The Public Relatons Society of America revealed this week its three candidates for redefining "public relations." My support is for No. 2:
Public relations is a strategic communication process that develops and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their key publics.
It's clean. It's clear. It's direct. And it includes the key phrase, "mutually beneficial relationships."
The future belongs to organizations that generate and protect their social capital as carefully as they do their financial capital. The only way to do that is through relationships that are mutually beneficial. Clearly, the only profession designed to manage that is public relations.
