PR Communication Tools/Media

Media for External Communication

• Annual Reports
• Printed Literature – Brochure, leaflets, booklets etc.
• Direct Mail
• Exhibitions
• Open Days
• Special Events

Tools for PR

• Press Release
• Newsletters
• Press Conference
• Interviews
• Exclusive Rights
• Community Involvement
• Blogging
• Social Media
• Publicity

Press releases – Information that is communicated as a part of the regular TV, radio programme, newspapers, magazines and other types of mainstream media achieves a much bigger impact than advertisements. This is due to the fact that most people consider such information more trustworthy and meaningful than paid adds. Press release is therefore one of the oldest and most effective PR tools.

Newsletters – Relevant information about the organization and its products or, services directly to the target audience is also a common method to create and maintain a strong relationship with the public. Newsletters are also a common marketing strategy but PR specialists use it to share news and general information that may be of interest to the target audience rather than merely promoting products/services.

Social Media – Participating in social media gives PR practitioners the opportunity to monitor attitudes toward their company and fine-tune the public relations strategy in response. PR practitioners monitors references to the company or products on social media, such as Facebook, Twitter or product review sites, and respond to both positive and negative comments. By engaging in dialogue, it helps to build positive attitudes and reputation of the company.

Press Conference – A press conference is one of the most commonly used and potent tool to advance the cause of an organization and gain coverage in newspapers, magazines, blogs and on TV news broadcasts. Rather than setting up interviews with individual reporters or sending out press releases, press conferences allow to interact with a roomful of journalists all at once and thus is an effective way to quickly disseminate public relation messages.

Blogging – To reach the online audience, PR specialists use the digital forms of press releases and newsletters but they also use a variety of other tools such as blogging and recently, micro blogging. It allows them to create and maintain a relationship with the target audience as well as establish a two-way communication.

Publicity —“It is a type of promotion that relies on public relations effect of a news story, carried usually free by mass media. The main objective of publicity is not sales promotion, but creation of an imagethrough editorial or \’independent source\’ commentary. While the publicist can control the content of the story, he or she may not have any control over its placement or interpretation by the media.\”