1. Explain PR's role and functions within an organization.

There are formal definitions of the term "public relations," yet its meaning is self-evident; it is the management of relationships between an organization and the constituencies upon which it depends.

Quite literally, public relations is managing relations with various publics, a role that grows in importance as reputation becomes ever more critical to business success. companies must make it a priority to value the needs of all publics, and to forge good relationships with them. The cornerstone of a good relationship is trust, and trust is based on open and honest communication. Effective public relations tells a company's story in a way that is accurate, honest, and easy to understand, helping to establish a reputation for credibility.

A good relationship also requires a willingness to listen, and true public relations is a two-way process. PR professionals recognize that to manage relationships, they must understand and respect public concerns and viewpoints. They must also go a step further, to serve as the public's advocate within an organization.

In effect, corporate public relations professionals frequently play the role of an outsider. By questioning decisions and their impact on customers, the community, employees, and others, public relation professionals bring the public perspective to an organization, fostering its ability to be responsive to public concerns.

source: http://www.ad-mkt-review.com/public_html/docs/fs050.html

2. Explain the impact of effective communications to internal publics.

Effective internal communication is crucial to the success of any organization. At its core is engaging internal audiences to carry out the organization's goals and strategy. Through strategic internal communication, communicators can build credibility from within, and impact decisions at the highest level within their organization, and drive bottom line results.

Effective communications helps in better coordination, cooperations and efficiency within the internal publics in any organization and thus is a key driver for the success of any organization.

source: http://www.ce.columbia.edu/masters/courses.cfm?PID=2&Content=Descriptions

3. Describe the differences between advertising and public
relations. Give specific examples of each. Describe when an organization
would use each.

1. Paid Space or Free Coverage

Advertising:
The company pays for ad space. You know exactly when that ad will air or be published.

Public Relations:
Your job is to get free publicity for the company. From news conferences to press releases, you're focused on getting free media exposure for the company and its products/services.
2. Creative Control Vs. No Control

Advertising:
Since you're paying for the space, you have creative control on what goes into that ad.

Public Relations:
You have no control over how the media presents your information, if they decide to use your info at all. They're not obligated to cover your event or publish your press release just because you sent something to them.
3. Shelf Life

Advertising:
Since you pay for the space, you can run your ads over and over for as long as your budget allows. An ad generally has a longer shelf life than one press release.

Public Relations:
You only submit a press release about a new product once. You only submit a press release about a news conference once. The PR exposure you receive is only circulated once. An editor won't publish your same press release three or four times in their magazine.
4. Wise Consumers

Advertising:
Consumers know when they're reading an advertisement they're trying to be sold a product or service.
"The consumer understands that we have paid to present our selling message to him or her, and unfortunately, the consumer often views our selling message very guardedly," Paul Flowers, president of Dallas-based Flowers & Partners, Inc., said. "After all, they know we are trying to sell them."

Public Relations:
When someone reads a third-party article written about your product or views coverage of your event on TV, they're seeing something you didn't pay for with ad dollars and view it differently than they do paid advertising.
"Where we can generate some sort of third-party 'endorsement' by independent media sources, we can create great credibility for our clients' products or services," Flowers said.

5. Creativity or a Nose for News

Advertising:
In advertising, you get to exercise your creativity in creating new ad campaigns and materials.

Public Relations:
In public relations, you have to have a nose for news and be able to generate buzz through that news. You exercise your creativity, to an extent, in the way you search for new news to release to the media.

6. In-House or Out on the Town

Advertising:
If you're working at an ad agency, your main contacts are your co-workers and the agency's clients. If you buy and plan ad space on behalf of the client like Media Director Barry Lowenthal does, then you'll also interact with media sales people.

Public Relations:
You interact with the media and develop a relationship with them. Your contact is not limited to in-house communications. You're in constant touch with your contacts at the print publications and broadcast media.
7. Target Audience or Hooked Editor

Advertising:
You're looking for your target audience and advertising accordingly. You wouldn't advertise a women's TV network in a male-oriented sports magazine.

Public Relations:
You must have an angle and hook editors to get them to use info for an article, to run a press release or to cover your event.
8. Limited or Unlimited Contact

Advertising:
Some industry pros such as Account Executive Trey Sullivan have contact with the clients. Others like copywriters or graphic designers in the agency may not meet with the client at all.

Public Relations:
In public relations, you are very visible to the media. PR pros aren't always called on for the good news.
If there was an accident at your company, you may have to give a statement or on-camera interview to journalists. You may represent your company as a spokesperson at an event. Or you may work within community relations to show your company is actively involved in good work and is committed to the city and its citizens.

9. Special Events

Advertising:
If your company sponsors an event, you wouldn't want to take out an ad giving yourself a pat on the back for being such a great company. This is where your PR department steps in.

Public Relations:
If you're sponsoring an event, you can send out a press release and the media might pick it up. They may publish the information or cover the event.
10. Writing Style

Advertising:
Buy this product! Act now! Call today! These are all things you can say in an advertisement. You want to use those buzz words to motivate people to buy your product.

Public Relations:
You're strictly writing in a no-nonsense news format. Any blatant commercial messages in your communications are disregarded by the media.

source: http://advertising.about.com/od/careersource/a/10advpr.htm

Examples: Placing an ad in newspaper is advertising whereas conduting an open forum for consumers is a PR exercise.

4. Recommend strategies to generate positive publicity. Justify
each.
here are three basic strategies to get you started with a positive publicity plan.

It's all about relationships. Call a reporter whose work you admire and tell him or her so without fawning. Explain that you may be a resource in the future: perhaps you're an expert in a certain field or you've had a life experience that may be interesting. Follow up by sending articles you've written or ones that have featured you. Here's how it works: reporters have a Rolodex full of contacts. When they have to do a story on a certain topic, they flip the business cards around until they find someone qualified to talk on the subject. If you're not in the Rolodex, you won't get called.

It's all about news. Keep up with current events. When a news story happens that affects your product, service or business, call the newspaper's assignment editor and the TV station's assignment desk and tell them you have an angle or a "sidebar" to go with XYZ news story. For instance, let's say a huge fire destroys an apartment complex. Investigators have determined a cigarette started the fire. You have a new product on the market that stops cigarettes from burning if they haven't been puffed in two minutes. Reporters could legitimately tie your product to the news story without it looking like payola.

It's all about spin. You've heard of spin doctors, or public relations specialists who take a bad situation and "spin" it into a better situation. If something negative touches your industry, find a way to make it look better and tell the whole story to the media. For instance, a few years ago, a man got mad because his toddler was making too much noise during a Dallas Cowboys' football game. The man beat the child, who ended up dying. The Dallas Cowboys franchise was having its own public image problems at the time and ignored the news story. However, if the owner had made a donation to the city's child abuse prevention association, he could've made the team look more compassionate and made it appear the little boy didn't die in vain.

source: http://www.lorriallen.com/artpos.html

Explain the need for proactive PR planning and reactive crisis
management.

There are two types of public relations: proactive and reactive. Most companies practice reactive public relations. They take their publics for granted; then when a problem comes up they claim there is a misunderstanding, and that they really have everyone's best interest in mind. Then they act surprised when they find out no one trusts them.

Proactive public relations means staying involved with company publics and looking for opportunities to demonstrate good will.

Rather than just waiting for things to happen, it is extremely crucial for companies in today's competitive business environment to become proactive in their public relations activities.

source: rockproducts.com/mag/rock_proactive_public_relations/index.html

One three-year study showed that companies that were reactive about crisis management experienced an average of 16 crises, while those that were proactive experienced an average of nine. There was correlating information that the reactive companies had a 2% return on assets, and the proactive companies had a 6% ROA.