Corporate Communications and Public Relations Defined

Every organisation is talked about. Customers talk about it, journalists write about it, neighbours discuss it, and employees describe it to their families. The organisation cannot stop this conversation. It can only take part in it well or badly.

Public relations (PR) is the planned work an organisation does to build and keep good relationships with the groups of people who matter to it, and to earn their understanding and trust. The key word is relations. PR is not only sending out news. It is listening, explaining and building trust over time.

Corporate communications is the wider management function that coordinates all of the organisation’s communication about itself as a whole: its reputation, its leadership, its news, its position on issues and its response when things go wrong. Many organisations use the two terms almost the same way. In general, “corporate communications” is the name of the department, and “PR” is a large part of what that department does.

Communication is one-way and two-way

Some PR is one-way: the organisation sends a message out, such as a press release about a new office. Much good PR is two-way: the organisation also listens, asks for opinions and changes what it does because of what it hears. A team that only broadcasts will miss early warnings. A team that listens can correct a problem before it becomes a story.

PR also differs from advertising. In advertising the organisation pays for space and controls every word. In media relations the journalist decides whether to cover a story and what to write. This is less controlled, but readers often trust it more, because an independent person chose to publish it.