Running head PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC RELATION1

Principles Of Public Relations

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What are the most important principles for Public Relations officers (PR) to practice? Discuss
each one in detail and explain why they are important.
Public Relations is a discipline that nurtures reputation, maintains ties to the
community and gets important information out to consumers and other interested parties. It
is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual
understanding between an organisation and its publics. Public relations can be for a company,
person, product, country et cetera. Here is the list of basic principles for Public Relations
officers to practice so as to develop a positive reputation for an organisation in the
marketplace.
Organizations exist only by public consent and/or acceptance, this resonates on the
oldest principle of public relations, which is to manage the relationships between these
stakeholders and the organization (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). Public Relations officers
should be service-oriented professions who aim at public interest, not personal reward.
Stakeholders can either help or hinder your organizations mission, thus Public Relations
should be given primary consideration in organizations.
Tell the truth, and never deceive the public with any information that you release
either out rightly or by implication.it is always better to present the facts in such a way that
sheds as much positive light on your organisation as much as possible (Grunig &
Dozier,2003). This principle is important because a fallout and/or damage that may result
from deceit can do more harm than the issue you were trying to cover up.it is important to use
any opportunity presented to tell your side of the story.
Prove it with action, the key idea behind this principle is that the publics need to see
that public relations practitioners take rather a mere reputation for talking (Long& Hazelton,
1987). Americans have a saying: Talk is cheap. Such officers should first act on either

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company, person or product, then convene information about the same to the public for
example If your service is subpar, then you should improve it.
A public practitioners best allies should be the media. This principle is especially
important, because an organization can gather more credibility from a reported story than you
will from an advertisement. PR practitioners should therefore have media contacts and master
their needs. They need to know everything that they can about the organization such as; its
mission, goals and objectives which are possible sources for public relations stories.
Knowing the clients and their needs, the importance of any good PR is to bridge the
connection between the clients needs public and products/services (Newsom & Kruckeberg,
2012). Public relations officers should evolved from one-way communication to two-way
communication by seeking feedback from publics through conducting surveys, creating
platforms communicating with existing client and meeting with a potential client such as;
Facebook, Linked In and Instagram.
Knowing the purpose and desired result, if the major goal of public relations officers
is to build relationships. Then, it is important for them not to lose their message by trying to
be clever. Picking the right media streams to reach audiences is critical to ensure the message
is delivered.
Manage expectations, this principle mainly deals in maintaining positive relationships
between PR practitioners and their clients. For any healthy relationships to exit, it is
important to manage the clients expectations. For instance, if a firm over hypes its products
through advertisements, final consumers will be disappointed when such product falls short.
In conclusion, Public relations officers should always remember that relationships
come first, as such they must react or respond to a public relations issues or problems
promptly in this ever-changing field.

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REFERENCES
Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in
undergraduate education. AAHE bulletin, 3, 7.
Grunig, J. E., & Dozier, D. M. (2003). Excellent public relations and effective organizations:
A study of communication management in three countries. Routledge.
Long, L. W., & Hazelton, V. (1987). Public relations: A theoretical and practical
response. Public Relations Review, 13(2), 3-13.
Newsom, D., Turk, J., & Kruckeberg, D. (2012). Cengage Advantage Books: This is PR: The
Realities of Public Relations. Cengage Learning.