Public Relations have had to deal with the challenges faced by the industry. These include new media and with debates surrounding the professionalism of the industry. The role of the PR practitioner might be widening but is it been replaced by another field such as social marketing? It can be argued that the two disciplines have different roles and serve different purposes.
The public relations practice according to PRSA is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say, and what others say about you. Public Relations aims to earn understanding and support and influence opinion and behaviour.
While Social Marketing seeks to " influence social behaviours not to benefit the marketer ,but to benefit the target audience and general society.
This distinctive difference shows that social marketing has its place , public relations clearly outlines itself as a practice that is still needed for building relations with various publics.
References: What is Social Marketing by Nedra Kline Weinrich
Introduction to Public Relations by Sam Black
www.prsa.org
4 comments:
social marketing sounds pretty interesting though. but it is totally different then from, say, public sector pr? don't they both seek to inform the public on issues that will be beneficial to the public? and how can marketing something not benefit the marketer? that's like saying pure altruism exists, which is heavily debated in philosophy classes. hmm...
The social marketing concept while it adopts from commercial marketing is somewhat different. Yes the role of Pr in some sectors includes informing the public on things beneficial. Social marketing goes beyond that and uses communication to encourage some sort of change.
I think the concepts of social marketing overlaps Public Relations. Whereas PR is not marketing, social marketing is an integral part of marketing.
One has to draw a line between the two.
This is a brave attempt to generate a debate.
Public relations and social marketing have a thin line seperating them. I think sometimes they do overlap.
Though sometimes the objective might be completely different!
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