Example Career: Public Relations Specialists

Career Description

Engage in promoting or creating an intended public image for individuals, groups or organizations. May write or select material for release to various communications media.

What Job Titles Public Relations Specialists Might Have

• Account Executive
• Public Affairs Specialist
• Public Information Officer
• Public Relations Specialist (PR Specialist)

What Public Relations Specialists Do

• Respond to requests for information from the media or designate an appropriate spokesperson or information source.
• Write press releases or other media communications to promote clients.
• Establish or maintain cooperative relationships with representatives of community, consumer, employee, or public interest groups.
• Plan or direct development or communication of programs to maintain favorable public or stockholder perceptions of an organization's accomplishments, agenda, or environmental responsibility.
• Study the objectives, promotional policies, or needs of organizations to develop public relations strategies that will influence public opinion or promote ideas, products, or services.
• Coach client representatives in effective communication with the public or with employees.
• Update and maintain content posted on the Web.
• Confer with other managers to identify trends or key group interests or concerns or to provide advice on business decisions.
• Prepare or edit organizational publications, such as employee newsletters or stockholders' reports, for internal or external audiences.
• Coordinate public responses to environmental management incidents or conflicts.
• Arrange public appearances, lectures, contests, or exhibits for clients to increase product or service awareness or to promote goodwill.
• Develop plans or materials to communicate activities undertaken by organizations that are beneficial to the environment, public safety, or other important social issues.
• Prepare or deliver speeches to further public relations objectives.
• Confer with production or support personnel to produce or coordinate production of advertisements or promotions.
• Plan or conduct market or public opinion research to test products or determine potential for product success, communicating results to client or management.

What Public Relations Specialists Should Be Good At

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).

What Public Relations Specialists Need to Learn

• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
• Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.