend it on PR. Now that shows you how important PR is, but still, many people overlook and underutilize PR. This is because they don’t understand clearly what PR entails and of what benefit it can be to their businesses.

In this post I have dispelled the 7 most common misconceptions about public relations.

1.       Hiring  PR professional is not necessary

 This is a dangerous myth. Most people think that as long as they can tell a story about their company they don’t need to hire a PR expert, but the fact is, PR is more than just storytelling, there are so many things that go on behind the scenes. Under the PR umbrella, we have crisis management, event management, media relation et al.  It’s a full-time job and requires training. Hiring a professional who knows what they are doing may incur extra expenses but it will be worthwhile.

2.       PR is marketing

Marketing and PR are two different but complementary roles that are imperative for any business. Although these two have different tactics, goals and ROI, PR cannot be complete without marketing.  Marketing deals with promotional, direct sales and advertising whereas PR is focused on enhancing brand image through generating positive media coverage and stakeholder communication. Also, PR is long term and marketing is short term.

3.       PR is advertising

No, that’s not right, there is a huge difference between advertising and PR. While PR is earned and unpaid, advertising is purchased and it is paid for. The main aim of PR is to build mutual beneficial relationships between an organization and the public. With PR you pitch the media for your client’s story to get published and you don’t pay while for advertising, you have to pay the media for your advert to be seen. This can be less credible and pricier. Both advertising and PR help build brands and communicate with target audiences.

4.       I just need PR in time of crisis.

Public relations crisis are inevitable and most businesses will face such crisis at one time or another.   These can have a negative impact on the company’s reputation. Prior preparations and having a good crisis communication strategy in place helps to foresee and overcome such crisis. Some companies turn to PR experts when crisis hit and the company’s reputation is at stake. Their hope is that PR experts will just come up with the right response and mitigate the crisis.

5.       PR is for big establishments

Many people are for the idea that PR is only for those well established companies with huge marketing budgets but that’s not it. Although PR is not cheap, every business needs it. As a small business owner you do not need to hire a big PR firm to promote your business, all you need is a professional media outreach strategy to help you get journalists and influencers talk about you brand. This will boost your marketing efforts by building a positive brand image and creating brand awareness.

6.       You can achieve overnight success through PR

Now that’s a dream it won’t happen.  PR is a long term investment- it takes time to achieve success through PR. This is because it is all about building trust and takes some time to trust someone or something. That is why the ideas of overnight success is not possible with PR. You can achieve the overnight success through marketing but PR needs patience.