A Guide to the Different Types of PR

One of the questions I’m often asked is: What types of PR are there? The answer, of course, is there are many. So here’s my quick and easy guide to the different types of PR you can take advantage of to raise your profile, boost your bottom line and improve employee relations.

For most of my clients, achieving positive news stories in the media is usually the main PR objective. But that’s just one type of PR. Public relations is also about how you communicate to stakeholders inside your business; your involvement in your local community; how you handle a crisis; and your activity on social media.

But different types of PR don’t operate in separate silos. There’s overlapping right across the board. Any kind of crisis PR activity will have media relations and employee communications at its core. And public affairs communications also involves community relations and strategic communications. But for the purpose of this guide, there are essentially seven types of PR.

So let me break down the different types of PR.

1. Media Relations

This requires long boozy lunches, right? Maybe in the 1980s but not these days. Media relations does take time and effort though. As an experienced PR pro, I’ve spent years building relationships with journalists based on trust and transparency. I dig deep to find interesting and compelling stories about your organisation, product or services which I know will be of interest to journos and most likely to get picked up.

Of course, one of the benefits of nurturing positive, long-standing relationships with journalists is that they will come to me when they want a quote from you, or some industry insight, or even feature you as a case study when writing an article. This helps establish you and your business as industry leaders. Plus, if you and your organisation are honest, open and available, media outlets are much more likely to publish positive news stories about you – even during a time of crisis.

Read more: Media Relations: How to Forge a Positive Relationship with the Media.

2. Community relations

Crisis management is one of the types of PR needed when some kind of disaster strikes: a faulty product has to be recalled, an oil tanker spills, a founder gets into an unseemly spat with someone on social media or an employee accuses the company of wrongdoing. Any one of these things could ruin your company’s reputation and needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.

The key to navigating a crisis is preparation. Don’t wait until the proverbial brown stuff hits the fan to pull together a crisis management team. I work with clients in advance to make sure you have a crisis comms plan in place before an incident occurs so you can minimise the impact of negative publicity on your business.

This will mean already knowing who your spokesperson is and how key messages will be conveyed. If your spokesperson needs media training in advance, I can make sure they have it. A crisis is not the time to learn on the job. And how will the news be shared? Via a press release that’s posted on Twitter/X? Or will there be a press conference with the CEO? Don’t forget your internal teams either. Decide in advance how your staff will be informed and kept up-to-date. Don’t let them hear about the crisis on the news with everyone else. It also pays to build up strong relations with the media too so they can be relied on to support your organisation if a crisis does occur.

Read more: Crisis Management in Public Relations and Issues Management in Public Relations.

4. Public affairs PR

When it comes to public affairs comms, my role as a PR professional is to make your organisation’s views known. Your team needs to be very clear as to how any changes to a policy could impact on your business, both positively and negatively. And this needs conveying to decision-makers at the highest level.

In order to assist policymakers in their decision-making, you need to provide industry data and insights. This is done through submissions to government consultations, internal and external briefing papers, or through one-to-one meetings, conferences and receptions. Public affairs teams are also responsible for drafting responses to government select committees and policy submissions for white and green papers.

Naturally, public affairs PR also includes media management, albeit with a political focus, and includes issuing news releases and articles to the press in order to influence public opinion.

5. Social media comms

Social media platforms like Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are fast becoming the channels of choice when it comes to marketing new products and services. These platforms, as well as LinkedIn are essential for PR activity too. In fact, you could say social media has blurred the line between PR and marketing and completely changed the PR landscape.

Social media is a natural fit for PR and can be used to protect and promote your organisation’s reputation and gain immediate positive results. Social media is used by PR pros, like me, to make company announcements, respond swiftly to bubbling negative stories in real-time and understand what is being said about the brand as part of an issues management programme.

It also enables brands to influence public opinion, identify and engage influencers, and connect directly with journalists on developing stories. And, of course, it gives brands an opportunity to connect with customers and demonstrate outstanding customer service.

But. Because of the speed of social media, things can and do go wrong and quite often in a spectacular fashion. Twitter/X is often the go-to platform when it comes to issuing a public apology. And this is often to apologise for a blunder that actually happened on the same platform.

As a PR pro, I work with numerous organisations to decide what’s the best social media platform to choose when it comes to achieving their communication objectives. Are you reaching the appropriate audience on TikTok? Or is Twitter/X a better fit? Organisations must also be clear about who will manage the messaging on social media. If employees are responsible for social media content, it’s imperative they receive the correct training in order to avoid a social media gaffe which triggers a crisis. Or perhaps it’s better to leave social media activity in the hands of PR professionals?

Read more: Dealing With Social Media Criticism like a Pro and How to Avoid a Personal PR Crisis.

6. Employee communications