PR and Marketing are often used interchangeably. While they are related and overlap, they are two different disciplines.

So… this post was inspired by a party I went to last night to celebrate an author / friend’s third publishing deal. Congratulations to Andrew Lam! You can check him out at www.redroom.com/author/andrew-q-lam

I had the opportunity to chat with a very creative artist / musician / accountant who posed the question, “What is the difference between PR and marketing?”

I have to admit, I found it quite refreshing! With all the fuss around social media, I just don’t get that question any more. So here’s is a quick refresher for those of you who’ve wondered the same.

The basics of PR and Marketing

On PR…

From a strategic standpoint, the focus of PR, aka public relations, is on creating sentiment, awareness, and understanding about a product, service or issue. It is generally used, in part, to influence what an audience knows or understands.

More concretely, PR tactics include activities which:

  • Generate news
  • Create ‘buzz’
  • Position
  • Reinforce the brand

A few key benefits of PR are:

1. PR can be used to raise brand awareness

2. PR is supportive of marketing and sales efforts

3. PR can be used to reach new and existing audiences

On Marketing…

Marketing is more directly focused on selling — determining how to get people to buy, and all the strategies and activities around meeting that end goal.

While there are many ways of going about marketing, there are two general areas of focus:

1. Market research: Identifying and understanding the buying audience(s), figuring out how to reach people who will buy and determining how best to ‘lead’ them to buy

2. Marketing collateral / Sales tools: The creation of those fancy, eye catching materials that ‘help’ buyers / potential buyers understand the products and services being sold (websites, brochures, whitepapers…)

There have long been arguments around whether PR is a part of marketing or whether it is an adjust discipline. The answer depends on who you talk to, but I like to look at the two as parts of a process.

PR, Marketing and the confusion around social media

PR, Marketing and the Internet are the forebearers of social media, yet the lack of awareness about the former has led to a great deal of confusion for those wanting to ‘go social’ professionally.

I’ve found there are three main reasons for the confusion around using social media channels, social marketing principles and social networking outlets in the business mix…

1. An intense focus on the social is leaving folks with a myopic view of what their actions and end goals should be

2. Social media strategy and tactics are not being properly integrated into the overall PR and marketing strategies

3. Folks are bypassing the basics of PR and marketing

LESSON: Sparkly, new things are always fun. But as old school as it may seem, if you to get back to the basics of your PR and marketing strategy, with an eye for the social, your social media efforts will fall into place.

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