This recent PR Week article, while clearly being a press release – come- cry for help by recruitment consultancies, it raises an interesting issue. It’s hard to fill the now frequent ‘digital expert’ or ‘social media expert’ roles. I see two main reasons for this. Firstly, these people don’t really exist at the moment (at least not in any great number). We’re all learning this stuff, it’s pretty new. Even the ‘digital’ people from pre-2001 were using different tools back then. They didn’t have twitter. This brings us to the second point, that every agency has a slightly different view of what that person is.
What, then, do you want from a ‘digital specialist’?
Usually, the answer is someone who can (1) train the entire consultancy in social media use, buzz monitoring, blog comms, blog discoveries, SMEs, press release SEO (2) lead pitches for and win social media based new business (3) perform the social media function for existing clients and (4) manage all the creative agencies you’ll inevitably have to work with.
Now, isn’t that a rather tall order? I’ve witnessed more than one ‘digital expert’ land a very attractive pay rise with this sort of role, only to burn out in less than six months and to storm out of the building shouting ‘these people just don’t get it!’.
Consultancies really need to be prepared to hire a team, who can perform each of these functions superbly, rather than one person who does a little bit of each. Alternatively, start some heavy investment in some training programmes. It’s going to cost more than the wages of one person, that’s for sure. And with many predicting the death of traditional media within the next year, these skills are essential. At the very least, in my opinion, you need two people. A digital savvy PR person (and there’s lots of those, even if they aren’t ‘experts’) who knows how to deliver the PR message online and also a digital marketing expert. The marketing expert will have all the creative back-end know-how that the PR person simply will not have. Together, they’ll create formidable integrated campaigns.
Furthermore, its becoming apparent that integrated marketing agencies have started snapping up some PR people recently, offering a new breed of complete end-to-end services.
Want online PR? No problem!
Want an integrated marketing and advertising campaign too? No problem!
Want us to design and build bespoke applications for you on Facebook and mobile? No problem!
This has opened up exciting new opportunities for digital PRs to gain new experiences and work in non-PR environments, a desire I’ve frequently encountered when interviewing them. To hang on to these valuable individuals, PR consultancies need to offer a better thought-out role and be prepared for further investment, with an open ear to what your ‘digital expert’ is telling you. After all, isn’t that why you are hiring them?
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