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That question, put more eloquently, has been vexing PR scholars and professional bodies for decades. Is public relations about enhancing reputation, or is it about building strong relationships? Some definitions of PR have ‘reputation’ within the text. Some have ‘relationships’. The reality is that PR is about both, regardless of the type of organisation or sector. An organisation with a good reputation will find it easier to build strong relationships with its most important stakeholders. An organisation that has a strong relationship with its stakeholders will be regarded as having a good reputation by those stakeholders. Ipsos/MORI researched the reputation of local authorities for the Local Government Association some ten years ago. The research found that in localities where residents said their local authority had a good reputation, they said they were also kept well-informed by the council. In localities where residents said their local authority had a poor reputation, they felt uninformed about what the council was doing. The research also makes a strong case for the value of PR to a public sector organisation!

A friend, Paul Noble, invented (I hope!) a phrase that helps us decide with whom to enhance the reputation and with whom to strengthen the relationship: “You have a relationship with friends and a reputation with strangers”. Focus on building strong relationships with internal and connected stakeholders (those with a strong connection to our organisation) on our stakeholder map and a relationship with those in the external circle of our map (those with an interest in the organisation but not a strong connection).

But how can we measure reputation and relationships? I’m a fan of the Reputation Institute’s RepTrak seven drivers of reputation. For large corporations, paying RepTrak to measure their reputation live is probably a good investment. For example, the good people at Sage – the management and accountancy firm in Newcastle – do just that. It may be better to do it yourself for non-FTSE100 companies and organisations in the public and non-governmental sectors. This is what my PR apprentices do. Taking each of the seven dimensions:

• Products/services. What is the perceived quality of the organisation’s products and services? Measured by customer/client feedback and review sites.
• Innovation. Does the organisation consider the changes happening in its sector? Measured by the regularity of horizon scanning research that is considered by senior management.
• Workplace. Does the organisation pay employees fairly, ensure equal opportunities and well-being without discrimination, and retain employees? Is it regarded as an ‘employer of choice’? Measured by benchmarking against similar organisations, staff surveys, and Glassdoor scores.
• Conduct. How ethical and transparent is the organisation? Staff surveys often cover this. So does media reporting when things go wrong!
• Citizenship. Does the organisation take its social responsibility seriously? Measured by environmental and B Corp certification audits.
• Leadership. Do excellent managers lead the organisation with a clear vision for the future? Are they respected? Staff survey, invitations to give presentations at sector conferences.
• Performance. Does the organisation meet or exceed its targets? Profit, turnover, and performance targets met on time.

For measuring the strength of a relationship and its constituent parts of trust, satisfaction, commitment, power balance and exchange, I recommend the Hon and Grunig methodology ‘Guidelines for Measuring Relationships in Public Relations’, published by the US Institute for PR. It includes a questionnaire and scoring methodology.

Reputation with strangers and a relationship with friends. Both are important concepts in PR.

[Image: Rosa Rafael on Unsplash]