What exactly is PR? (4460)

I don’t think anyone outside the field of public relations really knows what PR is or what PR professionals actually do. Come to think of it, even though I’m in my final semester before graduating with a degree in that very field, I’m still figuring it out.

When I first returned to college, now as an adult, I had my heart set on becoming a materials science engineer. I have a passion for science and I really wanted to get into the environmental side of engineering – biomaterials.

Turns out I’m really bad at chemistry. It’s like a learning disability.

I had never struggled with anything in academia before, and the failure to understand concepts in CHEM I really dealt a blow to my self-confidence. I swallowed my pride and headed to the public library to pick up some career testing materials. I had to choose a different field.

After taking extensive career and personality tests, one profession kept popping up: public relations.

Now, I really had no idea what that meant. The words “public relations” brought to my mind images of a charismatic person at a press conference, talking on behalf of another person from behind a cluttered mound of microphones all stacked on top of a podium.

I could do that.

When family and friends would ask me what I had chosen to pursue now that my Marie Curie fantasy had been dashed, I said, “public relations.”

“Oh, you’d be perfect for that,” was always the response. I’m pretty sure they all saw the charismatic person bantering with reporters at the press conference.

Once I started my upper-level PR classes, I realized that I was way off in my understanding of the profession. It’s only an infinitesimal percentage of PR professionals who regularly see press conferences. There seems to be a kind of unsaid difference between a publicist and a PR professional.

Public relations is all about writing. Actually, it’s all about writing, writing and more writing. Most of a PR professional’s time is spent in the office, writing all sorts of literature for a company: brochures, newsletters, business letters, strategic key messages, news releases, blogs, communications plans. Public relations writing requires an almost unattainable mastery of grammar and AP style, and that keeps me in a constant state of panic about what I might be messing up at any moment. It’s so hard to learn every little rule that I have to learn.

PR professionals have to know what any potential audience for information would want to know, need to know and should know at any given time. Whether it be a disaster, a breakthrough, a goof, a leak, a success, a failure, a minor hiccup or a big change, a PR professional has to know what needs to be communicated and how to communicate it. No pressure.

Although it’s not exactly what I was mentally prepared for, I’m turning out to be okay at this. I hate writing and I’m total crap at it, but it seems to be coming more smoothly. No matter what happens, I have a newfound respect for PR professionals.

So next time you’re reading a brochure, a newsletter or even your own company’s mission statement, think about the PR professional who likely formulated the message and put it there. That could be me someday.