Advocacy: active support of an idea or cause
Community Relations: A strategy designed to improve and maintain a company’s reputation and relationships in the communities in which it operates. Community relations involves developing programs that benefit society and build mutual trust and understanding. These initiatives are often viewed as essential for promoting long-term business goals.
Corporate Communications: Corporate communication is a strategic function that seeks to establish and maintain a mutual understanding inside a company and with external stakeholders. Identity, trust, image and reputation are key elements in a corporate communication program. In many cases, public relations is a synonym for corporate communications, and represents the management of communication between an organisation and its publics.
Corporate Social Responsibility: “CSR” represents a company’s efforts to assess and take responsibility for the environmental and social impacts of its operations, and to engage society in ways that serve the public interest. This function, which is often referred to as “corporate responsibility” or “corporate citizenship,” applies to endeavors that go beyond what is required by law.
Crisis communication: Protecting and defending an individual, company or organisation facing a public challenge to its reputation. These challenges can involve legal, ethical or financial standing. Addresses a high level of media scrutiny that has the potential of causing reputation issues for a brand. Crisis communications involves a strategic management plan designed to mitigate risk and provide a public response meant to maintain a positive brand reputation.
Digital Advocacy: A public affairs issue engagement approach centered on web-based channels of communication, such as social media. Digital advocacy can be used to expand one’s audience, educate people on specific issues, build rapport with stakeholders and manage one’s reputation. Vital steps for creating a successful strategy include message testing and optimization, budget planning, creative content creation, audience identification, engaging your supporters, and a focus on the proper mix of digital media.
Government Relations: Government relations encompasses a broad range of strategies designed to influence public policy. These include direct lobbying, advocacy communication, grassroots, and issues management. Government relations professionals serve as ambassadors for their organisations in discussions with policy-makers at all levels and are responsible for keeping their organisations informed about the impact of government. An aspect of relationship building between an organisation and government at local, state, and/or national levels, especially involving flow of information to and from legislative and regulatory bodies. The goal often is to influence public policy decisions compatible with the organisation’s interests. Government relations involves dealing and communicating with legislators and government agencies on behalf of an organisation.
Grassroots: Grassroots movements and organisations utilise collective action to affect change at the local, regional, national or international levels. Grassroots movements are associated with bottom-up, rather than top-down decision making. This level of activity is usually unassociated with the political elite and can be applied to political, educational and community-motivated movements.
Grasstops: “Grasstops” is used to describe the engagement of influential figures in an organisation or community. Because these individuals have a high public or professional profile, they can raise awareness of issues and influence political decision-makers.
Issue Advocacy: A communications, lobbying, and public affairs strategy focused on a specific issue, problem, or area of interest; issue advocacy is intended to influence a political issue, legislative proposal or public policy — not to advocate the election or defeat of candidates. A successful issue advocacy campaign incorporates tactics which include: petition drives, advertising, traditional relationship lobbying and grassroots advocacy. In addition, issue advocacy campaigns often use the same tactics as political campaigns; however the ultimate goal is to influence public policies or ballot measures, not the election of a particular candidate.
Issues Management: Issues management is a strategic management process that helps organisations identify and respond appropriately to emerging trends or changes in the socio-political environment. Establishing a comprehensive and proactive issue management process can help an organisation avoid crises and reputational damage, while ensuring alignment between public affairs and business goals. The proactive process of anticipating, identifying, evaluating and responding to public policy issues that affect organizations and their publics now and in the future.
Lobbying: Direct communication with decision-makers for the purpose of influencing legislative action or administrative decisions. The specialised area of public relations that fosters and maintains relations with a government or its officials for the primary purpose of influencing legislation and regulation.
Public Affairs: Public affairs is an organisation’s strategy to monitor, manage and impact its business environment. It integrates government affairs; advocacy; communications; environmental, social and corporate governance; and issues management to influence public policy, build a strong brand and find common ground with stakeholders.
Reputation Management: Reputation management is the process of identifying what other people are saying or feeling about an individual or organization, and taking steps to ensure that the general consensus is in line with one’s intentions. Increasingly, the term is also used by those attempting to shape public perception by influencing online information about an individual or organization. Systematic actions and messages designed to influence what people in key publics think about an organization. Reputation management has long been a function of public relations and is often a priority in crisis management. The increased use of the internet and related social networks has given added urgency to the practice. The immediate and anonymous nature of the web increases the risk of communications that can damage an organization’s reputation. Online reputation management is a growing specialised segment of public relations.
Shared Value: Shared value is a management and stakeholder engagement strategy through which an organization creates a business development opportunity that simultaneously addresses a social issue. As such, a company is able to create economic value while also benefitting society by addressing one of its challenges.
Stakeholder Engagement: An inclusive and continuous process to involve people who may be affected by an organization’s actions to dialogue about its impact on individuals and society. A successful stakeholder engagement strategy can create shared value across sectors and improve business performance, as well as help companies mitigate risk and expand market opportunities.
Sustainability: Sustainability initiatives focus on company efforts to access and take responsibility for environmental impacts and proactively work to support the environment in ways that go beyond what is required by law.
Thought Leadership: A thought leader is an individual or organisation that is recognized as an authority in a specialised field and whose expertise is sought and often rewarded. They often have a strong record of online and public engagement, a creative personal branding strategy, and a strategic approach to leadership. Thought leaders are confident in their opinions, and know how to present their ideas in an innovative and relevant manner.
White paper: A whitepaper is a persuasive report on a specific topic that mainly presents a problem and provides a solution. Whitepapers are used to educate an audience about a particular issue and promote a particular product. The overall goal of a whitepaper is to inform and persuade purely based on an overview of facts and figures.