Nowadays reputation management and public relations both marketing terms are gaining popularity. People always get confused between the two and believe that both the marketing terms have the same meaning. But public relations and reputation management are slightly different from each other in some substantial ways.
Public Relations (PR)
It is the process of strategic communication that helps in building relations between the organization and the public. A PR agency has a complete team of skilled members that helps in creating a positive perception of the brand among the target customers. But the major goal of a PR person is to keep informing the public about some specific things of brand and services.
To spread the information about the brand, leading PR firms to take part in various social activities like organizing events, press releases, hosting social events like fundraisers, speeches at press conferences, officially responding to a crisis, etc. The major goal of public relations is to create and promote a positive buzz about the brand or services to their assigned audiences and entity.
Online Reputation Management (ORM)
Reputation is the social perception created by the human race about any object, person, or anything. It is an opinion that is created in the mind by other people about any object, person, business, or anything else. As reputation has played a very vital role in the success and acceptance of any business, it became important to maintain it, and hence, reputation management services came into existence.
Previously, it was done entirely offline as there was no internet. Special events, print media, and word of mouth were some social activities that were used to manage the reputation of the business. But in the emerging era of the internet online reputation management gain its importance.
Comparison Between Public Relations and Reputation Management
- PR and reputation management may use some common marketing techniques but they are entirely different from each other. PR is front-facing while ORM is not. You will always find a PR representative in some events, press conferences, and other public activities where they have to face cameras as they communicate with people directly. But you will never come to know about the entity responsible for reputation management.
- PR is a direct marketing activity. It is public and visible through various platforms like press conferences, social events, etc. On the other hand, ORM is a more promotional activity in the sense that it’s meant to raise how people understand an entity through means you might not even notice.
- PR always addresses the current issues that may include some announcements, launch of new services or brands, some current happening, etc. For the announcement, a press release is preferred which may be considered as old tomorrow or next week. In the contrast, results that are oriented by reputation management are long-lasting.
Now, the question arises that how to decide which one is better for you. To answer this, both reputation management and public relations are quite different from each other but when they are used together, they lead to great results.