Public Relations (PR), Earned Media, and Crisis Communications are tossed around a lot when talking about media. Understanding the differences between them will help your company shape public perception, media strategies, and predict their outcomes. Let’s get started!
Public Relations (PR)
Public Relations is all about strategic communication processes that build mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics. PR professionals craft messages to portray their company's image in a positive light, manage media relations, and develop communication strategies that align with the organization's goals.
Unlike advertising, PR focuses on maintaining a positive image and building long-term relationships with the audience. It's about storytelling and creating narratives that resonate with both the media and the target audience. With effective PR campaigns, you can achieve increased brand awareness, improved reputation, and even direct engagement with stakeholders.
Earned Media
Earned Media is any publicity generated through efforts other than paid advertising. It's the recognition or exposure a brand receives through word-of-mouth, customer reviews, social media mentions, news articles, and other forms of media not directly controlled by the company.
Since it is from a third-party source, it is considered more credible and trustworthy as it is a direct testament to a company’s reputation, quality of products or services, and customer service. To achieve earned media, your marketing team will have to create share-worthy content and networking relationships.
Crisis Communications
One of the only things that a company doesn’t want to partake in is crisis communications. However, at some point, it is needed and being prepared for it is important. Crisis communication focuses on protecting and defending a company or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation. Your company must act quickly to mitigate the crisis’ impact and assure stakeholders.
This demonstrates transparency, honesty, and clarity, all of which are key elements to rebuild trust in your company’s reputation. As part of our media training program, we work with companies to build a crisis team and thorough processes on how to handle different kinds of crises. Reach out to us today for a free consultation.
How Does Media Training Help?
Media training comes in handy for all - PR, Earned Media, and Crisis Communications. It offers guidelines on how employees and C-level executives should interact with the media, control the narrative, and create a positive impact on your audience.
Here's how media training benefits each area:
In PR, it helps spokespeople build skills to navigate interviews, press conferences, and public appearances. You can possibly turn every opportunity into a strategic advantage for brand messaging.
For Earned Media, media training helps your company understand how to generate positive buzz and leverage media opportunities to gain favorable coverage without direct payment or control.
During a Crisis, media training is invaluable. It not only ensures that spokespeople can handle tough questions, and stay on message but also conveys a sense of control and reassurance to the public.
As an organization, your biggest goal is to spread awareness and create a positive public image. Our team at Bulletproof Media Training offers a 1-day on-demand media training program that’s customized to your company values and needs. Please get in touch to discuss more.