As an in-house communications specialist you would primarily be involved in developing within the corporation a unified image of it and smoothing potential conflict between its different divisions. As a company grows, it becomes more difficult for one division to know the plans, aims, and goals of others. It would be your job as a corporate communications specialist to meet with press and public relations, marketing, and finance professionals from each division to determine their plans and communicate the plans of other departments. Often, the in-house communications staff also provides input at these meetings, attempting to coordinate the company's overall corporate strategy.
For example, a university with many departments may find that its chemistry and sociology departments are planning educational forums for the same week. In-house communications can inform both departments of this conflict and perhaps negotiate alternative dates. If the two events remain scheduled close together, in-house communications personnel can generate press releases and other publicity so that information from one's coverage does not overshadow the other's.
As a corporate communications professional, you must be alert to potential conflict and controversy. For example, an entertainment company with both motion picture and video divisions can experience conflicts as films move from theater distribution to the home video market. You would alert the company's divisions and the board of directors to these activities and possible conflicts.
In general, you will be expected to be a troubleshooter. You must diagnose potential problems and suggest possible solutions from a publicity and press relations viewpoint. This requires the ability to win the confidence of division heads and to participate in and observe activities to gather information. You may report to a vice president, president, or board of directors, informing them of activities in different divisions and developing with them a unified company image and policy for handling controversy and conflict. These activities require well-honed communication skills as well as the ability to get along well with all levels of staff.
You will be responsible for building a company image, possibly through writing and editing a company newsletter that conveys a sense of the organization while making employees feel they are part of it. In this work the communications specialist occasionally has the assistance of writers or editors, but generally does the work alone. In addition to the necessary basic writing and editing ability, previous experience in journalism, including layout and design, is helpful.
The communications specialist generally has a small staff, often only a secretary and assistant. To get help in coordinating programs, you may have to borrow marketing, press, and PR staff from other corporate divisions. Expert interpersonal skills and thorough knowledge of the company-its purposes, goals, different departments, and personnel are required. You will have to work long, flexible hours and must manage your time carefully as you diagnose problems, use personal initiative to schedule meetings, and strive to create a corporate image.
PROMOTIONS
Promotions serve as a link between publicity and advertising activities. Whereas publicity involves the securing of free media space, and advertising involves directly paying for media space, promotions involve spending money in order to affect people's thoughts on a product but do not primarily describe or dramatize the product. Examples of promotions are ten-cent coupons for spaghetti sauce, free tickets to a baseball game, a free trip to Hawaii, a cosmetics brush given with the purchase of face cream, sweepstakes giveaways, and free factory tours.
Promotions experts conceive, develop, and execute these and other promotions. This is a highly creative area-the possible types of promotions are endless. A good promotion can often be the critical component that makes advertising, sales, and marketing strategies come together and synergistically provide results.
Promotions experts-who may work with a PR firm, advertising agency, corporation, promotions house, or on a freelance basis interact with many departments, firms, and people in the development and execution of a promotion. These activities require planning, creativity, financial skills, and interpersonal skills, as well as the willingness to write many memos and make many phone calls to ensure that details are taken care of.
COMMUNITY RELATIONS
As a community relations professional you would make sure that people from the surrounding community know and feel good about the client or company you represent. To achieve this, you would develop programs that might include special events, sponsorships, and so forth. You might arrange for the company to offer audiovisual presentations or forums to educate the community on a topic in which it specializes: for example, a utility company might offer free information to homeowners on energy conservation. You might arrange for your company to donate money to a community event-a bicycle marathon, for example-in the interest of maintaining community goodwill.
You would meet with management and with members of the community to ascertain existing attitudes, available company resources, and the needs of the community. Using this information, you would plan educational forums, sponsorships, or other appropriate activities. After programs are developed, you would work with other PR and advertising people to make sure the community and press are aware of scheduled events. A thorough knowledge of the company, the industry, and the surrounding community is necessary. Planning and control skills regarding finance and budgeting are also helpful.
FUND-RAISING
Some organizations require the services of professional fund-raisers. As a fund-raiser, you would go into the community, to foundations, and to corporations to raise funds for the organization or for specific events. The organizations most in need of fund-raisers are nonprofit organizations, such as dance or theater companies, colleges, churches, and hospitals.
Fund-raisers must be letter writers, brochure writers, and public speakers, among other things. Knowledge of certain areas is essential: the industry the company is part of (such as the performing arts or health professions), law, and what government grants are available. You must also be familiar with financial statements and able to present a positive image of the company and its projects to potential investors.
Fund-raisers may be within the organization-as is an alumni-relations director of a college-or may be part of a firm specializing in fund-raising, usually for a particular industry. Fund-raisers may work on straight salary or commission, and are usually well paid.
A Typical Day
Since personal styles and corporate structures differ-a specialist may handle either a single function or all public relations problems-it is difficult to describe a typical day for any public relations professional.
However, some generalizations can be made. As a public relations specialist you would need to read trade magazines and newspapers for information about your client-whether person, company, or industry. You usually take care of this in the morning, so potential problems from printed misinformation can be dealt with promptly. This activity takes about 10 percent of your time. Approximately equal amounts of time are spent in meetings, at your desk writing, and on the phone, with meetings likely to dominate. About 80 percent of your time is spent on these three activities.
The lifestyle of the public relations person varies, but it is fast-paced with long hours. You may have to attend lunch, cocktail, or dinner meetings. You may also have to travel, particularly in a company with more than one branch office. You can expect to work many twelve-hour days. This is least true for the fund-raisers, who can more easily fit work into the traditional 9:00-to-5:00 day. Typically, speechwriters have the longest day, since traveling is often essential and done on their own time.
Many public relations specialists take work home and can expect to receive on occasion late-night phone calls signaling an upcoming crisis. The communications professional can maintain a family and social life, if family and friends are understanding. Hours and activities vary with the industry. The entertainment-industry professional starts at the office at 10:00 A.M. or noon, but is responsible for attending film screenings, cocktail parties, and speeches which often run into the early hours of the morning.
Meetings are common events for PR specialists. They are held to diagnose a problem, communicate ideas, develop and implement strategy, and evaluate ongoing work. The publicist, in-house communications specialist, and promotions manager spend more time meeting with company personnel than do fund-raisers, speechwriters, and community affairs professionals. Fund-raisers often meet with government committees and foundation representatives; speechwriters meet almost exclusively with the person for whom they write.
Writing is essential in public relations. Speechwriters write speeches; fund-raisers write direct-mail solicitations and grant proposals; other public relations professionals compose press kits and cover letters. Writing may have to be taken home if the workday has been full of meetings and interruptions.
Working on the telephone is crucial to public relations. Interviews are arranged by phone, and press releases are followed up with phone calls. The publicist, community affairs specialist, and promotions manager in particular make frequent phone contact with clients and the public, and are the most likely to receive phone calls from reporters or community members requesting information.
Approximately 5-10 percent of the PR professional's time is spent making presentations. The fund-raiser, spokesperson, and in-house communications specialist will spend the greatest proportion of this time making presentations to company executives and outsiders, and will therefore need more speaking ability and poise than other PR specialists. It should be noted that some industries are casual, some formal, and the public relations specialist dresses to match industry norms.
Required Skills and Educational Background
The skills needed for success in public relations vary from industry to industry, but here are the basics: As a PR specialist you must have strong interpersonal skills and be able to sell an idea or yourself. You must be adaptable: In the music industry, for example, this may mean a morning meeting with the legal staff in a pinstriped suit and then a quick change to blue jeans for lunch with an artist. You must make those you deal with feel comfortable in your presence. As part of the public relations staff in a corporation, it is especially important to treat everyone, at every level, with respect and confidentiality. Here, the ability to listen to opposing sides of a problem is essential.
As mentioned, writing skills are central to PR work. Press releases, memos to top company personnel, and endless letters to the press and public all require this. A good news style is important, as well as the ability to be concise, brief, and clear in statements and letters. Typing skills are also necessary for the quick production of press releases and memos. In this connection, familiarity with a word processor or personal computer is becoming more important in many public relations offices.
Management skills are also essential. You must manage your time carefully, and sometimes your clients' time as well. In addition, you must supervise your staff, which may be small or may be an entire department of publicists, speechwriters, fund-raisers, assistants, and clerical and secretarial personnel. And since this is a time-pressure industry, you must be able to manage both time and people efficiently while maintaining good interpersonal relationships. You must also know your company or client thoroughly and be able to diagnose problems before they happen. Therefore, many successful public relations people have had widely varied work experience and have held other positions in the industry, the press, or the company in which they work. However, someone working in corporate public relations generally chooses and stays with a specific industry because specialized knowledge is so important.
You will probably need research and quantitative skills. For the beginning professional, the ability to do both library and survey research has become essential. For the more advanced professional, being able to understand research and interpret statistical findings is important.
Finally, public relations professionals are finding legal and financial knowledge important. Budgeting a department and anticipating possible crises from a legal or financial viewpoint are important skills.
Job qualifications differ for public relations professionals, depending on where they are hired and what they are hired to do. Minimally, you must have a bachelor's degree. Major-study areas vary, but courses in journalism and writing are expected. Many firms will not hire someone without previous PR experience. Job applicants with graduate degrees in law, journalism, marketing, or business will begin at higher levels than those with only a bachelor's degree.
However, there is no one career path typical for the public relations professional. Those with a bachelor's degree are often advised to begin as a secretary or assistant in the public relations department, in order to learn the business and develop contacts. From there, the trainee will move into a junior role in one of the public relations positions-publicist, speechwriter, in-house communications specialist, etc.-gradually becoming familiar with the duties and skills of each and finally settling permanently into one of these positions or becoming a department supervisor. Since corporate vice presidents are often responsible for communications and public relations, there is upper management potential for the press and public relations specialist.
