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Why wait? Ten PR skills of tomorrow that are needed today.

July 13th, 2009 | By Al Krueger | Posted In: General

Over the last couple weeks there have been several blog posts and stories written about the skills that PR pros of tomorrow will need. Here is one by Arik Hanson. I agree with many of the points that were raised in Arik’s and others’ posts. If you have perused posts here in the past or listened to the Comet Branding Radio show, it’s no secret that we advocate for the evolution of PR.

crystal_ballWe need to be pushing this conversation about an improved skill set forward so it is heard at the highest levels of the PR industry and in the universities and colleges who are teaching our future PR pros.

I am not writing this post to be a “me too” blogger. I am writing this post because the skills outlined in many of the “skills of tomorrow’s PR pros” posts are needed TODAY. We should not be waiting for tomorrow or for younger pros to figure these things out.

If we don’t all start employing these skills today, we will continue to read blog posts that PR is dead.

Social media and other forms of the read-write-web are creating significant opportunities (not challenges) for PR that weren’t possible a few short years ago. But, for us to leverage all of these new opportunities there are a few skills that will always be needed:

1. Strong journalistic writing and storytelling - We must always be able to tell a strong story with all of the relevant information beyond the what, when, who and where. Craft an engaging and relevant story.  We have to work hard to determine and then tell the story of the why, how and the why does it matter. For full credit we should be figuring out different angles to the “why does it matter” question for different audiences and publics. As the opportunity grows for companies to connect directly with customers these skills will continue to increase in value. Developing strong journalistic content will be paramount.

2. Relationship development – PR is so much more than media relations and pitching. We need to be able to develop relationships on multiple levels of an organization, with the media/bloggers, with customers and with people who have opposing views.

3. Business acumen – Access to C-Suite level discussions and decision making is only possible if we can offer well-rounded and strategic business recommendations. This ability can only come from experience and practical knowledge. If we can look at a business and figure out what it needs to grow business and sales and help make that happen through PR/communications/social media – that’s when all of us will have a seat at that table. If we are only seen as flacks or a media relations vendor, then that journey is going to be seriously difficult.

4. Curiosity and restlessness - Within every industry, there are people who are constantly curious and restless about what they do. They lead the pack. These people are always keeping tabs on new developments and trying to find new ways to do things. The moment we become comfortable and satisfied with the current state of things, that’s the exact moment to be significantly concerned. We, the PR industry, should always be thinking about what comes next and progressing what we do.

As the current forms of media continue to fade, and social forms continue to evolve, PR pros have the opportunity to help their company (or clients) connect more directly with their customers/publics TODAY – not just tomorrow. But, to do this, we need another set of skills that we haven’t needed before:

5. Programming and design – We all need an understanding of web programming so we can communicate with programmers to get what we need to build a web site and contribute/edit and customize content. It would be ideal to know some coding ourselves, but a lot can be said about having someone who is truly skilled take the lead. As blog platforms continue to evolve and become easier to use, we still need to have an understanding to communicate changes or the ability to make tweaks and changes on our own.

6. Working knowledge of social media distribution platforms - For all of the great elements of social media, one drawback is that the social web has many gather places. I am sure you could name 10 sites right off the top of your head. It has become burdensome to push content onto so many sites. Thankfully, applications for social media publishing continue to evolve and distribution platforms like Shoutlet are coming to the forefront to help communications pros distribute content across many channels (email, Twitter, Facebook, widgets, etc.) instantaneously. We all need to know how to use these tools because they put the true power of the social web at our fingertips.

7. Video creative direction, writing and production - The social web is fueled by engaging and relevant content. One of the most attractive forms of that content is video. The caveat within this element that is interesting is that video for the social web needs to be very good, but it does not have to be great. Frankly, the slicker the video looks the less authentic it feels and the less accepted it will be in the social web. Because of this, we don’t need to be super-duper Grade-A class video producers, but we need to be pretty good. There are many programs out there that make video production relatively easy. You might want to look into these, because it’s more likely than not that you will need to produce a web video before the end of the year.

8. Community gardening – Many people refer to this as community management, but a friend of mine recently shared with me that he doesn’t think we can fully “manage” a community. I liked what he had to say. If you think about it, the masses probably don’t want to be managed. In this, a PR pro needs to be able to help grow a community and foster activity and conversation within it.

9. Walking the talk - There are many lessons that can only be learned within the art of social public relations by doing it for yourself. There is no better teacher than personal experience. If we aren’t out there writing blogs, doing podcast/videocasts and growing a community for ourselves or our own agencies/companies, all we can do is talk. And how far will that get us? If we are doing all of these things, we are learning every day and those learnings can then be used to drive strategy for our clients and others.

10. Proving Return on Investment – This is an area that I will leave for Sara Meaney to handle as the Left Brain of Comet Branding. All though I’m not fully a numbers person, I do understand and value how important they are. If we can’t prove to our clients that the programs we are running for them are worth it, then it’s not worth a heck of a lot. We have to show proof, proof, proof and more proof.

While this isn’t exhaustive, this is a list of the things that I feel are important and relevant today. Not tomorrow. We all need to be evolving and progressing every day or our industry will die and the only people we will have to blame is ourselves.

What would you add to the list?

What are the skills you wish you had today?

Al Krueger

Partner | Right Brain of Comet Branding + PR in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Host of Comet Branding Radio. Covers progressive branding, marketing, PR 2.0 and social media topics.

Read Al's full bio.

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  • http://ontheprpath.blogspot.com Shane Arman

    Great list! As a college student, I wish I had video editing and production skills along with a little more design knowledge. And I’m really not sure whether I have the business acumen or not. I’ve done a few internships, one specifically in a business setting and another in a University marketing office, so I’m hoping that prepares me to tackle any business lingo that might come my way after graduation.

    Al, where did you attend school and how did you develop the aformentioned skills?

  • http://cometbranding.com/blog Al Krueger

    Shane, thanks for the note. A lot of my knowledge has been learned by just doing it. Like I say in the post, there’s no better teacher than personal experience. Although I did get a great foundation at UW-Whitewater and then from Hill & Knowlton as I started my career. Beyond this, I spent five years working for companies like Aurora Health Care and Funjet Vacations where I was exposed a lot of smart people and a lot of areas of businesses I had not yet been exposed to. I also spent close to five years working at various marketing/pr firms in the area. Online tutorials are pretty rad for help as well…Thanks for reading.

  • http://jmal18@blogspot.com JC Maldonado

    Great post! Agree with you that being complacent and satisfied with current practices is a major mistake.A open mind and eagerness to learn will lead brands forward. With the speed of information, power of social networks, and the impact of web 2.0 no one can afford to sit back. They will become absolute before they know it.

    I enjoyed your point about adding video. It seems to add another dimension to a website and gives it more personality. I think that when a video is so professionally done it wears away its personality, people connect more to something that feels home made than a fancy video.

    Community gardener was also a great thought. People do not want to be managed, they desire freedom to make their own decisions and form their own opinions. Our society does not want to be controlled, they want to belong to a community, but at the same time they need a voice. A gardener maintains his plants and provides them with what they need, he does not tell them how to grow. A manager brings up connotations of control and power. A community gardener allows people the freedom to choose the path that is right for them while participating as a member of the garden.

    Once again great Post! Look forward to your next Comet Branding Radio Show

  • http://dannybrown.me Danny Brown

    Al,

    This is a fantastic list that anyone – not just PR practitioners – can take away and learn from. I think now, more than ever, “full-time businesses” are having to adapt the entrepreneur mindset. It’s no longer enough to have dedicated teams or departments to look after a particular part of a project – it needs to be a full-on, cross company approach.

    Saying that, “Oh, department X will take care of that” just doesn’t fly anymore.

    Cheers!

  • http://cometbranding.com/blog Al Krueger

    JC and Danny, thank you for your comments.

    Danny, you are right-on about the cross company approach. I have a post in the hopper about that topic. It’s amazing the impact social media can provide to a business if they decide to take an engaged role. Because of this, it creates an opportunity for PR pros to do new and different things that can and will contribute to the overall success of the company.

  • http://methodandmoxie.wordpress.com/ Narciso Tovar, Big Noise Communications

    COOL LIST, AL! I especially like your number 8 – Community Gardening. It gives an air of active involvement and engagement…An ESSENTIAL aspect to participating in social media and something communicators everywhere need to bone up on!

  • http://www.inmedialog.com Francis Moran

    I like this list. (HT to @DannyBrown for bringing it to my attention.)

    In particular, I like the opening emphasis on strong, journalistic story-telling. Whatever else changes in our profession, however else we find new ways and new media through which to communicate, this bedrock fundamental will persist.

    I might quibble with your second point, however, at least insofar as it pertains to the targets I pitch, whether they be mainstream journalists or the most casual of bloggers. I have never needed an existing relationship in order to engage meaningfully with the journalists who influence my clients’ markets. All I have ever needed is the ability to demonstrate I know why I am pitching each of them, and to do so with a high-value approach that gets their attention by speaking to their specific interest in the story. Sometimes this can be done in undifferentiated manner; most times it requires a fair — or even high — degree of personalisation to the pitch. But maybe that’s what you mean, too.

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  • http://www.chicagoprfirm.com Starr McCaffery

    Great points. In my 20+ years in PR I’ve seen a huge drop-off in journalism skills. My alma mater is the first state school in Illinois to offer a PR major and, when I was a student, it first introduced a PR minor. The difference between it and a journalism minor was basically two required courses – a stats/measurement course and a 300-level biz course. Both made a big impact in being able to navigate the C-suite.

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  • http://www.endstory.wordpress.com Cheryl Howard

    I’m so glad that you encourage strong writing skills! When I attended college as a journalism major, the PR students were required to take the same writing courses but often ridiculed the need. They claimed all they had to do was share ideas–the “worker journalists” such as myself had to do the writing. On the flip side, when I got a news release that required a lot of work on my part to make it readable, I often tossed it.

  • http://twitter.com/harvatin Staci Harvatin

    This is a great list. It makes me even more appreciative of the education I received from my alma mater. The PR degree program covered every single point on your list except the social media skills, which they are offering classes for this coming fall. Unfortunately I graduated a year too early to take the class, but my incessant interest in SoMe has given me the building blocks I need to apply it in a business setting.

    Before we ask PR pros to aqcuire these skills, we need to ask some pros to be open to them first.

  • http://www.susanbirk.com Susan Birk

    Thanks for putting #1 first.

  • http://Site obvious

    Clicked on this, thought it would be useful. Instead it is full of obvious tips. What a bummer.

  • http://Site Frustrated PR Pro

    I have the opposite dilemma. I possess the 10 PR skills listed (although it’s been a very long while since I’ve had to write or produce a video). However, these skills are being overlooked by my boss, as she only sees me (as well as public relations as a whole) as just media relations (my role, as she sees it, is to pitch, pitch, pitch).

    I think PR professionals understand the need to be well rounded, and that these 10 skills (plus the dozens more skills) are necessary in today’s world. However, until the people who already have a seat at the table understand that public relations is much more than just pitching media, then PR pros like myself will never get invited to the “big kids’ table.” And that’s the true travesty of it all.

  • http://Site Mike

    Good list, although it does reinforce some of the things practitioners have been telling students since I graduated back in the Stone Age. PR practitioners have always had to be the decathletes of communication, requiring the ability to do a variety of things pretty well. Social media changes the playing field a bit, but it’s just another tool to master.

    One I would add to the list is the ability to become an advocate for public relations and its role in the strategic management of a company. While most entry-level folks won’t have to fight for a budget, even they should be able to talk about why PR is important. One of the ongoing challenges in PR is the “education” of our clients or companies about the wide range of roles the PR professional can impact.

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  • http://www.publiside.com Gail Sideman

    While the tips and advice in the post are right on, I found the most poignant sentence to be: “We all need to be evolving and progressing every day or our industry will die and the only people we will have to blame is ourselves.”

    Just look at the struggles and decimation of the newspaper industry to see what that sentence means.

  • http://jamiefavreau.wordpress.com Jamie Favreau

    I have to agree. I was a Communications Technology major at EMU but lacked the PR classes. So I have the video editing skills from taking Final Cut Express but I am teaching myself how to do everything else along thee way. Go figure!

    I believe in engagement, learning from others, and trying to build my knowledge. I have always loved the Communications industry since I was a kid. I just have to strengthen my writing abilities.

  • http://cometbranding.com Al Krueger

    Those are some very good points. That’s for sure. There are plenty of examples of other industries that have not learned to advance. Keep it up.

  • http://www.frontpagecommunicationsinc.com Erica Cottrill

    I love how you used the word “storytelling” to describe the power of the pen. With all of the opportunities social media affords us, I believe it is essential to tell your client’s story with reader-friendly content that touches the imagination. Also…taking time to READ more about what’s going on in the world — as well as in our industry — will help sharpen our writing skills.

  • http://Site nurpi

    I think this is good for student to………….

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  • Fikret

    Very nice blog Thank you admin

  • Mariesha

    Great information. I think I would like more of the roi info……………… Thanks for sharing………… QLEPR

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