The role of public relations is crucial to building and maintaining a good reputation for a company, yet there’s often confusion surrounding what exactly it does.

Public relations is vital to controlling the narrative for businesses large and small. For investors, PR can be a layer that needs to be pulled back to understand the whole story.

In my 30 years as an adult in the workforce, I’ve been on both sides – 15 years as a journalist and print, and the last 15 or so in public relations.

A good public relations campaign will have a clear objective. In theory this could simply be to raise awareness of a product, service or brand, but ideally it will be more specific.

Last month a digital marketing expert wanted to include our firm’s public relations expertise in a new business pitch. "How many impressions can you guarantee the client each week?" he asked.