Public Relations: Fields within the Field

As spry-young high school seniors fill out their college applications, they must begin to decide what they are going to major in. Thankfully, anyone can Google different fields of study and a large list with everything from Architecture to Zoology will come up. What can become even more overwhelming, is that within each of these educational fields, there are more specified fields.

Like medicine, engineering, and technology, public relations itself has many sub-categories a PR major can look for a job in. The following are a few job fields within the public relations field, that all PR majors should know about as they set to graduate and look for a job.

Government Relations: Government relations focuses on the communication between the government and an organization. The government relations department within an organization is in charge of keeping up with all legislation, meeting with government officials, and keeping management updated on laws and regulations that affect their company. Government relations managers seek to connect their company to legislative efforts that might be supportive to their organization.

Social Media Management: Social media managers are in charge of managing virtual marketing and advertising. Working in social media may include developing and managing digital content, expanding the company’s community, promoting company products, and engaging with clients and customers. Social media allows an organization to connect with their publics and see what their needs and wants are. Social media managers track that information and form strategies to grow the organization.

Crisis Communication: Crisis communication within an organization works with systems, protocols, and technologies to effectively communicate with the company and the public during an emergency situation. As an internal or external issue unfolds, both the employees and the public need to be informed. A communication crisis team handles that education as well as keeping private information that should not be shared, within the organization.

Marketing Communication: Marketing communication is how a company communicates with its market through messages and media. This working field within public relations includes work such as advertising, direct marketing, branding, online presence, sponsorships and more. Every company provides a good or service to our society and it’s the job of marketing communicators to broadcast that good or service to consumers.

Community Relations: The community relations team within an organization is in charge of establishing and maintaining relationships within the communities the company operates in. Companies must have an active insert in their communities for the sake of their civic responsibility. In order to build a positive business image, the community relations team will help organize things such as community clean-ups, scholarship programs, children’s activities, and crime prevention programs. A supported community means a supported company.

Going into the real working world, public relations has far more job position possibilities to offer besides these few. The wide variety, while intimidating, allows for individuals to pick something that adheres to their strengths. Take the time to analyze your strengths in the public relations field and strive to find a job that centers around them.