Public Relations Specialist II

Regular Full-time, Exempt - Salary DOE&Q

The Office of Communications and Marketing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, seeks applications and nominations for the position of Public Relations Specialist II.

UT is the state's flagship research university, a campus of choice for outstanding undergraduates, and a premier graduate institution. As a land-grant university, the institution fulfills its access mission through a commitment to excellence in learning, scholarship, and engagement.

The Office of Communications and Marketing is dedicated to advancing the university's reputation. Staff members support the institution's mission and goals, promote its successes and achievements, inform and engage its stakeholders, and ensure the integrity of its brand. We craft audience-focused communications based on data, best-practices, and emerging trends. The division employs more than 50 full-time professionals across several cross-functional teams--Creative, Digital Marketing, News and Information, Special Events, Video, and WUOT 91.9FM.

The Public Relations Specialist II is a member of the News and Information team within the Office of Communications and Marketing. The News and Information team works to promote and protect the brand of the university in a two-fold approach: strategic storytelling and content planning and execution, and critical communications and issues management. The Public Relations Specialist II supports the assistant director of news and information with strategic content development, news writing, editing, pitching media, updating the content management system, and repurposing content for various owned media channels.

The PR Specialist II is a strategic communicator who works to enhance the university's image and manage its reputation. The position coordinates communications both internally and externally and functions as a key contributor responsible for producing written communications to support the university' mission and communicate its values.

The specialist values a spirit of collaboration, teamwork, diversity and inclusion.

Job Functions and Responsibilities:

Internal and External Communications
Assists the director and assistant director with internally- and externally-focused content
Drafts news releases, media advisories and news posts
Creates content to support the university's strategic storytelling efforts
Repurposes and/or edits key campus partner content for UT News site
Assists with content creation for various owned media channels
Communicates and collaborates with key campus partners for content needs
Generates content ideas to enhance university's reputation
Generates content ideas as pitches for media
Monitors news coverage and creates coverage reports
Researches media contacts and outlets
Creates targeted media distribution lists
Liaises with social media team to ensure content is shared
Monitors content analytics and creates regular reports
Assists assistant director with updating and monitoring content management system
Assists assistant director with editorial calendar development and management
As needed--assists with media inquiries, news release distribution, posting news content to the UT News site, posting news content to the UT homepage, and building and distributing twice-weekly internal e-newsletter.
Provides basic photo cropping and other similar support
Willing to become cross-trained in digital platforms/needs

Other
Researches key topics and trends in higher education
Provides on-call support