What is PR? Your Ultimate Guide To Public Relations (2025)

Public Relations (PR) is all about shaping how people perceive your brand. It’s your secret weapon to telling your brand’s story, the mystic art of earning trust, and connecting with the right audience.

Unlike paid media, which involves paying for advertising space, PR has traditionally focused on earning free media coverage through compelling business storytelling (i.e. earned media). While this is still a key focus, particularly of media relations, the advent of online everything has meant that PR can now encompass paid media, social media, and owned media – basically, anything that is likely to shape public perception.

Whether you’re a newbie startup or big-time brand, PR can play a huge role in the success of your business. In this guide, we will break down the essentials of PR to help you start to understand the role it can play for your business.

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PR how the world sees your business. It’s about sharing the right message with the right people to keep your brand shining in the best possible light and positively influencing public opinion.

PR pros help businesses communicate effectively with customers, investors, employees, and the public to create a great reputation. Whether it’s media buzz, social media hype, or handling a little comms crisis, PR is your brand’s best friend when it comes to shaping public perception.

Public relations (PR) is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics. PR aims to generate positive publicity around your products, services, campaigns, accomplishments, ethos, corporate social responsibility, and unique value proposition. Basically, it’s all about creating and promoting content that makes your business shine in the eyes of your target audience.

Successful PR focuses on crafting audience-relevant content that subtly promotes your business. The ultimate goal? To build brand credibility, shape your company narrative, and get in front of the right audience.

So what’s the end game? The ultimate aim of PR is to craft and maintain a favorable image of a brand while ensuring that the target audience stays engaged. Through smart communication, PR helps build trust and credibility, fosters long-term relationships with key stakeholders, and secures that sweet, sweet media coverage.

By doing so, PR keeps the brand at the forefront of people’s minds, whether they’re potential customers, investors, or the media. At its core, PR focuses on reputation management, generating lasting brand success.

Public relations professionals play a crucial role in managing these efforts, using a range of diverse skills to build and maintain a positive brand image.

Great PR can totally transform your brand. It builds trust, strengthens relationships, and helps you stay top-of-mind with customers, investors, and the media. With Prezly, you get all-in-one tools to help make your PR efforts more efficient, measurable, and successful. 

Prezly is your ultimate PR partner. It helps you:

• Personalize media pitching: Reach out to the right journalists with tailored messages
• Create press releases: Craft and distribute news effortlessly
• Manage media contacts: Keep all your contacts in one place
• Monitor media: Track mentions and sentiment across the web
• Collaborate seamlessly: Work with your team or PR agency in one platform
• Measure results: See your PR impact with data-driven insights

PR isn’t just about getting your name in the news – PR comes in more flavors than Ben and Jerry’s. A public relations specialist is adept at handling various aspects of PR, from media relations to crisis communications.

Here are the key varieties that every business should know about:

Ever wonder how companies go from having news to being the news? That’s where a PR specialist comes in! PR pros work their connections with journalists and media outlets to get stories out in a way that grabs attention.

The goal? Getting your company mentioned in articles, interviews, and news segments to build credibility. It’s all about building strong relationships with reporters and positioning your business as a go-to source for expert insights. (This is the Phish Food of Ben & Jerry's PR wonderland.)

It's worth noting here that many people understand PR to be media relations only. As you'll see from the following sections, though, this is far from the case.

If your company has investors (or is aiming for some), PR is the key to keeping them happy. This means handling investor events, sharing financial updates, and making sure investors see the company as a trustworthy, solid bet. Transparency is key here, and PR makes sure your stakeholders feel good about where you’re headed.

PR isn’t just about looking good – it’s also about doing good. Think corporate social responsibility (CSR), charity work, and making a positive impact on the local community. When companies contribute to causes and get involved locally, they build emotional connections with their audience – and guess what? That makes for loyal customers and attracts top talent!

Thought leadership is an important aspect of public relations. This can include media coverage, speaking engagements, and social media campaigns – anything that helps to establish your company (or your company's rep, often the CEO) as an expert in your industry.

By positioning your brand as a thought leader, you build credibility and trust with stakeholders, which can ultimately drive business results. It’s about being the go-to source for insights and knowledge in your field.

Think PR is just about talking to the public? Nope! Your employees need love too! PR helps make sure company culture stays strong by communicating news, values, and updates to the team. A well-informed workforce leads to better morale, stronger collaboration, and a unified brand voice.

Employer branding is another crucial aspect of public relations. It involves creating a positive reputation for your company as an employer. Here, PR professionals can help to promote your company’s culture, values, and benefits to attract and retain top talent. This can include media coverage, social media campaigns, and employee ambassadors.

By building a strong employer brand, you not only attract the best talent but also create a positive work environment that drives business success. It’s about making your company a place where people want to work and grow.

Sometimes, things go pear-shaped. That's where crisis comms comes in.

This is all about managing bad press, keeping calm, and controlling the narrative so one little slip-up or natural disaster doesn’t wreck your entire brand. Whether it’s a social media mishap or a full-blown corporate crisis, PR pros jump in to reassure stakeholders, and rebuild trust. 

Need an example of crisis communications done right? Look no further than California Pizza Kitchen’s viral “no mac in the mac & cheese” fiasco. The original TikTok video went viral after an unhappy customer took to the platform, all because a service rep insisted that the cheese-only order was correct (which, let’s be real, was as confusing as it sounds).

But CPK wasn’t about to let this sour moment define them. They fought fire with fire, taking to TikTok themselves with a humorous and charismatic video from Chef Paul, where he showed the correct way to make mac & cheese (spoiler: it includes macaroni). Oh, and they didn’t stop there: They launched a promotion to offer 50% off mac & cheese, acknowledging their misstep with some self-deprecating humor. Classic CPK move.

To top it off, they reached out to the original upset customer with an offer of free pizza and mac & cheese for a whole year, which led to a follow-up TikTok from her, showing off her new CPK perks.

And that, folks, is how you turn a PR nightmare into a golden PR opportunity. Crisis? Handled with a side of humor and grace! Mwah, chef’s kiss.

A public relations professional wears many hats, and they’re really good at juggling different tasks, including:

• Managing reputation: Keeping that brand image squeaky clean
• Building relationships: Connecting with journalists, influencers, and other big players
• Storytelling: Creating compelling stories that get people excited about your brand
• Understanding the market: Knowing what’s hot and what your audience wants
• Writing & event planning: From press releases to product launches

That said, if your PR strategy involves a lot of different tactics and focuses, no one person is going to be able to juggle that. You will need a PR manager to, well, manage it all, and people to handle every facet of the work you want to do. Yes, that includes social media management. No, the intern can't "just do it".

PR is a big deal in shaping an organization’s decisions. It helps businesses align with what their audience thinks and feels. When integrated effectively, PR offers insights into how audiences perceive a brand, which can directly influence product development, leadership messaging, and even crisis management.

It’s about fostering a strong relationship with key stakeholders and understanding broader societal trends, making PR a strategic asset in guiding business direction. So yeah, it’s pretty strategic and definitely not just a side gig!

While there’s definitely overlap, the goals of PR and marketing have some distinct differences.

Marketing’s primary goal is to drive sales and market products or services, often through paid channels. PR, on the other hand, focuses on reputation management, brand storytelling, and maintaining positive public perception.

When handled separately, PR provides more long-term value by nurturing trust and relationships, which can enhance marketing efforts over time.

Many companies bring in PR agencies to handle the heavy lifting, since so much of PR relies on experience and personal connections.

Businesses often underestimate both the value and complexity of PR, and think they can do it all in-house following a cursory google of how to pitch the media. That is... incredibly naive. Once companies know better (usually following a lot of trial and error), they'll either hire a dedicated PR team in-house, or bring on the services of a PR agency.

PR agencies usually work on a retainer (like a subscription) and help with media outreach, crisis management, and strategy. Organizations like the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) set professional standards and provide support for PR practitioners. They also use tools like Prezly, which helps brands collaborate with their agency on everything from newsroom publication, to media pitching, press release writing, and media monitoring.

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PR strategies and tactics are long-term, overarching plans used to shape and maintain the public image of a brand, individual, or organization. PR specialists focus on defining objectives, understanding the target audience, and setting the tone for all communications, such as increasing brand awareness or managing reputation.

What is PR strategy in practice, you ask? It’s the game plan that defines the direction of brand communications.

PR tactics, on the other hand, are the specific actions or tools used to execute the broader PR strategy. They are practical steps to engage the audience and achieve strategic goals.

Writing and distributing press releases: Public relations specialists use press releases to announce company news to the media in a clear and engaging way. They should be newsworthy, concise, and include key details like quotes and contact information. The goal is to grab the attention of journalists and encourage them to cover the story.

Pitching stories to journalists: Crafting killer pitches to journalists with a compelling angle for a story. It’s important to personalize the pitch, highlight why the story matters, and make it easy for the journalist to write about your brand. Building relationships with reporters increases your chances of getting coverage.

Managing social media: Social media management involves posting updates, engaging with followers, and maintaining a positive brand image. It’s essential to respond to comments, stay on top of trends, and handle any negative feedback quickly to protect your reputation.

Partnering with influencers: Influencer partnerships help amplify your brand message by collaborating with trusted voices. Influencers can authentically promote your product to a larger audience, building trust and increasing visibility. You should be careful to choose influencers who align with your brand values, however.

Running community campaigns: Community campaigns focus on engaging with local initiatives or causes. By supporting local events, charities, or projects, brands can build goodwill, strengthen relationships, and demonstrate their commitment to making a positive impact. Touching the hearts of your audience builds lasting brand loyalty.

What is PR success? It isn’t always easy to measure because it’s not just about numbers, it’s also about perception and influence. While PR isn’t as directly tied to sales as marketing, there are still key indicators that show whether your PR efforts are working.

While exactly what you should measure and why comes down to your PR strategy, here are a few PR metrics that you're going to want to keep in mind:

• Media coverage: How often and where your brand gets mentioned. Are you appearing in respected media outlets?
• Public sentiment: What’s the buzz about your brand? Is it positive or negative? You can analyze this through surveys or sentiment analysis tools
• Website traffic: Seeing if your collective PR efforts drive visitors to your site or brand newsroom, especially after a big media feature or campaign
• Social media engagement: Counting shares, likes, comments, and mentions. Are people talking about you in a positive way?
• Customer feedback: Surveys and reviews to gauge public perception. What are real people saying about your brand?

Tools like Prezly make it easy to track metrics like pitch engagement, newsroom visits, and coverage, to help you see just how well your PR efforts are paying off! Try it here free for 14 days to see for yourself and monitor your brand's success without any fuss.