Public relations is all about influence … The ABCs of PR-RSS

If I hear or read the phrase one more time that “public relations is all about relationships” … I swear I’ll gag!

That’s because it just ‘taint so! At best, it’s a half truth and one might be able to get away with saying that “public relations is all about relationships with influencers.” Reason being that the hard truth (uh-oh, The Oracle is about to speak!) is that public relations is fundamentally about “influence.”

Before I dig myself a real hole with those who view influencing media as anathema, let me provide an explanation that I have boiled down into an anacronym for myself as “PR-RSS.” Um, you know about RSS, right? Well, PR-RSS is my answer to all those who try to complicate the practice of public relations. It’s a self-reminder that I use when my mind starts to play tricks and inflate what I do into some big theory. It stands for “PR is Really Simple, Stupid!”

So, here goes … my very own ABCs of PR-RSS:

A) Public relations seeks to inform and convince the public at large or a specific “public” about something — an idea, a product, a service, an individual, a cause;
B) The necessary vehicle or platform for informing or convincing the public on a scale of many is through the media — but not just any medium;
C) Influential media, precisely identified by virtue of their credibility or reach, are the most effective in informing and convincing the target public or community they serve.

Now, when I talk about “influence” I’m not talking about “buying influence” and I’m not talking about “influence-peddling.” Yes, this is the method of choice for some practitioners of public relations, lobbyists and others. I’m talking about convincing a target public or community of the merits of an idea, product, service, individual or cause with the assistance of media that have credibility with that public and reach within that community.

Let’s be honest. I have a hard time believing that anyone in public relations — whether in the corporate or agency world, as a publicist or working on behalf of charities and non-profits — would ever want to spend their time engaged in relationship building with media that are not influential. Duh!

That’s why I say it’s RSS … Really Simple, Stupid! That’s why public relations is not “all about” relationships — when it comes to media relations, the relationships that are of true and lasting value are relationships with influential media practitioners, those who are influential enough to help you inform and convince the right public and, hopefully, large numbers of the right public.

For those who find trouble reconciling the notion of influence with ethics, I would go further to say that to be of any real value and certainly to be solid and longlasting, the relationships that one builds with the media to help you convince a given public or community are best built on mutual trust, credibility, honesty and recognition that one delivers a quality product or service to the media at the end of the day.

That, for me at least, is the “secret sauce” in media relations and public relations work … the ability to achieve some personal satisfaction from building those relationships with the right media to deliver the message that will convince a specific public or community, and to do it with one’s personal credibility intact. Why this sauce is a secret to so many in the public relations profession, I’m not sure … it’s actually another one of those things that, to me at least, is RSS!

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