The New Face of PR

The incredible technological advances of the last 15 years have forced many industries — including public relations — to undergo dramatic changes in order to survive. PR firms are expanding their range of services in order to provide integrated communication strategies for clients and their brands.

A variety of media outlets, including the JCPR blog, have already reported the shift in the standard PR business platform. However, some members of the PR industry are shedding the “PR” label altogether.

In a recent PRWeek blog post, Jeffrey Sharlach of JeffreyGroup asks, “Is it time to retire the term ‘public relations?’” He notes:

In 1993, when I founded JeffreyGroup, we proudly had “Public Relations Specialists for Latin America” as a tagline on our business cards and brochures. (The World Wide Web wasn’t really going yet, so there was no website until a few years later.) Although we’re still Latin America specialists, we dropped the “Public Relations” in 2005. And a quick glance at the websites of the 10 largest agencies in PRWeek’s listings show none of them with public relations in their name.

While ditching the term “public relations” may or may not be appropriate, what is definitely not up for debate is the necessity for PR professionals to inform existing and prospective clients that the PR industry has changed, and their firms offer more than plain-vanilla PR services.

Today’s PR firms are combining traditional public relations services with social media, digital, search engine optimization (SEO), video production and other offerings to enable clients to achieve more meaningful engagement with their audiences. For example, JCPR provides video production, visual branding and digital services through Jennifer Connelly Interactive Productions (JCIP).

PR professionals also monitor online and other communication channels to ensure message and brand consistency for clients, and help clients respond immediately to customer complaints and feedback. Meanwhile, PR and marketing campaigns are becoming more integrated, as the lines between PR and marketing continue to blur (see previous JCPR blog post).

Hopefully, these industry developments can serve as a rallying cry for PR industry members that their profession should no longer be thought of as just press releases and media pitches. Instead, PR should be acknowledged as a field that is facilitating integrated, multimedia audience engagement.