Public Relations? What is that?
After I graduated high school, I went to a community college and realized I kind of had to get my life together a little bit. I had no idea what I wanted to study, I was stuck between wanting to study two things: business and communication studies. When I came to Central, I just took some communications courses and just hoped for the best.
My first quarter at Central, I accidentally signed up for an Intro to Public Relations class. I saw that it was a communications course so I just said, “eh, why not?”
I ended up falling in love with it.
When I went out and asked ten individuals, with no connection to the PR field, "what is public relations?" the beginning of their replies all started out the same:
"Umm..."
Understandable – I didn’t even know much about PR myself until I accidentally signed myself up for a class.
Half of the replies I got were, "I'm not really sure" and the other half of the replies were, "relating to the public, duh!"
What is it really, though? According to the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA),
"... Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”
So, I guess half of the individuals I interviewed were right, it’s “relating to the public.” But there’s more to it than that.
The PRSA website also defines one of the many roles of a PR professional, “Researching, conducting and evaluating, on a continuing basis, programs of action and communication to achieve the informed public understanding necessary to the success of an organization’s aims.”
Being able to build mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and their publics is so important! Being able to create value for these people while creating value for your client is what PR is all about. The customers and the important people behind the scenes of a company are your backbone.
Now here I am: studying the field, being a Senior Account Supervisor for Central’s student-run agency, and the next VP of Professional Development of CWU PRSSA - I’m happy and thankful to be learning something new about PR everyday. And when someone asks me,
“So… What are you studying?”
“What do you want to do when you graduate?” “What is PR?”
I have an answer for them.