Are You Hiring the Right Public Relations Candidates?

public relations, new media Job Trends

public relations jobs - new media jobs

If you were to describe the position for the communicator of the present - and future - in a new media environment, how would you do it? The open positions I usually come across are for marketing, communications and public relations. I thought it would be worth exploring how a standard communications / media relations job description would look like in a new media world.

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Position Overview: Create, curate, network, execute, and facilitate communications strategies to tell the company's story and interact with its communities, using multiple communications media (verbal, written, digital and events).

Essential Accountabilities: Develops, champions, interacts with, engages and measures global communications in support of organization's operations - which include activities to support business A, business B, and business C - as well as the priorities of its communities and information ecosystem.

Examples of communications deliverables include:

• Building an information and communications ecosystem for market conversation alignment across new media and networks; creating content guides, FAQs about customers, communities and partners; developing a presentation and speaking coaching practice; documenting company stories, and working on business-creation announcements
• Press releases and social media releases, videos and technical deep dives, podcasts, crisis communications in a 24/7 news cycle, blogger outreach guides, articles, posts, comments, social tagging best practices, search engine optimization guides

Other duties and responsibilities include the following:

1. Build proactive relationships with key new media members and publications, including blogs, to enhance organization's conversational index and draw positive attention.
2. Collaborate with leaders, peers, and communities in business A, including compliance, investor relations and legal as required for content creation and relationship development.
3. Identify strategic and proactive opportunities to increase awareness and membership, and enhance relationships that support the revenue growth of the organization's operations.
4. Assist in the resolution of customer service inquiries from customers, vendors and third parties by partnering with customer service teams.
5. Contribute to the effectiveness of the global communications function, including participating in general departmental deliverables and forums.

Position Requirements:

Education: Bachelor's degree in Journalism, Communications, or English is required. MBA or other business training or certifications is a plus.

Work Experience:

Must have at least seven years of experience in communications, public relations or media relations (corporate, agency, government), and at least 18 months of experience publishing online. That includes a combination of comments, posts to forums and social networks, and a personal or group blog.

Experience in a professional role creating content, publishing, executing, and measuring the business impact of communications is required.

Experience in specific industry, particularly business A & B, and familiarity with the questions and conversations that surround its news ecosystem is highly desirable.

Personal Competencies:

• Sound business judgment and news making skills
• Ability to lead in a fast-paced, 24/7 news and potential crisis-communications environment
• Willingness to listen, collaborate with teams and communities at all levels
• Excellent verbal, interactive, and written communications skills  
• Left and right brained with willingness to experiment
• Ability to make sense of data and act upon it
• Solid relationship and persuasion skills
• Strong customer service orientation
• Ability to think connectively, create context and listen for the details
• Must be flexible and adaptable to change in a rapidly evolving world of media
• Perseverance, resilience, and great sense of humor

The most important characteristic borrowed from Olivier Blanchard:

• Applicant is more excited about engagement, building an internal practice and finding out about your business’ pain points than he/she is about firebombing you with the full scope of their new media skills’ awesomeness
  

What do you think? What am I missing? Did I go far enough? How do you hire the right public relations candidates?

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Related posts:

Jobs Have Evolved, Shouldn't Job Search?

Marketing Jobs of the Future

Bonus Links:

Mediabistro PRNewser

Alltop Journalism

Comments

[Len Kendall]

Can you clarify what this exact position would be? Who would this person lead?

I ask because you mentioned 7 years of experience and I'm trying to understand what would justify that and why that specific number was chosen.

Good write up!

Len

[Valeria Maltoni]

I didn't include the title, did I? Good catch, Len! The position is a senior manager/director title, which is what I would hire on the client side. Today many marketing departments are stretched to the max and need fairly experienced people who can hit the ground running. Does that help?

[Susan]

I'm new to comms and as the sole incumbent of communications responsibilities in my business, I'm constantly looking for points of reference, so this is quite helpful.

I'd like to get an understanding of whether you would expect that the deliverables you list here (especially the tactical ones) would be executed by this person, or they would oversee their delivery by a comms team that reports to them.

[Valeria Maltoni]

It would be a combination. Some organizations have extremely lean internal teams with support from agencies. Others have a small team dedicated to specific areas depending on the importance they place on them. If public relations is important - maybe it means also public affairs, investor relations, government relations, etc. then it's worth to a company to make the investment.

Hope this helps.

[Fiorenza Mella]

Thanks for sharing this job description. Indeed I was missing the title too. Furhtermore I was wondering if you are looking for a generalist or somebody with knowledge in a specific field.
Fiorenza

[Valeria Maltoni]

Since this is a hypothetical position and not an open one I or anyone I know has, I kept the industry at "specific industry" (for the literal among readers, this means substitute with a specific industry)."Experience in specific industry, particularly business A & B, and familiarity with the questions and conversations that surround its news ecosystem is highly desirable." Perhaps you want to add more? Happy to open the floor to what should be there and what shouldn't be.

[Harriet Meth]

You nailed the core competencies that are essential for today's PR practitioners. I especially like your bullet on the "ability to think connectively, create context and listen for the details." That's critically important in today's burgeoning media environment.

Yes, there will continue to be raging debates about whether marketing or PR should lead social media and what the role of PR should be in the communication mix, but one thing is clear: if you can't connect the dots, create context and listen for the right clues, then you shouldn't have any role in the strategic communication process.

[Hadley Thom]

I really enjoyed reading this post. Although, it is a hypothetical position, I think there is much truth to it.

PR has and continues to change. Fortunately, with the new industry trends and the rise of social media we are able to discern what traits are necessary in a PR professional. The world of serial push messaging is over. Strategy and engagement will continue to be the more effective path.

Thanks again, I think many companies stand to benefit from this information.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Harriet - thank you for drawing out the essence of the position. There is one danger with it - that to become overwhelmed with sensory information. Maybe I'll tackle that in a subsequent post.

@Hadley - you come with a recognizable brand in your URL, a company that gets communications and relationships. That's already a tremendous advantage, to be learning with the best.

[Achim Muellers]

Hi Valeria,

wouldn't it make sense to review the organizational structure in which these positions are embedded today?

Achim

[Carrie Hebert]

This is excellent. PR has evolved from the old-school media/message manipulation to public relations in the truest sense: Engaging and fostering positive relationships with constituents. Social media is the cornerstone of relationship marketing.

[Aysel Vandeventer]

Thank you for this useful and interesting post. When it comes to public relations, it basically boils down to being an effective communicator, listener and nurturer of relationships across all mediums. This is definitely a challenging task, because new information and technology comes in our midst at lightning speed. A public relations candidate needs to stay on their toes and keep up with this information, so that they can effectively communicate with their public. Thanks again Valeria.

[Monica]

Valeria--
Just ran across this in my google reader. Great information! I am just starting out in the PR field, and I will use this as a check-list of sorts as I build my knowledge and experience. Just out of curiosity, and to help my job search, I'm wondering how you might describe an entry-level position, or a position with less than a year of experience. Thanks!
Monica

[Denise Butchko]

Love it - didn't realize how much of what I've been doing fits - thanks for clarifying the vision.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Achim - it would make sense to review the organization structure as it relates to the job the customer wants done today. We're a bit in catch up more, looking at the service delivery from a company process standpoint vs. a job to get done from the customer POV. I know it reads like I'm not answering the question directly, but this is how I feel about it.

@Carrie - well said! Thank you for stopping by.

@Aysel - curiosity and willingness to learn could easily apply to this description as well. They would work both for the process-oriented candidate and for the creative one. Good thinking.

@Monica - that's a discussion we had recently off line - how do you gain experience to qualify to have experience? It's the classic Catch-22. I'd say it starts with some of the same characteristics - being interested, being willing to learn, and staying "hungry" for understanding the motivations of others to provide the right kind of information to the right publics. Shadowing someone who has experience may also help you uncover your sweet spot. Read, participate, observe.

@Denise - this is one take. I'm quite sure there are many others, depending on the specific needs of a business or industry. Plenty of opportunity to align the business with its publics today.