Explaining PR To Your Peers

By: Sarah Jones

The first question I get when I tell someone what I'm majoring in is, "Well, what exactly is PR?" Often, I struggle to come up with a short enough answer. However, it always turns into a series of "ums" on my end because I'm trying to find the words to explain what it is that I want to do for the rest of my life. It always comes down to me rattling off the various documents I create, and hope they'll lose interest in the question. Sometimes I wish I had this image to pass out to anyone who asks about PR:

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Some people have misconceptions about PR and they say, "Oh so you like to talk?" Not every PR professional is a talker or will talk a lot. Yes, there's some aspects that require you to talk but a lot of the time you're one on one with the client and spend the majority of your time creating the documents that are needed. I will admit that I didn't exactly have the right understanding of what public relations is. I saw the glamorous, movie side of it and what I didn't know was all the great things you can do through PR. You can work pretty much anywhere you want to, in any field that interests you. You can work for a nonprofit that you believe in, a hospital, a school district, or in the corporate world. You can even work in the entertainment industry if that's what you're passionate about. The thing I like most about PR is the sky is the limit and you can choose which direction you want to go based on what you're passionate about.

PR Daily explained it pretty well with its article about the subject and it even divided up the most common fields of PR. It explained how PRSA says to use this to define PR, "Public Relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics." Which if you try to use that on non-industry people it will go in one ear and out the other. For something as complex as PR the best thing to do is explain without jargon and with things that people already are aware of. For example, PR Daily suggests people who work in media relations say something like this, "I get my clients on TV, in the papers and featured on blogs to share company news and initiatives." Sounds pretty straight forward and lets people know that you are not strictly a party planner.

So the next time someone asks about PR majors and what its all about, talk to them about all the great things you'll end up doing, the people you want to help, or the things you want to promote. Explain to them the hard work ethic you have gained over the past four plus years of school and all the fun you have had taking the classes that will excel you into the wonderful world of PR. However if all of that fails and they still question why you took an entire class over social media, you can point them into the direction of this humorous article from Buzzfeed!