Top 14 Public Relations (PR) Interview Questions and Answers

PR Interview Questions and Answers

Here are Public Relations interview questions and answers for freshers as well as experienced PR officer and specialist candidates to get their dream job.

Free PDF Download: PR Interview Questions


1) Explain what is the role of public relations specialist?

Public relations specialist maintains a favorable image of an organization or a person he is representing by creating press note or releasing documents to media personnel about their client or organization.


2) What all sectors can a public relations specialist can work?

Public relation specialist can give service in various sectors like

  • Advertising or PR firms
  • Work directly with clients
  • Press secretary
  • Information officer
  • Media specialist
  • Government agencies
  • Non-profit organization

3) What skills are required by public relation specialist?

  • Good communication skill
  • Ready for travelling
  • Person who are enthusiastic, confident and understanding
  • Willing to work according to client or organization schedule
  • Good judgement
  • Outgoing personality
  • Creativity

4) What things public relation specialist should know?

  • Public relations specialist must be aware of the newspaper or websites that enable you to reach your target demographic most effectively
  • And public relations specialist should have experience with both old and new media
Public Relations Interview Questions
Public Relations Interview Questions

5) Explain what is the difference between Advertising and Public relations specialist?

                   Public relation specialist                             Advertisement
  • The role of PR is to get free publicity for organization or person
  • You have no control how the media presents your information. They are not obligated to show your event or press release on your demand
  • Whatever you sent to the editor, it will be published only for once
  • Third party will look at the ad differently and create a great amount of credibility for clients product
  • In public relations, you have to look for news and be able to generate business through that news
  • The company pays for ad space, and you will know exactly when that ad will publish
  • You have total control how you want to present your ad
  • Since you are paying for the ad, you can request for your ads over and over
  • When target audience read the ad, they will see your ad as business oriented
  • You get to exercise creativity in creating new ad campaigns and materials

6) Explain how to use social media as a public relations specialist?

  • Use twitter chats or #B2B chat on twitter every Thursday or #pr20 chat, which a weekly exploration of social media’s exploration on public relations
  • Use Pitch-engine, to create a pitch and share your release or news directly with the customers
  • Use PRX builder, also known as Social Media Release is a simple tool that help you to write your content, add images and video, insert links, etc.
  • Use CNW’s Social Media Release, it gives online audience a platform to visit for multi-media content and conversation about your message

7) Explain what interactive public relation specialist is and what are segments of interactive PR?

An interactive PR is a process that uses the internet as a mean to communicate messages to the public. The various digital marketing segments comprising of interactive PR includes

  • Search Engine
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Online Press Release
  • Podcasting
  • Webinars
  • Web 2.0 technologies
  • Developing blogs
PR Interview Questions
PR Interview Questions

8) Name some of the social media optimization or monitoring tools?

These tools make business posting and monitoring across different platforms easy

  • Hootsuite
  • TweetDeck
  • CoTweet
  • Vitrue
  • Posterous
  • Postling

9) Explain what Bit.ly tracks for public relation press release?

Bit.ly shortens your website long URL into a short link, and that link can be used for social media. Also, it can be used to track

  • Number or clicks
  • Clicks frequency and its time
  • Track referral websites
  • Track regional clicks

10) What is a social media press release should be like?

Social media press release should be like

  • Main body should be the core of your press release, always write a press release in the third person
  • Try to cover or answer for who, when, why what, where and how in your press release
  • Try to avoid a sentence giving opinion
  • Try to give a neutral viewpoint that delivers newsworthy content
  • Try to limit your press release to one to two pages
  • It’s always good to put keywords into your content but should not exceed the limit
  • Give a referral to the statistics or sources relevant to your press release
  • It includes videos, RSS and visual links to images

11) List out some of the challenges that Public Relation specialist are facing?

  • PR for mobile users: Mobiles have pushed PR specialist to think out of the box and prepare messages that are small and yet effective
  • From local to global: To understand the market value and client’s product demand, PR has to increase their field spectrum from local to global. Studies have to be carried out to know about the geographical and cultural differences before recognizing the target audience
  • Continuous Monitoring of product in real time: Continuous monitoring of client’s product through PR helps to add value to it. Also, it helps the client to fade away any negative branding done by the rivals about the product.
  • Image driven Content: Image driven content are more in demand than normal content. Image that conveys the product message with minimum description
  • Hyper personalized content: Client’s demand of representing them with a personalized symbol or style statement through a right channel and at the right time. For instance, coke’s personalized bottles or Microsoft logo
  • Social Media and SEO: PR specialist should be aware of all technical glitch of the social media optimization and how SEO works

12) Explain what is Pitch letter?

Usually, a press release is written in the third person while a pitch letter is directly addressed to journalist. It starts with a striking opening that alerts journalist to take immediate interest in the topic. For instance “Top most interview question on guru99.”


13) Mention what is the advantage of in-house PR specialist?

The in-house PR will act as a representative of your product to the outside world, and being an in-house PR, he can give a total dedication for branding of your product.


14) Explain how you can optimize your PR distribution using Social Media?

  • Post in Twibes groups (Twitter groups)
  • Post on Facebook corporate page as well as other relevant pages
  • Post in relevant professional blogs
  • Post in relevant LinkedIn groups
  • Post in corporate Twitter Account
  • Post in Digg, Del.icio.us and other sharing groups

Public Relation resume Sample

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone
  • Email

Profile

Very energetic and dynamic person with an inborn urge to lead and inspire others to meet their targets and maximize their talents. Career Objective

A strong willed marketing expert looking to fill a position in the marketing department that allows application of skills and knowledge in sales & marketing, advertising and promotions Full of potential and self motivation to tackle problems and innovate marketing strategies

Work Experience

Director of Marketing  2010-Present | Keroche Wines and Spirits Distillers, London

  • Supervising staff under my department including marketing agents, affiliate marketing managers and marketing assistants
  • Doing marketing research, analysing the market and co-ordinating marketing activities in all the company branches
  • Talent searching, mentoring and posting marketing agents to different areas of operation
  • Ensuring that the company reaches its sales targets through implementation of policies across all departments
  • Planning the marketing budget of the company and applying it
  • Negotiating with advertising agents and aligning marketing materials to the needs in the market

Chief Marketer  2002-2009 | Cookies Limited, Paris

  • Was in-charge of daily activities concerned with personal relations and marketing firms
  • Developed marketing strategies and shared them with the board of directors for possible execution
  • Oversaw all communication activities involving the partners, consultants, clients and the general public
  • Planned and implemented the company’s marketed budget
  • Updated and maintained the firm’s marketing database

Professional Qualifications Sales and Marketing

Improved the brand image of the company through aggressive marketing campaigns which included internet marketing, press releases, corporate responsibility functions, and search engine optimization (SEO).

Advertisement

Responsible for a whole range of advertisement techniques aimed at promoting company products. Some of the methods used include television, radio, magazines, newspapers and social media.

Education

University of London – August 2000

Bachelors of Commerce Manchester School of Monetary Studies

April 2007

Diploma in Sales and Marketing

Affiliations

Institute Of Certified Public Accountants of London(ICPAL)

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One Comment

  1. Avatar Rakshanda says:

    This was really very helpful! Thanks a ton!!

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