The definition of Public Relations is best described in two definitions that have stood the test of time. Each projects an image of the field at the highest policy-making level and encompasses all its functions and specialties: .
• Public relations help an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other. .
• Public relations are an organization's efforts to win the cooperation of groups of people.
It has been noted that public relations affects almost everyone who has contact with other human beings. All of us, in one way or another, practice public relations daily. For an organization, every phone call, every letter, every face-to-face encounter is a public relations event. .
One of the most ambitious searches for a universal definition was commissioned in 1975 by the Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education. Sixty-five public relations leaders participated in the study, which analyzed 472 different definitions and offered the following 88-word sentence: .
Public relations is a distinctive management function which helps establish and maintain mutual lines of communications, understanding, acceptance, and cooperation between an organization and its publics; involves the management of problems or issues; helps management to keep informed on and responsive to public opinion; defines and emphasizes the responsibility of management to serve the public interest; helps management keep abreast of and effectively utilize change, serving as an early warning system to help anticipate trends; and uses research and sound and ethical communication techniques as its principal tools. (Public Relations View, 2001).
Public relations are all about building momentum. Smart public relations help create a brand within the industry. So the challenge for the public relations professional is to take the entrepreneur's vision and communicate it so that the word gets out.