In many larger organizations, especially major corporations that supply products around the world, there are several departments within the public relations department. One of the departments may be financial public relations. The financial public relations department is responsible for all of the public financial information about a company. A financial PR person has the same job as a regular PR person, but the way that they go about their jobs are very different. We will explore the world of financial PR more in depth here.
Sometimes financial public relations aren’t handled by an in-house department at all. Sometimes, the company will choose to hire an outside firm to handle all of their financial PR. This is especially true during great times of change in a company, such as when a merger is going to happen. In this article, we will explore the financial PR task in great detail, including highlighting those that work in such a department, and describing the job duties and responsibilities that such a position entails.
The Financial Side of a Company
Financial PR involves both the financial community, like investment bankers, and the financial media. The main thing that a financial PR firm does for these companies is help them communicate a financial position to the general public, the financial marketplace and shareholders. There are additional tasks in transactions like mergers or stock fluctuations. PR firms work with clients, banks, lawyers and analysts to get the best results.
When it comes to the financial side of a company, things are left better handled by experienced professionals who have experience in financial matters. This is why a company often chooses to go outside of their own people. Financials are complicated. There are legal issues, privacy account issues and hundreds of factors to consider when releasing information to the public about a company’s financial state. That’s why a financial team usually consists of several different people, not just someone to do PR. Let’s discuss some of the people that might be involved in a typical financial PR team.
Lawyers: One of the major groups that make up a financial PR firm is lawyers. These are usually finance lawyers that have training and experience with financial matters. The team may consist of just one lawyer, but there are usually several that represent big companies. They might specialize in IPO’s, stock trading, mergers, tax law or many other aspects of financial PR.
Finance Professionals: Sometimes you need the advice of an accountant or finance professional in order to make decisions about what to release to the public regarding a company’s finances. These experts will be able to read the financial data much more easily and advise lawyers when necessary.
PR Professionals: There may also be someone that is trained in marketing and PR, so that when the team decides what information to release to the public and why, they will have someone who knows how to get a message out effectively.
What Qualifications do Finance PR Representatives Have?
You might be wondering what makes a good PR person when it comes to the financial sector. Most people believe that you have to be really good at math, but that’s not exactly true. You definitely don’t need to get a degree in math. Understanding how finances work is much more important. You need to understand the stock market, banking, interest, loans, mergers and a huge variety of other terms in order to do a good job as a finance PR field.
One of the most interesting things about getting into the finance public relations field is that you have a great deal of interaction with some pretty powerful people. Some of the biggest companies from around the world use finance PR firms to communicate their finance state with the general public and often, finance PR reps get to meet with the CEO’s or other executive management – people that have lots of power and make tons of money. Unfortunately, being a finance PR doesn’t give you any more of a salary boost than regular PR work, but sometimes, you can make your own rewards.
PR Companies that Work in Finance
Sometimes, a PR organization will specialize in financials and only work with clients in the finance business. This is slightly different than a financial PR firm, because this type of Public Relations Company is much more concerned with regular PR activities such as branding and reputation management. Basically, they are a regular PR firm that chooses to work specifically with clients involved in the financial industry. These can include banks, investment firms and many more financial organizations.
The reason that these PR companies usually work with finance industry clients is twofold. First, they are experts in the finance industry and so that’s where they choose to work and where their passion lies; this is true in most cases where a PR firm only works in finance. The second reason that so many people choose to get into PR for finance companies is that the money is good.
The Growth of the Industry
One of the things that you will discover about the financial PR industry is that it is growing now more than ever. That’s because both in-house communications personnel and financial PR reps have much more to do today than in the past and they are involved in a lot more than just financial PR.
Because of the internet, and especially the sharing of information over social media, there is public scrutiny of companies now more than ever. A public company cannot simply hide themselves, nor should they have to, and financial PR will help to ensure transparency, regulatory compliance and more.
There are so many reasons for this it would be difficult to list them all. Some of them include the volatile world financial markets, the current political climate in the United States and around the world, the slew of new measures and regulations that have sprung up thanks to companies getting caught cooking the books and much, much more.
