Public relations or PR is the actions and efforts in connecting the organisation/team/individual to their public (customer, user or follower). Communication is Public relations main focus, as one could say good communication means the PR is being done right.

The focus of PR can be many things depending on the external and internal environments. Relaying important messages to the media, trying to make a bad situation seem less dramatic and calm is something a PR person would do.

The government and sporting teams are where PR gets worked a lot but of course it’s still so valuable in business circles. Part of being a social media ‘officer’ or ‘promoter’ is deploying PR in turbulent times for your employer.

Think back to when United airlines assaulted a passenger and kicked him of the plane, there was viral video footage and the internet was raged. How on earth could United Airlines stay stable in this time?

Well firstly time heals all, Whilst some would avoid United majority wouldn’t care nor remember the past wrongs. Short term the stocks took a dive, the media was all over it and there was anger towards United. The role of Public relations in this instance would be to apologize, quell the anger, make the actions have a reason and to make the stance that it will never happen again.

Thats all they can really do, just ride the wave out and move on. Lets be honest United doesn’t beat passengers daily or yearly it was  strange but rare occurrence. So apologize, say you will fix processes and it will never happen again. Time will do the rest.

Public relation is something that can not afford errors or poor performance because in times of need PR is often what saves your organisation a lot of money. Poor PR that just digs the hole deeper is obviously avoidable, it’s an understatement that PR is a crucial aspect to an organisation.