What’s PR got to do with it?

I was thrilled to have been chosen as a RIF RAF blogging team member. Ever since, I’ve been looking forward to my inaugural blog post. Yet I’ve also been debating what to write about, because I am a PR girl in RAF's largely advertising world.It seems there are several misconceptions about what public relations entails, so I thought it made sense to lead with a discussion about the value of our work.True, public relations often goes unnoticed, but if we’re doing our job correctly, the work of a PR professional should go unnoticed. We are Jacks-of-all-trades, working behind-the-scenes to bring our clients’ news to the attention of their key audiences.As a matter of fact, the Martino Flynn PR team recently did just that for RAF. In advance of the ADDY Awards tomorrow, we crafted a press release and secured an item in the D&C about the event.While generating publicity (aka “media relations”) is one facet of public relations, our arsenal of tools allows us to do many things…whether it's organizing trade shows, ghostwriting byline articles, or even establishing a crisis contingency plan.Ultimately, PR can be a credible, cost-effective complement to the communications mix—helping a company to foster relationships with its constituents, and position how it is perceived now and in the future.