Public relations means to communicate consciously with the public. This can be done, for example, by pushing newspaper articles or organising events that are specifically for the public (or a certain target group) (e.g. children's weeks).
Goals of public relations
Through public relations, organizations want to influence public opinion about themselves or the topics they work on. Often, therefore, the aim is to present one's own organisation in a good light or to bring a particular issue to the attention of the public (e.g. Amnesty International's press work draws attention to human rights violations)
In addition, it is often a matter of establishing or maintaining relationships with important people (circles), e.g. politicians, parents' associations in schools and opinion leaders and multipliers in general
How can you do public relations?
Public relations can be done through the media, i.e. newspaper articles, letters, posters, etc., or personally, e.g. by means of children's weeks, personal conversations, visits, etc., and of course also with a combination of these forms
In all efforts, however, it makes sense to proceed consciously and in measured doses. A "too much" of communication can overwhelm or annoy the recipients and put your work in a negative light. Furthermore, it is difficult to maintain very intensive communication in the long term. After all, it's about building and maintaining relationships. This is not done with a few crass quick shots, but needs a permanent commitment over a long period of time
What is the use of public relations?
Contrary to popular opinion, public relations work aimed at the general public (e.g. newspaper articles) is not very useful for children and youth work. How many children of youth group age do you know who regularly read newspapers? The argument that the parents of these children read newspapers is not really valid, because most children today can decide quite freely what they want to do in their free time. Parents rarely talk them into it.
Few children and youth work continuously and professionally Öfentlichkeitsarbeit. And not without good reason. Because generally speaking, the closer the sender and receiver are to each other (figuratively speaking), the more effective communication (of which PR is a part) is. So communicating with church members (e.g. parents who can motivate their children for the youth group) will be more effective than talking to people who have (almost) no relation to my work (which usually doesn't result in much except a "I like it").
The bottom line is that public relations/PR alone can only have a slightly supporting function. Other ways of communication (e.g. parental work) are much more effective. Therefore, the focus of communication work should not be on general public relations
Image credits
- Caption: © Kurt Michel / pixelio.de
Content may be automatically translated. Help improve the quality of the translation with your editing!
