The RRPP, acronym by which this discipline is also often called to save as an abbreviation, includes the science that deals with managing communication between a given organization and society, with the aim of building, managing and maintaining its positive image among the public.
To do this, it will develop a series of strategic, coordinated and also sustained communication actions over time, which will precisely have the main mission of strengthening ties with the various audiences to which its messages are directed. They will listen to them, they will inform them about sensitive issues that interest them and of course they will also persuade them to achieve consensus on what they promote, for example.
Basically, we could say that public relations will seek through its action to create a good image of the organization or company in question to maintain the public that they already have, to win that of the competition and obviously if it is the case to continue maximizing benefits and leading the sector.
Listening to the public, the key
But of course, the secret, the key is in something that we already mentioned, lines above in knowing how to listen to the public, to know their concerns, know what they need and thus be able to respond satisfactorily with their demands and needs. A good strategy in this area is concerned with the company earning more but also with satisfying the public, offering them good information and solutions.
Although it is not very precisely determined, it is known that the origins of Public Relations go back to antiquity, given that tribal societies tried, through a series of practices very similar to those proposed by the science of Public Relations today, to promote respect for the authority embodied in this case by the chief of the tribe.
Public relations planning
Public Relations They will involve planning that must be developed in a strategic way and appeals to a type of two-way communication, since it will not only be directed to an external and internal public, but also will attend and listen to the needs that this, promoting mutual understanding and allowing it to be used as a broadly competitive advantage when seeking positioning.
This science will use many resources, means and tools to carry out its action satisfactorily: advertising, information and promotion do not pay, among the most recurrent.
Among the main tasks that will be assigned to those in charge of Public Relations of a company in order to manage the best institutional image, are: management of internal communications, because it will be vitally important to know the human resources of the organization and that these in turn know the institutional policies, since it will never be possible to communicate what is unknown; management of external communications, because every institution must make itself known and those who act in it, achieving this first of all through links with other companies, institutions, whether financial, government or the media; humanistic functions, the information transmitted must always be truthful, to gain the public's trust and thus contribute to institutional growth; analysis and understanding of public opinionIt will be very important to manipulate public opinion in order to then act on it.
And the work in conjunction with other disciplines and areas, the work must have a solid humanistic base, with pertinent information in psychology, sociology and human relations, basically, because it works with people and it is vital first of all to understand them. We must stop on this specific topic because it is extremely important and in it is the key to the success of the actions carried out by public relations. People increasingly like that they understand us, that they know who we are, what we want, what we like, among other aspects and therefore whoever deals in the best way with these aspects, without a doubt, will have paved the way towards victory.
Today, as a result of the growing similarity of products, it is vital to find a tool that allows companies to differentiate themselves.
To achieve this, Public Relations must work with some intangible resources such as: identity (those that will characterize the company and differentiate it from the rest), culture (its way of acting), philosophy (the overall objective of the organization), image (the representation of the company in those with whom it builds communication links) and reputation (the mental representation that the public forms of it).
Public relations to discredit
Now, we must also highlight that there is the opposite action, those public relations that are especially concerned with discrediting a company, a person, an organization, among others. So, to achieve such a task, they do the opposite of what we have already indicated above. Obviously it is an undesirable action but it exists in many areas of life.
