The Difference Between a Public Relations Manager & a Specialist
Public relations is multi-faceted, and the practitioners in this industry must be good writers, have extensive media contacts and have great interpersonal community skills. Public relations managers must have strategic thinking in mind, overseeing the entire operation for the organization. Specialists have expertise in very particular areas and advise the manager when consulting from outside the organization, or handle specific tasks when working with the manager.
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Strategizing
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Public relations managers must focus on the long view for the organization, having set forth an overarching public relations plan. The manager anticipates organizational activities and considers how to spin them to the public and is aware of potential negative publicity. The manager plans responses that that paint the organization in the best possible light and implements plans when crisis communication activities arise due to unanticipated event. The manager also is responsible for staffing the public relations office with the right balance of experience and generally answers directly to high-level staff.
Writing Press Releases
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A task such as writing press releases falls to a public relations specialist. The specialist in this area is skilled at taking complex information and making it ready for public consumption with solid writing abilities. In addition he understands how to write information so that it is enticing to the media, uses language that increases web hits with search engine optimization and can write in the traditional news “inverted pyramid” style. With the advent of social media, the press release specialist is also skilled at writing in short blurbs, easily sharable on sites like Facebook and Twitter.
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Budgeting
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The public relations manager is responsible for the budget for the office, choosing how many resources to allocate to staff, ad buys, software and other items. Public relations is a very time- and staff-intensive endeavor, and deciding on how many people to carry and how much to pay them are the most important decisions managers will make in budgeting. In addition, outside consultants are often brought in for strategic planning, branding and design, including web content development. Managers may also choose to send staff to one of the many PR conferences that exist today, such as Vocus or PR Newswire, where they can learn from colleagues and get tips from keynote speakers.
Media Outreach
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Some public relations specialists are experts in media relations and media outreach. While organizations can put out dozens of press releases on topics they think are very engaging, it can be difficult to get media coverage without having an existing relationship with members of the media and targeting the release to the correct people. A tech writer who has never talked to anyone in your company is unlikely to write about your new widget that only marginally interests him. But media outreach specialists keep ongoing relationships with the media, regularly feeding them tips and providing them with experts for interviews and quotes. That relationship will greatly enhance the chance of a media member carrying a particular story. In addition, this specialist pays attention to what members of the media cover and can target PR efforts to the most receptive media.
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References
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