Public relations is a way of narrating enchanting stories to the public to create a positive image of an organization. An effective PR plan is crucial to the success of any business.
But what exactly is Public Relations and what does a PR professional do? Here are answers to 7 frequently asked questions about the career in PR:

What Is Public Relations?

Public Relations is an industry of persuasion through a strategic communication process. It is all about sending the right messages to the right place and the right people, creating a stronger brand reputation.

Duties of A PR Professional

A PR professional has two important duties -To create and maintain a positive image of a brand and to defend it in the times of crisis. To fulfill these duties, a PR professional performs various tasks like,

• Designing a communication strategy
• Creating content and collaboration with different media outlets for its distribution
• Protecting the brand image by curbing the negative messages or sentiments
• Building partnerships and associations with various stakeholders to gain visibility

Where Does A PR Professional Work?

Many big organizations maintain an in-house PR team while small and mid-sized organizations prefer to outsource their PR activities to a specialized PR agency. May it be an Agency or an in-house team; there are multiple job opportunities available in PR.

Different Verticals in Public Relations:

Public relations is a vast field. PR firms can differentiate themselves based on client’s industry, profession or its target audience. The different verticals in PR include: Tech PR (for tech firms), Sports PR (for sports team, athletes or sports clubs), Celebrity PR, NGO PR (to raise awareness for a social cause,
NGOs), Trade PR (for trade groups/business associations), Community Management PR (to foster relations with for particular social group), etc.

Essential Skills To Become A PR Professional

To be a successful PR professional, you must possess excellent communication skills, networking skills, ability to make quick decisions and expertise in problem solving.

Jobs In Public Relations

There are two types of roles in PR – Client facing roles like Key Accounts Manager and Client Servicing Manager, which involve getting clients on board, understanding their requirements and maintaining an end to end relationship with them. Other dealing with design and execution of the PR campaigns, offer job roles like

• Publicist
• PR Executive/ Manager
• Public affairs Executive/ Manager
• Strategic Communications Manager
• Event coordinator etc.

New Age PR

Digital transformation changed the face of public relations to a great extent. Digital PR does exactly what traditional PR does – to manage and grow the reputation, awareness and understanding of your business at lower cost through online media platforms.

Tools of New Age PR

Social media pages, influencer connections, infotainment sites, online journals, blogs, brand collaborations and crossovers are some of the emerging tools are tools of new age PR. A complete functional knowledge of these channels, understanding of current trends in media and entertainment is very critical to become a successful PR professional.

Jobs in New Age Digital PR

This digital PR opens up the whole new array of PR jobs. Which include but are not limited to;

• Social media manager
• Social media analyst
• Digital marketer
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Expert
• Social media influencer, YouTuber, Blogger

How To Get Into PR?

To get a head start in your career as a PR Professional a postgraduate degree is a must. Here are few PG programs in mass media and communication you can consider:

Welingkar PGP in Media and Entertainment
MICA Advertising Management and Public Relations
XIC PG Diploma in PR and Corporate Communications

The world of PR is changing at unprecedented speed. To catch up with it, you need a degree that blends academic theories with practical training. While many institutions offer PG in Media and communications, very few prepare students to navigate through new age media.  

Making career choices can be tricky especially in this age of information overload.

At Yangpoo, we understand your needs and learning goals to suggest the best suited program. Call us at 1800-123-500041 for one-to-one mentoring to resolve all your doubts about career in PR!