What does a public relations do?
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.
Public relations responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real public relations resumes:
- Manage LinkedIn profile updates and new leads.
- Manage all copywriting elements for live broadcasts and promotional commercials.
- Create an official office page on instagram to facilitate interaction with students.
- Track and analyze local talent and trends on social networking sites (MySpace, YouTube).
- Coordinate multiple marketing campaigns (SEO, CPA, CPM) and optimization of organic search traffic.
- Edit and create YouTube videos for clientele, creating proper titles and tags to increase viewership ;.
- Demonstrate excellent PowerPoint presentations for brokers or potential buyers.
- Create social media outreach strategy for organization; launching visibility and brand awareness on Facebook.
- Spearhead and develop a new monthly e-newsletter for students resulting in increase student ticket sales and participation on student Facebook page.
- Write and edit firm print materials including practice group materials, attorney biographies, committee information, and firm brochures.
- Develop proposals, budgets and execution strategies for magazine releases & projects following editorial deadlines.
Public relations skills and personality traits
We calculated that 22% of Public Relations are proficient in Press Releases, Web Content, and Facebook. They’re also known for soft skills such as Interpersonal skills, Organizational skills, and Problem-solving skills.
We break down the percentage of Public Relations that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Press Releases, 22%
Developed press releases, advertorials and monitored media exposure to generate monthly exposure reports.
- Web Content, 12%
Produced search engine-optimized web content for TicketLiquidator.com.
- Facebook, 5%
Spearheaded and developed a new monthly e-newsletter for students resulting in increased student ticket sales and participation on student Facebook page.
- Event Planning, 4%
Carried out event planning activities and arrangements as outlined by public relations director.
- Blog Posts, 4%
Produce content for agricultural clients, ranging from blog posts to in-depth profiles and annual report content.
- Twitter, 4%
Researched and reviewed potential social media marketing techniques such as Twitter in order to increase visibility and membership for the company.
Common skills that a public relations uses to do their job include "press releases," "web content," and "facebook." You can find details on the most important public relations responsibilities below.
Interpersonal skills. One of the key soft skills for a public relations to have is interpersonal skills. You can see how this relates to what public relations do because "public relations specialists deal with the public and the media regularly." Additionally, a public relations resume shows how public relations use interpersonal skills: "partnered with the event planning class to increase student involvement by creating strong interpersonal relationships. "
Organizational skills. Another essential skill to perform public relations duties is organizational skills. Public relations responsibilities require 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." Public relations also use organizational skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "prepared and/ or edited organizational press releases, internet pages, flyers and publications for internal and external audiences. "
Problem-solving skills. This is an important skill for public relations to perform their duties. For an example of how public relations responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "public relations specialists sometimes must explain how a company or client is handling sensitive issues." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a public relations: "designed and managed full-service market research and web-based monitoring solutions".
Speaking skills. public relations responsibilities often require "speaking skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "public relations specialists regularly speak on behalf of clients or their organization." This resume example shows what public relations do with speaking skills on a typical day: "answered inquiries from media via interviews and emails as a spokesperson - sought sponsorship opportunities from local businesses for various events"
Writing skills. Another common skill required for public relations responsibilities is "writing skills." This skill comes up in the duties of public relations all the time, as "public relations specialists must be able to write well-organized and clear press releases, speeches, and social media posts." An excerpt from a real public relations resume shows how this skill is central to what a public relations does: "contracted local businesses for underwriting spots on fsu's public radio station"
The three companies that hire the most public relationss are:
- Magna International4 public relations jobs
- Amazon3 public relations jobs
- CorVel3 public relations jobs
Choose from 10+ customizable public relations resume templates
Build a professional public relations resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your public relations resume.
Compare different public relations
Public relations vs. Social media internship
In a social media internship, the primary role is to take part in managing a brand's social media platforms for public relations. One of their primary duties is to craft informative and captivating content while under the supervision and guidelines of a manager or supervisor. Furthermore, there may also be instances where an intern must participate in devising strategies that would bring more public recognition to the brand, such as social media campaigns to boost sales and improve client base.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a public relations are more likely to require skills like "facebook," "blog posts," "photography," and "public speaking." On the other hand, a job as a social media internship requires skills like "facebook insights," "social media marketing," "pinterest," and "hootsuite." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Social media interns tend to make the most money working in the education industry, where they earn an average salary of $33,136. In contrast, public relations make the biggest average salary, $56,027, in the professional industry.On average, social media interns reach similar levels of education than public relations. Social media interns are 3.2% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.6% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Public relations vs. Senior communications specialist
A senior communications specialist is primarily in charge of developing communication strategies in the company. Their responsibilities revolve around ensuring the smooth flow of internal and external communications, coordinating various departments, managing campaigns and event schedules, devising social media strategies, and supervising media relations. A senior communications specialist must also address issues and concerns, resolving them promptly. Furthermore, as a senior specialist, it is essential to lead and assist the junior specialists, all while adhering to the company's policies and regulations.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that public relations responsibilities requires skills like "blog posts," "photography," "instagram," and "content marketing." But a senior communications specialist might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "project management," "strategic communications," "patients," and "corporate communications."
Senior communications specialists may earn a higher salary than public relations, but senior communications specialists earn the most pay in the technology industry with an average salary of $85,027. On the other hand, public relations receive higher pay in the professional industry, where they earn an average salary of $56,027.senior communications specialists earn similar levels of education than public relations in general. They're 4.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for public relationss in the next 3-5 years?
Stefanie Leiter
Assistant Professor of Public Relations, Anderson University
Public relations vs. Government relations internship
A government relations internship involves a trainee who assists the vice president of government relations in managing and analyzing policy issues. Government relations interns are required to compile and summarize material on emerging and existing public policy for staff members. They assist with external stakeholder engagement strategy and draft press releases on pertinent legislative and regulatory issues. Government relations interns must also attend congressional hearings and produce reports to corporations and trade associations covering wide a wide array of policy areas.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from public relations resumes include skills like "web content," "photography," "graphic design," and "content marketing," whereas a government relations internship is more likely to list skills in "internship program," "public policy," "donor database," and "government affairs. "
Government relations interns earn the highest salary when working in the media industry, where they receive an average salary of $36,341. Comparatively, public relations have the highest earning potential in the professional industry, with an average salary of $56,027.When it comes to education, government relations interns tend to earn similar degree levels compared to public relations. In fact, they're 1.4% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 1.0% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Public relations vs. Communications coordinator
A communications coordinator is responsible for overseeing the communications department's operations, developing the brand image, and monitoring press releases, company articles, and other related marketing materials for business promotion and visibility. Communications coordinators actively interact with existing and potential clients, negotiate contracts, and build profitable partnerships. They also develop strategic procedures for creating the business' online presence, organizing promotional events, and media conferences. A communications coordinator must have excellent communication and organization skills to maintain a good reputation and customer satisfaction.
Types of public relations
Updated January 8, 2025
