I'd like to show you the range of jobs in public relations, one of the reasons I get so excited about PR is the versatility in practice. There truly is something for everyone just thinking about the front range here in Denver Colorado. If you are interested in food or nutrition, you could work public relations at Chipotle or the Sullivan restaurant group if you are interested in health. What about the Kaiser Permanente or Denver Children's Hospital, if you're interested in sports, there's the cranky group or Kelty or the North Face. If you are interested in theater and dance, you could work at the Denver Performing Arts Center or for Red rocks, there's just so many ways to practice public relations. Even within all of those companies, there's different ways to be employed if you like video writing, photography, social media analytics, whatever your passion, there's a way to make that your job in public relations. I just think it's such a great field to let you be you for your reference, I have included some resources that I often use myself or send my students. These will help you identify opportunities that are right for you, I strongly encourage you to read job descriptions and read them often. Just go in type in communications or public relations, your location and just read, read what you'll be doing every day, read what is required to apply, get a good idea of what the majority of companies and jobs are looking for. There's hiring trends, market trends, right now, digital analytics is one of the most sought after skills or video public relations is now including more video stories. I think this is one of the most useful ways to truly understand what a day in the life looks like, don't read one, read lots and lots of these job descriptions. This also prepares you with the proper terminology and an understanding of the industry, now, let's talk about the different opportunities to think through 1st. Sometimes you'll see communications specialist or public information officer and these jobs commonly belong to city and government positions, colleges and universities and other non profit organizations. These roles can be about communicating public information, so thinking about police departments, communication might include new safety precautions or information about officer training. If you work at a university, you might be responsible for translating academic research into layman's terms for news media or for website content, then there's an engagement manager and that job is about connecting with key stakeholders to achieve the mission of the brand or organization. This could mean community engagement like in a city or resort town or maybe it's social media community engagement and trying to strengthen a brand community or a patient health community. A media relations manager is a sub focus of public relations and this job would center around obtaining press coverage for your company, this is about building relationships with journalists and producing results. An account manager is usually found in an agency setting, but that's also not always true, there are no agreement on position titles. So what you'll come to learn is that there's no consistency and you really do need to read the job description. Normally an account manager would be the liaison between the agency and the client managing that relationship and that account then there's also a lot of jobs in social media and content creation. A social media manager would be responsible for the social strategy, the execution and evaluation of the messaging for this area of public relations. It's important to have data analytic skills or digital analytics skills here is a job description for an account manager that we can walk through together. This is pretty standard of these types of positions, you are expected to be the manager or overseer of client accounts. You must develop messaging strategies for the clients, ensuring that you are connecting with target publics and key stakeholders. This position asked for social media strategy as well, You will be responsible for building relationships with clients and with senior management. You'll work in media relations and try to increase clients visibility and create word of mouth. Since you are leading the account team at the agency, you will also need to manage people and the client's budget. You are responsible for making sure all work is executed flawlessly and the clients are happy account managers are often the face of the agency. So there's a lot of focus put on that relationship building aspect lastly I'm going to mention that at most agencies new business is extremely important. So you have to have an eye toward business development, identifying new accounts and new money making opportunities for the agency. Oftentimes at agencies, the number of jobs and the stability of jobs comes from the ability to keep clients and to develop new clients to land a job like this. You'll need some experience that doesn't necessarily mean in PR or in account management, you have to think about where you're at what you have done and how you can frame your own skill set. But then it's also important to recognize your weaknesses and try to fill those gaps, it's all about positioning. How are you a fit with the job description employers want to hire employees that have smaller learning curves so you want to show the potential employer how you can fit right in and make the team function even more efficiently or more effectively. But this is your story to tell, I encourage you to look at what the job is asking for and think about what skills you do have and then be honest with employers, it's a good thing to want to gain more skills and to continue to develop professionally. This next job description is for someone in media relations usually these jobs are found in house or in corporate communication. You'll work as part of a larger team, all with different roles and functions, but all working together to fulfill the brand's mission and communicate the brand story. So since this job is mostly focused on media relations, that means you'll be doing a lot of research, writing and pitching stories to media outlets. That also means tracking your placements in, figuring out how to use those metrics to support the narrative, you'll be actively seeking out and building relationships with reporters. Other members of the team, work in different capacities, like on social, corporate relationships, sponsors marketing, etcetera. This job is part of a communication team within a company, this job requires less experience than the account manager job. We just looked at mostly because your level of responsibility is much less, you'll still need an understanding of the industry and how PR is practiced. But if you are a strong writer and can master the associated Press style of writing, you can learn how to do media relations few people right well and so media relations, content creation really. Most jobs in PR those applicants who can write well tend to rise to the top in some companies and agencies. A writing test is administered prior to employment that tells you how important writing is to the field of public relations. Later in this course, I'm going to talk about press releases, which is usually what you are called upon the right. I'm going to teach you how to write a press release and for homework, you will practice Writing one and gain some experience in this area. In a recent survey by PRSA, it was asked what skills are necessary in public relations as you can imagine the ability to write and communicate well is of utmost importance. You should master ap style and writing public relations collateral like press releases, fact sheets, campaign plans and so on. You want to at least be familiar with the types of writing PR practitioners engage in. Next is analytics, digital media has helped legitimatize the field of public relations, allowing us to provide value of our efforts to clients, one way we do this is using analytics. There are so many free certificates that are available in this area or short educational programs to help you get going. Next, employers are looking for storytelling skills that means shooting and editing video, but also telling stories. It is a craft to tell good stories, something that requires a lot of practice, the last skill I will mention here is the ability to present whether it be a formal or informal presentation. It is important to have this skill set, this is also an example of your storytelling skills. After all, all presentations are just stories, it's okay not to have all the skills starting out, but it's important to recognize your weaknesses and work to build out your skills in those areas. There are several certifications available, Hootsuite hub academy Google, There are just so many different options and all of these completed certifications are something to add to your resume. There's Facebook blueprint google analytics, SCEO google ads LinkedIn, learning, Pinterest academy Twitter flight school and these are just some of the options. I encourage you to read job descriptions from all across the country, look at what skill sets are being asked for and think about how you measure up obtaining these certificates, shows a proactive attitude and shows your dedication to the field of public relations.
