Public Relations Strategy

Public relations have never been as relevant as they are now. We live in the age of information; through new channels and approaches, information management has become an always-innovative activity, which is also the basis of the development of any kind of organization. The relationship between organizations and the public has transformed from univocal channel to a wide, open field where external individuals can enter and participate to the process of communication. This means that part of the power in communication that used to pertain to organizations has been transferred to external entities that can add to the information going from the organization to the public, eliminating part of the asymmetry of information that characterizes any univocal flow of communication. Said mechanism entails constant control and management on the part of the organization of its information flows and reputation, with requirements of high crisis management skills. A different kind of asymmetry has arisen in this new framework of communicative tools and techniques: organizations do not know who the entities that might enter their information management cycle may be. Those additional agents may use any kind of misinformation on the part of the organization as tool of disrepute, potentially improving the quality of the communication flow even without actual intervention. The possibility of said intervention would serve as incentive to the organization to carry out a more truthful transfer of information. Blogs, video channels, review websites and similar instruments guarantee the public a more comprehensive set of informative tools to monitor the reputation of any kind of organization, being it private or public. This book analyzes some aspects of public relations applied in public and private organizations. It starts investigating the role of ethics in the discipline and goes on to more specific issues such as public diplomacy, readership, and engagement. It also addresses advertising and, due to the prominence of the matter, a special focus is dedicated to social media. The scope of the book is to give the reader tools to understand some of the dynamics of public relations, so to be able to both use them and recognize them.