Career Profile Public Relations Specialist
Public relations is the art and science of forging public opinion. A public relations practitioner acts as a liaison of sorts between his organization and the publics it affects. He represents his company, bringing its messages to the public, while at the same time bringing the public's thoughts and feedback to his management.
Most medium-sized organizations and larger will have a public relations manager or director who sets overall PR strategy for the company. This person will usually have at least one if not more public relations specialists working under her. A larger company might have a full public relations department - sometimes called Corporate Communications or just Communications, or sometimes combined with Marketing. At a smaller organization, one person may have to perform the PR functions as well as some marketing and even sales activities.
A traditional public relations specialist, however, would be responsible for carrying out the strategies and communicating the PR messages developed by his manager or director. The specialist position can be entry-level or require up to three or four years of experience. Once four to five years of experience is reached, the specialist would likely receive a "promotion" in title to something like senior or lead public relations specialist.
This position would ideally require a bachelor's degree in a communications-related field from a four-year college or university. Fields of study that would help to prepare a student for a public relations specialist job include journalism, mass communications, advertising, marketing or marketing communications, or even English. Some colleges have separate, specific public relations degrees; at others, PR is a minor or a specialization under journalism or mass communications. The degree can be located in a journalism or communications school, the business school or the college of liberal arts. Many employers will consider a liberal arts degree such as English, history, anthropology, sociology or the like when looking for a PR specialist, especially for an entry-level position where they expect to give the employee some on-the-job training.
The most fundamental skill a PR specialist will need is writing. Basic grammar, spelling and punctuation are of course required. But the specialist should also know how to write a basic news story, a feature article and a press release formatted correctly for distribution to the media. These basic skills are taught in any public relations, journalism or mass communications degree program, but they can also be gained through internships with local media or local companies' PR departments, or through working on a student publication such as the college newspaper, magazine or yearbook. Any published articles should be saved and kept in a professional-looking portfolio to show a potential employer when interviewing for an entry-level public relations specialist job.
That's because one of the most common ways for a company to get its message out to the public is through placing articles or stories in the media. A good basic press release is one of the PR specialist's most basic tools. He should also know how to "pitch" his company's story to a reporter, editor or news assignment editor. The specialist will likely be in charge of keeping track of the company's media list and updating it when necessary. He will monitor news coverage of his company by counting news clips and reporting on whether they are positive, negative or neutral.
Other specialist duties might include writing and editing printed materials such as newsletter articles, promotional brochures, flyers, advertisements and special event programs; helping to promote special events and assisting with logistics; interviewing subjects, conducting research and writing articles for a company magazine or annual report; selling and tracking advertising and working with illustrators/graphic designers on company publications; taking photos at company events; presenting programs to community groups; recruiting and managing volunteers; and other duties as assigned by the PR manager or director.
If a specialist excels at these duties, he will likely be given more and more responsibility handling projects on his own, serving as editor for one or more company newsletter, planning an entire event singlehandedly, and the like. As the specialist builds his skills and earns more of his manager's trust, he will be more likely to step up to a senior specialist or coordinator position, with the road to a management career not far ahead.
