What does a community relations specialist do?
A community relations specialist is responsible for handling the organization's community engagements by facilitating fundraising events, volunteering acts, and charity programs and partnerships. Community relations specialists also write content for public and media promotions to promote brand awareness and the company's mission across the community. They should also be updated with the current events and situations to identify events and strategies that will help stabilize the society's condition. Since this type of job requires interacting with community people, a community relations specialist must have excellent communication skills to respond to their inquiries and concerns.
Community relations specialist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real community relations specialist resumes:
- Own an aspect of social media content managing Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn pages
- Grow and manage existing relationships in assign territories with physicians, hospitals, skil nursing and rehabilitation facilities and assist livings.
- Used marketing pieces to explain complex topics such as Medicaid and VA benefits.
- Maintain effective communication with all local and county programs that service children from the Medicaid population.
- Work with administrators, managers and department heads to add/edit/develop content as necessary, ensuring accuracy of content and utilizing SEO.
- Research and contact digital influencers (YouTube).
- Host numerous educational events for the public including CEU credit lectures for nurses and social workers.
- Plan mental health professional conferences and complete application process for CEU eligibility.
Community relations specialist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 8% of Community Relations Specialists are proficient in Press Releases, Event Planning, and Community Events. They’re also known for soft skills such as Speaking skills, Writing skills, and Interpersonal skills.
We break down the percentage of Community Relations Specialists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Press Releases, 8%
Communicated with local media regarding upcoming events through press releases and targeted outreach
- Event Planning, 8%
Assisted in the event planning of a teen program that emphasized positive youth development, youth smoking prevention and academic excellence.
- Community Events, 8%
Participated in numerous community events to represent the company, maintain relationships with colleagues and partner with community members.
- PowerPoint, 7%
Created monthly PowerPoint presentations for the Bank President to use for employee meetings and events.
- Public Speaking, 6%
Ensured an adequate and safe blood supply through education and public speaking.
- Community Relations, 6%
Identify and coordinate Marketing/Events/Publicity opportunities around community relations initiatives.
"press releases," "event planning," and "community events" are among the most common skills that community relations specialists use at work. You can find even more community relations specialist responsibilities below, including:
Speaking skills. The most essential soft skill for a community relations specialist to carry out their responsibilities is speaking skills. This skill is important for the role because "public relations specialists regularly speak on behalf of clients or their organization." Additionally, a community relations specialist resume shows how their duties depend on speaking skills: "arranged and directed speaking engagements and press conferences for businesses and individuals. "
Writing skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling community relations specialist duties is writing skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "public relations specialists must be able to write well-organized and clear press releases, speeches, and social media posts." According to a community relations specialist resume, here's how community relations specialists can utilize writing skills in their job responsibilities: "promote individuals, groups, or organizations by writing or selecting publicity material and releasing it through various communications media. "
Interpersonal skills. community relations specialists are also known for interpersonal skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to community relations specialist responsibilities, because "public relations specialists deal with the public and the media regularly." A community relations specialist resume example shows how interpersonal skills is used in the workplace: "developed and maintained interpersonal relationships with key company and community contacts. "
Organizational skills. community relations specialist responsibilities often require "organizational skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "public relations specialists are often in charge of managing several events or communications at the same time, which requires excellent skills in coordinating arrangements." This resume example shows what community relations specialists do with organizational skills on a typical day: "develop organizational strategies to grow community relations efforts in arizona and amplify league-wide campaigns through our local fanbase. "
Problem-solving skills. Another crucial skill for a community relations specialist to carry out their responsibilities is "problem-solving skills." A big part of what community relations specialists relies on this skill, since "public relations specialists sometimes must explain how a company or client is handling sensitive issues." How this skill relates to community relations specialist duties can be seen in an example from a community relations specialist resume snippet: "provided crisis intervention/conflict resolution adult and adolescent consumers who were experiencing mental health crisis. "
The three companies that hire the most community relations specialists are:
- Centene20 community relations specialists jobs
- Deloitte18 community relations specialists jobs
- Northeastern University11 community relations specialists jobs
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Compare different community relations specialists
Community relations specialist vs. Publicist
Public Relations Supervisors are responsible for implementing the media and public relations strategy of an organization. Their duties include developing public relations campaigns, organize public relations events, assist in emergency response planning, updating documentation, monitoring media, improve management of press office, and manage media databases. They are responsible for assisting with journalistic content writing, refine internal processes, and track public relations activity performance. They help prepare reports as well as undertake competitor and market research.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a community relations specialist are more likely to require skills like "community events," "public speaking," "community relations," and "community organizations." On the other hand, a job as a publicist requires skills like "press materials," "public relations campaigns," "instagram," and "twitter." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Publicists tend to make the most money working in the media industry, where they earn an average salary of $52,774. In contrast, community relations specialists make the biggest average salary, $64,928, in the government industry.publicists tend to reach lower levels of education than community relations specialists. In fact, publicists are 6.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Community relations specialist vs. Specialist
Specialists are employees who are responsible for specific tasks or activities in the department they are assigned to. The actions or tasks they work on are related to their educational background or work experiences. They are usually highly skilled in specializations related to the work they are assigned to. Specialists are also highly trained on the competencies that are required of their specialty. As such, they are focused on the skills and competencies that are needed to enhance their experience in their specific field further.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that community relations specialist responsibilities requires skills like "press releases," "event planning," "community events," and "public speaking." But a specialist might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "patients," "customer service," "work ethic," and "patient care."
Average education levels between the two professions vary. Specialists tend to reach lower levels of education than community relations specialists. In fact, they're 5.8% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for community relations specialists in the next 3-5 years?
Kim Smith Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, St. Norbert College
Community relations specialist vs. Public relations
Public relations is a strategic way of developing and maintaining a client's or company's public image through media coverage, appearances, and press releases by designing and developing events to raise funds or to spread awareness to the public regarding products, brands, or individuals. It involves research and evaluation of programs including financial, marketing, employee, or government relations using topics of public interest and news items. Due to our present technological innovations, public relations now use webinars, blogs, and downloadable resources under one convenient website.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from community relations specialist resumes include skills like "community organizations," "local community," "health fairs," and "relationship building," whereas a public relations is more likely to list skills in "web content," "blog posts," "twitter," and "photography. "
Public relations make a very good living in the professional industry with an average annual salary of $56,027. On the other hand, community relations specialists are paid the highest salary in the government industry, with average annual pay of $64,928.Most public relations achieve a lower degree level compared to community relations specialists. For example, they're 5.6% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Community relations specialist vs. Public relations consultant
A public relations consultant represents an organization and is the company's way to communicate to the public their plans, decisions, and motivations. They both advertise and show the company's personality and create familiarity and trust. The public relations consultant's role is to create all the PR materials needed to accomplish these goals. It means writing press releases, online content, speeches, and also working with the marketing and advertising team to create copy that will evoke the interest of the public. The ultimate goal is to gain customers and thus increase sales.
Types of community relations specialist
Updated January 8, 2025
