What is the PR practitioner’s role?

If public relations is defined as relationships with important publics, then what the PR practitioner does can be defined as determining the desired purposes for the organization’s communications to each public and then applying those purposes to decisions about the content, method of delivery and timing of those communications.

Put more plainly, the PR practitioner asks, “What are we trying to accomplish with this communication?”

The practitioner seeks to understand what the organization needs to say to each public, how to deliver that message and how that public will react to the communication.

The PR practitioner, then, is a counselor, facilitator, liaison, catalyst and problem-solver who collaborates with management and adds value to an organization’s strategic direction.