Mission Impossible? Communicating with a Company That Has 1 PR Pro or No Team at All

Not every company has the luxury of a permanent in-house PR team. On the other hand, some organizations may not see the need for a full-time PR staff. Sometimes these companies hire consultants or agencies as needed. Others add temporary PR duties to the already-full plates of existing employees. Some companies, especially start-ups, may wait for growth before building a PR team.

A popular fallback for smaller companies is having the CEO handle communication. That can work, assuming the CEO  knows all aspects of the organization, understands media, communicates well and has plenty of spare time. Obviously, it's not an ideal situation.

Below we consider how companies without a full-time PR pro or communication team can cope. The tips we've gathered also apply when a company has only a single full-time PR pro or several employees juggling communication on top of full-time jobs.
Starting Point
A balanced approach has business-unit leaders supplementing a CEO as the company's internal and external communicator. These department leaders should meet periodically for communication strategy sessions, says Megan Rokosh, global chief marketing officer and editor-in-chief at Havas Health & You.