Communications Strategist - Media and Public Relations

Gillette Children's•St Paul, MN

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

Gillette Children’s is seeking a Communications Strategist to develop media and public relations strategies, build thought leadership, and create meaningful connections with audiences locally and beyond. This is a hybrid opportunity for candidates in Minnesota or Wisconsin, who can come onsite to St. Paul, MN a minimum of 2x/week. The role includes participating in a shared on-call rotation for media relations, serving as a media contact during incidents and responding to press inquiries as needed. The purpose of this position is to develop and execute external communications and media strategies that position Gillette Children’s as a local, national, and global leader in delivering care to patients with brain, bone, and movement conditions. This person will develop Gillette’s external communications strategy, including oversight of Gillette’s media relations and thought leadership, and digital community management. The position also provides external communications support, strategy, and content development for gillettechildrens.org and other digital platforms including social media. As a communications strategist, the role also includes supporting internal stakeholders on communications initiatives. The position requires both strategic and technical skills.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree (journalism, public relations, English or communications preferred)
Minimum of five (5) years of media relations or communications experience including writing in a variety of media to a variety of audiences
Good presentation (both verbal and written) and public speaking skills
Advanced writing, proofing, and editing ability (appropriate tone/style, clear and concise, well organized, complete and accurate)
Demonstrate effective management of projects from concept to production
Provide leadership in process and procedure development and implementation
Advanced computer skills and demonstrated strong ability to use a variety of digital tools
Independent problem solving/decision making
Experience in developing strong working relationships with a wide range of staff within an organization
Intuitive organizational skills
Understands the evolving media landscape and can identify opportunities beyond traditional earned media, including digital, social and emerging platforms.
Understanding of legal issues around sharing stories.
Must be able to translate complex, clinical information into compelling content that is appealing to broad audiences.

Nice To Haves

Healthcare experience

Responsibilities

Manages production of a variety of communications channels with a strong focus on earned media.
Develops and implements an external communications strategy for generating media coverage that supports Gillette’s strategic objectives.
Works with clinical care staff to identify and develop stories in target areas.
Collaborate with colleagues to identify and evaluate media opportunities.
Serves as a partner to team members, leaders, and other internal partners to coordinate multichannel communication strategies and tactics.
Research best practices and develop measurements to determine effectiveness of media efforts.
Serves as the organization’s primary contact regarding public relations and media needs and provides leadership and guidance.
Creates statements, serves as spokesperson and manages crisis communications planning.
As needed, serves on incident command as public information officer (PIO).
Manages press events and serves as on-site media escort.
Supervises story development and recommends social and traditional media outlets to maximize story placement.
Prepares clinicians, executives and other leaders for media interviews.
Handles reactive media relations scenarios that may include sensitive situations.
Monitors audience sentiment, including media monitoring and online community management.
Oversees governance of Gillette Children’s social media monitoring.
Crafts responses to audience messages across a variety of digital channels.
Tracks audience sentiment and engagement, flagging emerging reputational risks and opportunities.
Serves as a partner to team members and other internal stakeholders to coordinate communication strategies and tactics.
Partners with team members, leaders, and other internal stakeholders to coordinate multichannel communications strategies and tactics, including content production.
Actively brings forward ideas and innovations; research best practices and benchmarks in external communications within industry and outside healthcare and leads implementation.
Continuous reviews and reports on communications metrics and overall effectiveness of external communications efforts.
Performs other job duties and projects as assigned.