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.