We’re hiring right now, so I’ve had to think about what is exactly needed. The company’s looking to get some help from someone on our new media team, but someone who’s just getting into their career (1-3 years of experience).
This is what I came up with; the core elements necessary to succeed as a new media pro:
1) Writing is absolutely paramount. Why? Because content’s king in the new world. So we know that the ability to script, write, create and/or develop excellent content’s a must. By developing great content, pros effectively market (via participation).
2) Understand that the new PR — or at least the PR produced by this firm — does not revolve around creating spin. The old rules are broken, and have tainted our business. Brian Solis wrote a great post on Why PR Doesn’t Work and How to Fix It, so we’ll spare getting into the details.
Instead of spin, our jobs in the new environment revolves around creating value for the community that our clients participate in. Our job is to help clients provide great information that’s beneficial to their community (ies), either directly through social media and speaking engagements, or through media relations. In the latter case, that means a reporter serves his/her readers, and we’re there to help provide him the info he/she needs to best create value for that community.
Regardless of approach, we have to understand who we’re talking to, why, and how best to do it so it benefits all parties. This community approach represents a core outreach philosophy for the company. It’s where all marketing is moving towards, not just new media. Social media and communications pros in general should be willing to subscribe to this ethos.
3) Technically savvy. This may seem crazy, but intuitively knowing how to navigate a social media environment is a must for the new media world. We won’t hire folks in this particular role that don’t have a social media background, either as a casual user or professionally. The ability to function in these environments is critical, including disseminating content and the ability to participate intelligently.
4) Writing experience is a must and marketing experience is good, but it depends on the source. We don’t want people with too much agency experience (more than 1 year) for this job. Unwriting the ills of point number two seem to be too much to bear in this case. We need to start from scratch, not root out bad ideas and taught 20th century methods.
Jim Durbin wrote some excellent questions in Brandstorming last week for anyone seeking a new media position. These are excellent Qs of any potential employer. They are excellent ways of screening social media candidates, too.
Where to Recruit
We are also recruiting in different venues. Namely, where our candidates are. Craig’s List, Linked In, and FaceBook (yeah, baby, I feel old with my FaceBook profile!). This seems like the way to go… where the candidates are.
This also seems to naturally alleviate point number 3. If they’re out there, they already know how to navigate social media.
Great post, Geoff. Andrea and Rick said you knew your stuff and they were right :)
As soon as I saw the title, I knew the first requirement was that the person had to have knowledge about #3- social software and social media. Given that social media is still relatively new, say 2 years or so, I think that it would be tough to find someone who has lots of experience in this field.
Having said that, I would think that an eagerness to learn and keep up on the newest trends, (as there are many) would help such candidates as well.
Geoff — best of success filling this new position. Because of the growth of your firm I suspect recruitment and retention of talent will always be a top priority.
I also found your thoughts about the role of PR in this “new environment” to be interesting. While I agree the role of the PR/communications professional is to create value for the community our clients participate in, it is also critical the content we develop supports our clients’ business goals as they relate to sales, profitability and valuation.
Marc Hausman
Strategic Communications Group, Inc.
“Strategic Guy” Blog: http://www.gotostrategic.com/blog/index.php
Dean, right on. We’ve got to be flexible.
Yes, Mark, I agree. Certainly no one engages in marketing activities to lose market share. There’s got to be tangential value for the business, too. That’s the beauty of measurement techniques.
At the same time, it’s apparent that marketing designed to exploit target audiences works less and less frequently with each new year, but marketing that builds relationships through converation and value to the community is increasingly successful. Exit the webinar, enter the blog. There’s a sea-change that’s occuring, which is much bigger than new media.
Perhaps I am a heretic, but in my mind PR in the 20th century sense is dead. We need to become more conscious of the community’s needs and serve them.