5 Principles For Writing Corporate Stories
Measuring Your Level Of Social Media Engagement

Defining Public Relations For Social Media

Marketing can be simply split into two activities; advertising and public relations, so suggests Mary White, Author of 101 Successful PR Campaign Tips.

Advertising is all paid activities where you pay to promote a product and public relations is the process of promotion of a company where you don't have to pay for a sponsorship.

I actually slightly disagree with this definition, because marketing also includes market research or customer service, where market research helps with listening to customers, and customer service covered how the product is delivered.

I think the simple split between advertising and public relations, one for paid promotion and the other for non-paid promotion does help focus what you should include in a promotional plan for a company.

When discussing public relations, many people immediately assume you are talking about media relations; the process of contacting journalists or now bloggers in order to persuade them to write about your product, campaign or idea.

I asked colleagues on twitter what other activities besides media relations falls within the PR bailiwick.

@JasonKeeling Tweet answer: Other PR functions include: Internal communications, event planning/coordination, government relations, and now, PR 2.0 optimiz.

@mlhujber Tweet answer: Non-media relations functions of PR include internal relations, public affairs, issues management, development, and lobbying.

@mlhujber Tweet answer: Big parts of PR that aren't media relations are communication research, planning, implementation (can include MR) and evaluation.

@MikeDriehorst Tweet answer: Event coordination; employee communication; crisis communication (tho includes media relations); community relations; IR; #PR

There’s been much debate about who owns social media in the enterprise, given these simple definitions, the debate seems moot to me, social media is a public relations activity because it’s a non-paid activity. Of course I understand I’m talking about theory there not reality in many companies. But something to think about when developing a social media strategy look back to public relations strategy.