A company’s Public Relations Manager is the corporate officer solely responsible, both internally and externally, for managing the communication risks and opportunities of a company. Usually, this executive is responsible for communications to a wide variety of stakeholders, including workers, shareholders, media, blogs, business community influencers, news outlets, the community, and the public. The Public Relations Manager will usually collaborate with others in the organization to connect with investors, analysts, clients, and members of the board of the company. In order to advise and engage in decisions that can influence the company’s ongoing image, most companies may rely heavily on the Public Relations Manager.
Similar Job Titles:
Public Relations Officer, Public Relations Specialist, PR Officer, PR Marketing
What Does a Public Relations Manager Usually Do?
The Public Relations Manager is the head of communications, public relations, and/or public affairs in an organization. Usually, a corporation’s Public Relations Manager reports to the chief executive officer (CEO).
Here’s a rundown of tasks usually conducted by a Public Relations Manager:
- Strategic account management
- Compliance monitoring and evaluation
- Legal department
- Operational management and support
- Organisational performance reporting
Strategic account management
Establish cost effective, efficient and robust communication channels with all Public Sector clients; electronic media and face to face contact meetings must be established and framed to ensure working sessions with project managers and operational staff are conducted at least once per week to provide feedback, solicit approvals and to invoke critical actions and decision making
Monitor, evaluate, control and report to all clients on compliance with defined protocols and methodologies, close out of activities and specific performance deliverables achieved, and key interventions/recommendations required to be initiated aimed at enhancing overall performance of the programme.
Compliance monitoring and evaluation
Assume operational responsibility and accountability for the monitoring, evaluation and reporting of all collection activities and account outcomes, ensuring all actions initiated and outcomes pursuant thereof, comply fully with all terms and conditions imposed in terms of all approved workflows and standard operating procedures.
Legal department
Public Relations Manager is to review statuses, action, and ensure that accounts meet minimum requirements for legal action to commence. All matters that don’t meet the minimum legal requirements must be fully assessed for root causes, investigated and confirmed to be unviable. The Public Relations Manager is to ensure that the legal status of all accounts assigned to portfolio’s are updated within clients operating systems monthly, and legal status reports have been supplied to portfolio managers at client level.
Operational management and support
Work closely with the company’s cross functional teams to ensure efficient, effective and economical execution of large-scale projects. As a member of the team, the Public Relations Manager will be required to closely interact with the Chief Operating Officer, Creative Director, and Team Leaders.
Organisational performance reporting
Prepare a monthly consolidated statistics report on all actions initiated at Public Sector level, including details such as, campaign actions planned, campaigns activated by channel, actions successfully executed, actions failed by type, and outcomes of actions.
Roles a Public Relations Manager Typically Collaborates With
Public relations managers can work closely with several different departments depending on the company’s structure. The most common are:
| Roles Public Relations Managers Collaborate With | ||
| Human Resources | Creative Director | Account Manager |
| CEO | Marketing Officer | Strategy Officer |
| Chief Legal Officer | Admin Officer | Chief Brand Officer |
Public Relations Manager Salary
The typical annual salary is around $69,000 for a Public Relations Manager in the United States.
Depending on the level of prior experience, the skillset, and the company, a Public Relations Manager’s annual salary can range between $45,000 and $100,000.
What is the Public Relations Manager Pay Difference by Location?
This is how the pay of an average annual Public Relations Manager in major U.S. cities differs:
| City | Average Annual Salary |
| San Francisco, CA | $87,659 |
| Seattle, WA | $75,316 |
| Denver, CO | $68,110 |
| Austin, TX | $73,698 |
| Washington, DC | $74,315 |
| Milwaukee, WI | $49,440 |
| Boston, MA | $78,484 |
| New York, NY | $70,794 |
What is the Public Relations Manager Pay Difference by Experience?
The skill degree also determines the pay of a Public Relations Manager. Here’s a table of total wages for Public Relations Managers by level of experience:
| Years of Experience | Average Annual Salary |
| < 1 | $45,000 |
| 1–4 | $57,000 |
| 5–9 | $72,000 |
| 10–19 | $79,000 |
| 20+ | $76,000 |
Public Relations Manager Job Description Template
[Company Name] is looking for a dynamic Public Relations Manager to join the team and assist in assuming operational responsibility and accountability of the company.
As a Public Relations Manager at [Company], you will be in charge of building strong, sustainable and profitable relationships. You are expected to engage, consult and manage customer relationships and expectations by proactively providing high levels of responsiveness to the needs of our key customers in the public sector, influencing the adoption of best-of-breed approaches, mitigating bottlenecks and overcoming limitations imposed by customers.
Public Relations Manager Responsibilities:
- Planning, developing, and implementing PR strategies
- Managing enquiries from media, individuals, and other organisations
- Researching, writing, and distributing press releases to targeted media
- Planning publicity strategies and campaigns
- Organising events including press conferences, exhibitions, open days and press tours
- Managing and sharing content with users on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook
- Managing the PR aspect of a potential crisis
- Creating and managing brochures, handouts, direct mail leaflets, promotional videos, photographs, etc
- Analysing media coverage
- Distributing information about new promotional opportunities and current PR campaigns progress
- Speaking publicly at interviews, press conferences and presentations
Public Relations Manager Requirements:
- Bachelor/Master’s degree in PR, management, business, marketing, or related field
- Experience required in PR, marketing, event planning or related field of minimum 3 years
- Strong interpersonal skills
- Excellent communication skills both oral and written
- Creative writing
- Ability to multitask and work good under pressure
- Excellent time management skills
- Problem solving oriented
- Analytical skills
- Ability to work in team as well as independently