What exactly is Public Relations to the rest of the world?

Being a Public Relations major, I was curious as to how many people around my social bubble actually know and/or understand what it is. When I first came into the subject, I thought I had to do a lot of work with advertising and marketing. But instead it came out to being more of a writing thing to me. I have had many make believe campaigns that I worked on in the classroom that helped build experience on how it is to be a PR practitioner. So I went out and surveyed a couple of my good friends around campus to see how many people actually know about what public relations is.

A couple of my first responders were not really informed of what it is. My roommate Cam is an exercise science major, so if I needed to know a question about the human body I could count on him. But when i asked him about my major all he could say was "well I don't know a whole lot about it, i just know you have to talk a lot". Another one of my friends named Amanda said she has never heard of public relations, saying" I thought it was marketing". Well, no, it isn't just talking; public relations is a series of being able to tell someone else's story and managing an image for a company. Furthermore, I only had 2 people in my survey that had a close assumption of what PR was. Jordan mentioned that you have to write press releases to build hype for an upcoming event/show. Which is true, the drip drip drip technique is used to give out information about an event little by little to give the targeted audience a little taste until the big shi-bang! But i want to make sure people know the differences between marketing, public relations and advertising since most of the people in my survey didn't know.

Similarities and Differences :

• Advertising-  advertisement is paid for, meaning that companies pay for space to place an ad they have designed who also have complete control of what goes on it. While public relations is less expensive and is focused on creating relationships with the clients to promote an idea for creating an ad.
• Marketing- Many people say that public relations is part of the marketing mix. Both require strategic planning toward a campaign and both promote a brand image. But marketing is more focused on the sale while public relations is focused on the story.
• Public Relations- is more focused on securing social media coverage over a client and maintaing an image. Through a variety of tactics and planning the job of a pr practitioner is to nuture the relationship between a client and anyone else that is involved.

I have always been fascinated with the idea of stories that have never been told to the rest of the world and how much it can impact a movement or a cause. I wanted to tell other peoples stories and creating relationships with real people like your customers who will value what you say about them. I wanted to make the news and maybe be the news. When i first started out i was a bit hesitant on whether or not i actually could manage doing that. but after a while it came easy for me to bond with everyday people and networking to create business ties. I wanted to be apart of being someones conversation and affecting moods and perceptions on things. That's why i love my field and why i want to tell your story.