Terminology/ Glossary - Public Relations

General terms used in Public Relations

1. B2B – Public relation marketing communication dedicated to providing information resources between businesses includes professional services, training, human resources and office supplies.
2. B2C – As B2B, But between businesses and the consumer.
3. Community relations – Corporate social outreach programmes designed to build relations and foster understanding of the role of the business to neighbours in the local community.
4. Consultancy – Externally hired public relation services, either an individual consultant or a public relation consultancy.
5. Corporate communications – Public relations for a corporation integrated as part of the company’s strategic objectives.
6. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – CSR makes companies responsible for their use of resources, both environmentally and socially. The role of public relations in CSR strategies is to communicate effectively to build corporate accountability and transparency.
7. Crisis Management – Having a plan in place that can be effectively auctioned when something goes wrong for an organisation.
8. E-PR/Online PR – Communicating over the web and using new technology to effectively communicate with stakeholders.
9. Evaluation – Measuring the impact of a public relation campaign.
10. In-House – Staff within a company or organisation responsible for public relation function.
11. Internal Communications – Organisational use of process communication to help achieve corporate objectives includes employee and stakeholder communications.
12. Media Relations – Dealing with and building up good working relationships with Journalists from the broadcast and print media.
13. Press kit – A branded pack handed out to the media by an organisation. It normally contains background materials, photographs, illustration and news releases.
14. Press office – A press office handles all media inquiries and putout all company messages, or press releases – to the media on the behalf of the organisation.
15. Proposal – Document outlining a proposed PR campaign to an existing or potential client.
16. Publics – These are audiences that are important to the organisation. They include customers – existing and potential; employees and management; investors; media; government; suppliers; opinion formers.
17. Public affairs – The process of communicating an organisation’s point of view on issues or causes to political audiences.
18. Reach – the reach of a PR campaign is the total number of people within your target audience that may see your message, Often referred to as coverage.
19. Research – Finding out background information about a company, product or person to assist with a public relations campaign.
20. ROI – Return on investment. A measure of budget spent to a campaign, versus the income generated through the activity.
21. Viral campaigning – A communications campaign which is designed to exploit the potential of the internet to spread messages rapidly. The audience is encouraged to pass a message on to all their email contact.