A typical definition of public relations is the set of actions aimed at creating and maintaining a good image of a company or person (external communications), both before the general public (consumers, clients, investors, public institutions, social organizations, groups of opinion, etc.), and before their own workers (internal communications).

However, nowadays in view of the complexity of communications, the work of a PR firm has greatly increased, due to a series of factors including digitalization, globalization, immediacy and the existence of social networks.

On the one hand, the channels are no longer the same; newspapers, magazines, radio and TV have joined social networks and influencers as an established channel of communication, which is gaining more and more ground against the conventional media, forcing to develop digital strategies with messages very different from the traditional ones.

On the other hand, today no company can abstain from communicating with transparency: from what it does, and what its income is, to how it does it (for example, if its methods are compatible with the ecosystem). The time to hide the head is over; who does not communicate disappears or goes into crisis.
There are also professionals who need to position themselves with a suitable image or get closer to their audience.

And in all these tasks it is necessary to be advised by a good PR firm, since everything must have a strategy and a communication plan, starting with an analysis that includes segmenting the target audience, mapping the stakeholders that we need to react, prepare messages with the appropriate storytelling that properly reaches our audience.

In addition, you have to know the media and its journalists, know what they are looking for and in what format. That is why according to wikipedia today 80% of the content in the media comes from the actions of a public relations specialist and not from the search of the media itself.

And in case a company or person enters a public crisis, which are increasing as a result of social networks where anyone can upload content, and amplification capacity has multiplied several times, and in less time, there the work of a communications professional becomes even more essential to face the media.

A PR company will prepare a crisis plan beforehand and will set up a crisis committee to meet if necessary so that it is not the affected person who comes out to give an improvised response, making the situation even worse, and will prepare their spokespersons with an adequate media training.

Reputational damage has now become one of the main problems of companies that do not handle their crisis correctly, with some having an impact even on their stock market value.

For all of the above, the right team and the experience and closeness of a PR firm are key when choosing the right advisor. Closeness not only with the customer but also with the media through ethical, trustworthy and long-term relationships.

These teams are often led by journalists, but today they are multidisciplinary to meet the different requests that a client can entrust to a PR firm, including sociologists, designers, marketers, politicians, photographers, film makers, etc., as tasks can go from production of digital pieces to press analysis.

And the events cannot be left out as another channel of communication used by companies to have access to their clients and/or prospects to deliver content, or simply build loyalty with brand actions. Therefore, an event cannot be prepared without a goal, where speakers, duration, invited guests, etc. are correctly selected, all by a PR professional.

As you can see, nothing is left to chance when properly handling the public image of a company, organization or person.