Myth: The job of PR is to stop a story from appearing

Reality: The job of PR is to give accurate information to a journalist so a fact base report may be carried. At times it may portray an organization in negative light. So be it

Myth: PR is about publicity, propaganda & spin

Reality: PR is far from these three. It is about relevant content, shared with right stakeholders to influence behaviour and done in ethical manner. If it is not about ethical it is not PR

Myth: PR is largely about media relations. And it’s synonym for media outreach

Reality: PR is based on around ten pillars and media relations is one of them but because of it’s a significant one, many mistake it to be the only thing. It is much more.

Myth : PR is easy and anyone can do it

Reality: PR is a rare field which is both an art and science. The art many can do it if they have the art of writing or gift of the gab. The science bit needs either specialized training or experience

Myth: PR measurement is complicated

Reality: PR measurement is straightforward if objectives are measured based on metric put in place. PR is rarely about ROI and mostly about return of objectives

Myth: PR is a subset of marketing or human resources

Reality: PR is a management function which is directly under CEO, in some organizations CEO’s may have a HR or marketing leader oversee PR. These are exceptions.

Myth: PR is cheap and mostly free

Reality: PR is far from cheap and definitely not free. There is a cost to the time and ideas of PR professional. Some of the outputs don’t cost money  (eg news report) compared to advertising but inputs cost

Myth: PR is about who you know and how many contacts you have

Reality: PR is little about who you know and a lot about what you know and how much of it you know. It is not about Who. It is the What and the How