Certifications and Licensure to become a publicist:

• There aren’t any mandatory certifications as such but there are many other certifications out there that will help the publicist grow fast in his career.
• Taking up the certification programs is a better way to gain much more knowledge and getting through the exams is an added advantage to your career.
• These certification programs help the students to become successful in the industry they work.
• Due to these certifications, students can improve their basic skills, skills of writing press releases and also can gain the basic knowledge that is required at the time of working.
• These programs last just for few months and it is best for those that are interested to take up the trainings to move to the advanced level.
• This training also helps the business owners to improve their sales and to develop their brand by attracting the customers.
• It mostly benefits those owners that do not have resources to hire a publicist.
• In addition to this, publicist will also learn how to mingle with the media persons and with the journalists.
• They will also learn the usage of the latest technologies and how it helps to increase the publicity of their clients.
• There are four degree programs that are available in colleges and universities for the publicists.
• There are also short courses that help you to get into the interested field much faster.
• With these short term courses, you can know if this course suits you or not.
• Obtaining certification helps you to earn more money as well.
• This is the proof to the employers that you have all the skills and knowledge required to become a publicist.
• There are many more advantages in obtaining the certifications to become a publicist.

Here are few of the skills learnt by the publicists in a certification program:

• Maintaining good relationships with the media
• Writing and editing press releases
• Marketing

Salary of a Publicist:

Experience plays a crucial part when salaries are determined. We know that as experience increases salary also increases.

Following table has all the information on the experience of a publicist and their salary ranges based on the experience.

Salary based on experience:

Salary based on Location:

Location is another factor that plays an important role when determining the salaries. Publicist is paid more in the areas where the cost of living is high; he is paid less in the areas where the cost of living is low. The following table shows you the salary range of a publicist based on the location he or she is staying in.

Based by city:

Based by State:

The following table lists out the salary range of a publicist based on the state.

Salary based on Industry:

The industry the employee works also helps to determine the salaries. Following is the table that shows the salary range of a publicist based on the industry.

Salary based on Gender:

The male to female ratio is 16% to 84% respectively. The following table shows the salary range earned by the males and the females annually.

Salary base on the type of the employer:

The below table displays the salary offered to the publicist based on the type of the employer.

Skills needed for the job.

• To become a successful publicist, he should possess few skills that help him to grow in the industry.
• The important skill a publicist must have is that he should be able to communicate and write well.
• A publicist can obtain these skills when he has a good contact with the media and the journalists.
• Apart from this, he should be flexible and should have lots of patience.
• A good publicist should be able to adjust to his client’s way of living.
• Another skill a publicist must have is the Crisis Management.
• A good publicist should turn the blunders of a client in a positive way.
• These publicists should be able to perform multi tasks at a time, should be very active, should have patience and should mingle with all the people in this particular field.
• As it is not very easy to predict the schedules, the publicist should be in a position to work in the convenient timings of the client.
• The publicist at the time of work should be able to think like a journalist or as any of the media persons.
• Journalists need the publicists as much as they need them.  They are honest and they earn the confidence of the media people.
• Good ideas from these people are always accepted.
• Working with politicians and celebrities can be a bit difficult, that’s the reason a publicist should have patience while dealing with these people.

What does a publicist do?

All the celebrities build their career by getting exposed to media. In this way, they get publicity. For them to grow high in career, it’s important to be publicized. They even try knowing what their favourite celebrities are up to. For a better living and for a better career, they need to be publicized.

Have you ever thought on how these celebrities get publicized? Publicists are those people that take up this job. They even work as companies and serve people. The best way of publicizing anything is the media. That is the reason the industries and the famous personalities that want to be publicized selects media as the best option. Publicists act as a mediator or a bridge between the person or the organization and the media. Publicists work hard to popularize the celebrity or the organization. They put as much effort as they can and helps their clients to get reputation. They ensure that their clients are framed with a positive talk in the public. They expose their clients as they wanted to be and show a positive image to their supporters and customers.

Publicists maintain a healthy relation with the media people. They gain more publicity if the involvement of media is more. These people conduct press meetings, give information, videos and pictures to the media. Publicists do everything they can for the sake of their clients and help them to get good fame and reputation. They create positive awareness among the public. Publicists are employed by the actors, musicians, sports persons, huge companies, etc. Any individual seeking publicity hires publicists. It is not only the celebrities that hire the publicists; many organizations hire publicists to market their products through media in the right way.

Publicists are responsible in giving correct information to the press and they make sure that correct information is published. Even if suppose the client makes a blunder while giving the speech, the publicist can easily set the wrong information into the right one if and only if he has a healthy relation with the media. Publicists attend all the important occasions of their clients and guide the media in the best possible way.

Educational requirements to become a Publicist:

• The individual looking for the job of a publicist must and should have excellent writing and communication skills, should be aware of what’s happening in the world and should have knowledge on different areas of the media business.
• Candidates interested to take up this job are suggested to take courses in journalism, media and in marketing.
• Majority of the employers see that the candidate applied for job of a publicist has a bachelor degree.
• There are many schools and colleges that offer certification to the publicists.
• Employers hesitate to hire those candidates with no experience, but they prefer those candidates who have gone through their certification exams.

Here are few of the places in US that provide internship to the students.

1. University of Texas
2. San Jose State University
3. University of Tennessee
4. University of Florida
5. Temple University
6. University of Houston

• These are few of the universities that offer courses to the students.
• Completing courses from any of these universities adds an advantage to the candidate.
• During the course, any self-employed work benefits you to understand the job of a publicist.
• By doing this, you can gain some experience. With that particular experience, you can start your career from the entry level.
• In this entry level, you will just answer the phone calls and will schedule the timings for the interviews.
• It is really very important to have patience when dealing with the work.
• Many of the publicists we see today have started their career from the low level and have worked hard to reach high.
• To increase the chances of getting hired, you should keep updating yourself with the latest things happening in this field.
• To get a good work experience, you should be ready to work for a very little money initially; this adds advantage to your resume when you want to change your company.
• Another good quality a publicist should have is to maintain good and healthy relations with those working in this field.
• Once you get selected by a big company, your identification improves and people would easily identify you.

Duties and Responsibilities of a publicist:

Publicist does all that he can do to make his clients popular. He has many duties and responsibilities to meet the client expectations. Here are few of the duties of a publicist:

• Updates the media now and then: The publicists should clearly let the media know what they want the public to know about the client. They provide media with all the required information, videos and photos of what they want to show. For example, if it’s a celebrity, he or she wanted the media to provide information and to promote their popularity. Apart from these, the publicists should attend the press meets and should speak about the clients like any good activities done by the celebrities or by the clients company.
• Manages client schedules:  The publicist duty is to plan the timings of the client. He is in charge of arranging meetings of the client with many people. For famous personalities, he takes care of all the arrangements like arranging photo shoots, interviews with the media persons and many more.
• Plans press release:  The publicist should also plan for a press release at the required time. The press release has the entire information of that person who is to be publicized. The past of the client is given to the media persons to publicize. The panel and the designs are chosen by the publicists.
• Maintain good relations with media: One of the major duties of a publicist is to have a good and healthy relation with the journalists and the media people. The work that a publicist does revolves round the media. Publicist should know media is very important to gain publicity.
• Holds press meets: Publicists conduct many press meets where the media persons are invited. The journalists and the media people get chance to interact with the celebrities. This way the journalists get to know more about the celebrities.
• Handles websites: Clients interested to be publicized will have websites. The publicist is responsible for handling these websites. He is the person who is given the right to manage the content on the websites. Internet is also one of the ways to develop the publicity of the client. Concentration and dedication to work are must when dealing with the websites.