The role of PR

When I was 19-years-old, I took my first job as a freelance journalist – it was one of the most exciting times of my life. I was in my second year of university and I scored a writing job with a music magazine based in Newcastle. The year was 2008, and my job was interviewing real-life rock stars, and when I wrote about them and saw my name in print – it was a dream come true!

It was that same year I was introduced to a glimpse of Public Relations (PR) in dealing with a number of the music labels’ publicists who’d send me press materials and organise the interviews with the best spokespeople from each band (not every band’s front man is able to speak to the media).

As a communication student, I’d heard about PR and knew a few classmates who were studying it, but it wasn’t until I’d had my first experience with people in PR that I really understood what the industry was all about.

Fast forward a little more than a decade (and stop counting my age!), and here I am, with close to a decade of PR experience under my belt. And, I’ll tell you something, I’m not looking back as I love what I do.

So, what is it that myself, the team at Elevate, and PR practitioners actually do?

PR is all about communicating and managing each person, business or organisations’ publics, also referred to as stakeholders. Our job is to maintain reputations, communicate great stories, or know when something doesn’t need to be shared. 

There are multiple facets of ‘PR’ and my small glimpse of the rock star’s publicists’ day to day missions, struck a ‘chord’ with me (so sorry about that pun). In PR we can communicate and celebrate stories across a range of clients, from businesses, to government, sports teams, high profile people and more.

We are your cheer squad, albeit a very structured, strategic and focused cheer-squad.

We don’t just look at communicating your great work via media, we are creative in finding channels that best reach your target audience, such as communicating your message via influencers, bloggers, through events or promotional activity, advertorial, social media, digital media – basically any way, shape or form we can.  

We also manage issues and crisis. When an issue happens, we are there to be your sounding board and to make sure your truth is being told and your reputation is maintained.  

PR is vital to building your business, as it will help you to establish credibility, enhance your reputation and can even contribute to increased foot traffic, clicks or sales.  

If you’re looking to better understand PR and what it can do for your business, give us a call on (07) 3180 3666.