The Unique Relationships that Form Your Publics in a PR Campaign

What is a Public?

According to Ronald D. Smith, a public is “a group of people that shares a common interest vis-a-vis an organization, recognizes its significance, and sets out to do something about it” (Smith). The existence of a public relies on the interaction between itself and the organization. Regardless of how the public feels about the organization, the organization must recognize the public and the public must recognize the organization. Publics are interested in the organization and usually inspired to engage with the issues that the organization might face. “Active publics are likely to have high levels of involvement and problem recognition, and lower levels of constraint recognition” (Rawlins). Publics should not be confused with markets, audiences and stakeholders, for these are each individual categories of people involved with an organization. Important characteristics of publics include whether or not they are distinguishable, homogeneous, important, large enough and accessible. By using these characteristics, an organization should be able to identify their publics in order to have adequate communication with them. We recognize that there are “relationships that exist between an organization and its various publics” (Smith). These are, what are defined as, linkages.

What are the Categories of Publics?

Linkages are significant in an organization’s communication because with the use of linkages, an organization should be able to identify each of their publics. The first of these is the customers. A customer is defined as “a type of public that receives the product or services of an organization” (Smith). This includes “consumers, clients, patients, fans, parishioners, members” and more (Smith). When identifying a customer, an organization may investigate current, potential or former customers. Secondary consumers are also included in this.

The next linkage is producers. A producer is “a type of public that provides input to the organization” (Smith). These could include volunteers of an organization or employees. Suppliers of an organization would also be considered producers, because they aid the organization in the production of materials. It is significant to recognize the producers, as they hold a lot of responsibility regarding whether or not the organization is successful.

Enablers are the next linkage category. These are “a type of public that serves to set norms or standards for an organization” (Smith). It is important to recognize that the media is included in this category. It is important to “identify who all the key analysts are in your industry” in order to be fully prepared to deal with groups, like the media (Eric Yaverbaum). There are three other categories of enablers. These include regulators, opinion leaders and organizational allies.

The final category of linkages are the limiters of an organization. This is “a type of public that reduces or undermines the success of an organization” (Smith). These are publics that produce any competition, threat or potential harm to an organization. An example would be the paparazzi or harsh food critic. Enablers can become limiters if there is a disagreement or separation of the organization and the enabler. Limiters overall provide a huge threat to an organization, so it is important to recognize them before there is a crisis.

References

Distel, A. (2019, June 3). Photo by Austin Distel on unsplash. Beautiful Free Images & Pictures. Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://unsplash.com/photos/Hg3BHX6U5jg

Eric Yaverbaum, Ilise Benun, & Robert W. Bly. (2006). Public Relations For Dummies: Vol. 2nd ed. For Dummies.

Mossholder, T. (2021, November 11). Photo by Tim Mossholder on unsplash. Beautiful Free Images & Pictures. Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://unsplash.com/photos/Z7U-Iy5EtSM

Prioritizing stakeholders for public relations. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://www.instituteforpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2006_Stakeholders_1.pdf

Smith, R. D. (2021). Step 2: Analyzing the Publics. In Strategic planning for public relations (pp. 79-87). essay, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.