Introduction to Public Relations

This course is essential for anyone wanting to get up to speed with the fundamentals of public relations and media communications. Suitable for those involved in PR full time or for other media executives who want a better understanding of how public relations work.

COURSE CONTENT:

What is PR? Definitions and examples of how PR works and why it sometimes fails

• How we define PR and why it is important to understand the principles
• Different types of PR: from event management and public affairs to experiential and social media
• Differences between PR, marketing and advertising, and how digital and social media campaigns are blurring the lines between them

Press Releases, the good, bad and the ugly

• Understanding the role of the press release in media relations
• Assessing value and impact of a press release
• Why some press releases work and some don’t

Tools and channels – different ways of delivering effective public relations

• What tools are available?
• What are the pros and cons of each PR tool?
• Best practice in deploying different tools & techniques

Media relations in action

• Understanding media and what journalists are looking for
• Using national media for PR – the how and why
• Tricks of the trade, surveys, expertise, thought-leadership

PR planning, how to develop a campaign

• Identifying the audience and finding routes to reach them
• Three-stage strategic planning & four-stage PR planning
• How research and analysis relate to evaluation

How to deal with the press and what makes news?

• What journalists are looking for from PR practitioners
• How to build media lists and target journalists
• Building a deeper understanding of your target media

How to measure the value of your PR

• Why evaluation is the Achilles heel of the PR industry and how social and digital are becoming essential elements of measurement
• Different types of traditional evaluation, ACE, AVE, OTS, media and audience analysis tone, message, sentiment and impact
• Advanced evaluation – intermediary and target audience effects

Tips on interviews and crisis management

• Do’s and don’ts of press interviews
• What journalists want from PRs
• How to deal with bad news and the basics of crisis management

FOR WHOM:

Public Relations managers, Supervisors, Officers and Others who perform related functions both in public and private sector

TRAINING METHODOLOGY

The training methodology combines lectures, discussions, group exercises and illustrations. Participants will gain both theoretical and practical knowledge of the topics. The emphasis is on the practical application of the topics and as a result participant will go back to the workplace with both the ability and the confidence to apply the techniques learned to their duties.