Publicity and public relations (PR) are often wrongly considered to be one and the same. In fact, publicity is just one element of PR and, whereas publicity can be incidental, PR is very much managed.
Publicity is simply the exposure given to someone or something whether it’s been intended or not. It can, however, be harnessed to convey information to an audience and to build profile through the likes of news stories, events or interviews. PR, on the other hand, is the strategic cultivation of an organisation’s brand in the eyes of one or more target audiences.
A good example of the difference between publicity and PR – and indeed PR being used to turn bad publicity into good publicity – came from the Red Cross in 2011. In an unfortunate out-of-hours mishap, employee Gloria Huang sent a tweet meant for her personal Twitter account from the organisation’s account. It read:
Naturally, this was hardly “on brand” for the Red Cross and it quickly went viral. Bad publicity. Huang’s subsequent apology and the organisation’s calm and measured response however, was widely applauded:
Indeed, such was the support that Dogfish Beer launched a fundraising and blood donation drive, using the now infamous hashtag #gettngslizzerd. The Red Cross benefited as a result and Dogfish had an unexpected marketing bonanza.
This shows the difference between publicity and PR. A single, unplanned tweet might be problematic, but intelligent management of the situation can even turn it to your advantage. It also shows the perils of managing personal and professional Twitter accounts from the same app, but that’s a different story..!
Photo by Oleg Laptev on Unsplash
