"What does a PR consultant do?" Let me tell you all about it!
Working as a public relations consultant goes beyond promoting and maintaining the image and reputation of brands. This explains why there are a lot of people who aren’t sure what a PR person does — and why I’m here to explain it to you!
Employees in this area think strategically about how their clients can best interact with the press, consumers, investors etc, in order to gain and maintain public awareness. The #1 goal is to effectively deliver your client’s message to the people who matter the most.
These professionals typically schedule interviews with television shows, newspapers, magazines, radio stations and websites on behalf of their clients, while also helping marketing teams to ensure their advertising campaigns are compatible with their targets. Building strong media relations is also important for getting great coverage.
My personal experience as a PR professional
But that’s not all. As a PR consultant myself, my colleagues and I also organize events, write regular content and press releases on a number of topics, and even manage and resolve crises. You might say we are multitaskers, and indeed, this is one of the main soft skills which the job requires.
On that note, I strongly believe that a PR professional should be attentive, curious, talkative, focused and open-minded. If you have these soft skills, then you will do well in PR, from identifying stories that have eluded everyone else, to thinking about the best strategy for your clients.
As for hard skills, having a bachelor’s degree in public relations, journalism, communications, or another similar area is a great start, since you will already have a theoretical knowledge of how to use public relations.
In addition, aspiring public relations specialists should seek to study any other subjects that increase their knowledge, from marketing to social media, and SEO. Doing so will make them more skilled in linking the planning of a campaign with the distribution of the content itself.
It goes without saying that we need to read a lot in order to write well, keep up with the news everyday, and gain experience wherever possible through internships in journalism, communication and public relations. Learning new languages is also useful, as it improves both your abilities and your market value.
I first engaged with the PR sphere when I was in college, and ever since then I’ve loved its diversity: you can work with tech, education, advertising, health and fashion brands, without ever getting tired of it. It is a world with thousands of opportunities, each of them teaching you something new — which is something most journalists look for in a job.
What is it like to be a PR consultant at Sherlock Communications?
It was only when I joined Sherlock Communications that I was able to truly grow as a PR professional, expand my knowledge and interact with people from all over Latin America, which makes my job so multicultural and human. I realized that there are infinite possibilities, because Sherlock Communications’ clients come from dozens of different countries and niches. And this is just the beginning, as we are expanding worldwide every day.
Building a client’s reputation can be challenging, but when you work with people who know what they are doing, things get easier and better. If you live in Latin America and would like to work with us to finally answer the question “what does a PR person do?”, submit your CV to [email protected].
