Marketing v. Public Relations...What's the Difference?

People often put public relations and marketing in the same category. They classify it as the same thing and don't really know what the difference is. The two professions have been growing more and more similar with the Internet and companies being able to do their own marketing and PR, there are still a few differences to keep in mind.

Marketing is used more with the selling of a product. The ultimate goal of both marketing and PR is to gain customer and business, but public relations is more focused on building a long lasting relationship. PR is used to maintain relationships and to build new ones. It also helps maintaining and building relationships between the company and the public.

Customers want to see more to the company then just the product it is selling. Public Relations professionals wants to show the company in their best light. Not only does the company or corporation want to have the public believing in their excellent products, but consumer to business relations are just as important. Public Relations want to allow the public to make their own interpretations of a company, but a little help won't hurt!

Marketing pushes the product and uses advertising and endorsements to make the public believe that their product is the best. It pushes the product on the consumer not allowing them to make up their own mind about what they think. It is all about the money and selling for marketing reps and their persuasion is what pulls the customers.

Overall, the customer is going to make up their own mind and go to the better end product. It has been said that PR professionals are much more trustworthy, but the process would not be complete without marketing. It is easier for them to like your company when they hear about you from someone else, when they read about you in a newspaper article written by the paper's staff, when they see your press conference on the news, or when they see the news at your awesome fundraiser event.

PR for Mr. and Miss GCSU

It's that time of year again here at GCSU. Cars are painted, banners are hung, and flyers are distributed everywhere in promotion of Mr. and Miss GCSU. The process is taken very seriously, especially among the Greek organizations. The initial PR campaigning began at the stroke of midnight Monday night. No campaigning was to be allowed before Feb. 9, and if the rules were not followed it resulted in disqualification.

As a apart of the Delta Zeta sorority I am very knowledgeable about how much time and effort goes into the preparation for Miss GCSU. Our candidate for 2010 is Starr Jarrard, a junior Mass Comm student. She is very well known on campus and has friendships in many clubs and organizations. Her slogan is "Shine Bright, Shine Far, THINK DZ, VOTE FOR STARR!"

Flyers were designed weeks in advance that are now hung up in dorm rooms, front doors of apartments, and around campus. Stickers were printed and handed out to the student public to wear to support Starr, and buttons are being worn by the ladies of Delta Zeta. Shirts were also ordered for the sorority members in support of Starr and are being worn around campus. 7 banners were painted and hung up on many different houses and locations around campus. The sorority also has tables set up on campus by the fountain everyday to hand out candy and stickers to students who are in support of Starr.

This will be my fourth year witnessing the PR and campaigning for Mr. and Miss GCSU and it has only grown in intensity. Through past experiences, PR has been very important. Students have been known to vote for a candidate simply for giving out the best candy, having the best slogan, or just because they like the name! It is very important to focus on the students who don't personally know any of the candidates because one small detail can be the deal breaker. Campaigning can not slow down until it's over, or the competition is lost.

The winner is announced at the Homecoming basketball game, which will be held in Saturday, Feb. 20. The best campaigning will take home the prize and I can't wait to see who it is!

TWEET TWEET!

Our PR Campaign's "challenge" this semester is to utilize twitter more professionally and more often to increase awareness. Having only started to use twitter in August, I am fairly new to the process. Do I really have things to say that peple actually care about? Well apparently I do! As of now I am following 98 people and have 68 followers. I have chosen to follow alot of corporations, companies, and Mass Communication professionals.

My goal is to tweet at least 5 times a day and pass on valuable information. I do the PR for The Colonnade and I use twitter to send out information about meetings, any important changes and any awards won. I tweet about interesting news reports and articles I have read and share the link with others.

I have found it is a great way to successfully get out information quickly. I like how you have a limited amount of characters so you have to get to the point and post the most important information! Can't wait to learn more about Twitter!