Publicity is the hard work of getting media outlets and social media influencers to talk about you. Hustle for attention and mentions.
Public relations is the much harder work of engaging with internal teams to make something worth talking about. It’s not spin, it’s story telling that resonates and holds up to scrutiny.
Sometimes, organic publicity is a natural byproduct of good public relations. Mostly, though, the work is about the public, not the folks in the middle.
If you want to do public relations, you need access and leverage and time.
If you want to do publicity, you’ll need a thick skin.