Unashamedly inspired by 25 Not Very Technical Things Journalists Should Know, I thought about the not very technical things that PROs should know. When I first started thinking about this piece, it was more to do with the gaining momentum of digital techniques, but given a recent PR Week article citing a report that claimed PR agencies cut cut staff by 40 per cent it took on a new tone as recommendations for PR people to include in their personal career survival strategies.
If you don’t know these things, acquire the knowledge by reading around; if you are agency-side and no one in your business know these things, start looking for another job – because you will need one soon.
In this time of financial constraints your clients will look for you to maximise the impact of campaigns with little or no additional cost to them. In order to do this, you need to embrace the following skills.
- How to manage your email inbox: this article from The Times is a good place to start
- How to touch type
– if you can’t manage your email box or have to do hunt-and-peck typing how are you going to find the time to think about working smarter?
- How to create a link. Look at the source code of this blog post or Google it if you don’t know how.
- How to embed photos and videos
- How to buy a domain name
- How to set up a flickr account
- How to buy an ad on Google AdWords
- How to use an RSS reader
- How to set up Google Alerts
- How to do some advanced searches such as phrase matches, Boolean search terms, and site-specific searches
- How to conduct research efficiently and effectively using online tools
- How to understand the nature of a community and assess a blogs authority
- How Wikipedia works and how to get involved in the process for having a post changed
- Understand the nature of conversations and their appropriateness for your client
- How to upload photos and video to the web
- Understand the basics of how to record audio
- How to take interesting photos and the basic operation of a digital SLR
- Understand the basics of shooting video
- Understand the simple data of web analytics tools
- How to use social networks, beyond Facebook and LinkedIn
- How to use Twitter
- Understand the basics of community management.
- How to use free online survey tools
- How to use tags
- How to use social bookmarking tools and have a collection of useful and interesting resources
- How to share a presentation online
- How to use FTP software to move large files about (I can’t believe that PR people often don’t know this, especially when many picture desks have made use of FTP servers for a good while)
- How to use online calendar services
- How to use event registration management systems
This list is a work-in-progress, I will tag Jonathan Hopkins, Becky McMichael, Jonny Rosemont and Stephen Davies to see if they have any additional pearls of wisdom to share with you. Also feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments box.
Posts in this series
29 things: the basics of how to record audio
29 things: how Wikipedia works and how to get involved in the process of having a post changed
29 Things: Understand the nature of conversations and their appropriateness for your client
29 things: how to use Google for fun and profit
29 things: how to use an RSS reader
29 things: how to organise a PR account
29 things: how to embed pictures and video
29 things: how to create a link
29 things: how to manage your communications platform
This was the post that started it all: 29 not-very-technical things that every PR person should know
Just blogged this Ged – http://beckymcmichael.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/pr-new-tools-of-the-trade/ – love the post and here’s a few more from me:
30. How to source, use and reference photos for presentations, documents, blog posts using flickr and other image sites
31. How to set up a PR community online using Huddle or similar
32. How to edit a short video clip
33. What dpi a publication requires (cringe if I see people send over crappy little images)
34. How to pdf a document (using primopdf or other)
35. How not to rely on social networking as the only tool to build their contact book #reallifeandallthat
36. How to set up a blog
37. How to write for the web
38. How to set up their Blackberry/phone with useful mobile apps
39. How to take a screen grab
40. How to manage a quality online filing system so stuff doesn’t go wrong/get lost/piss clients off
Blimey. Nice list. Suffering from meme non-response guilt (MNRG) over here. Looks like Becky has covered a lot of extra stuff, but if I get a mo I’ll try and add to it.
Good list Ged.
I’d add ‘basic keyword analysis’ to the list. It is part of the adwords point, but can be useful elsewhere too.
Hey Ged, Becky tagged me and I’ve just put my list up. It’s an excellent meme! Here are mine…
42. How to alter basic HTML and an understanding of CSS (and the only reason that I’ve mentioned this is because I recently learnt bits)
43. How to use social networking to network with others in your industry as well as potential clients
44. An understanding of the use of music social networks such as Favtape and Last.fm for actually client use rather than time wasting and procrastination
45. How to use Microsoft Office applications effectively (See Stuart’s post on this)
46. How to synchronise contacts, calendars and emails across desktop, laptop, iPod and phone – and probably also a service like DropBox
47. How to concisely explain social media to non-savvy clients
48. How to make good coffee (coffee, then milk, then sugar, stir, then hot water)
49. How to rank blogs using a cross section of tools
50. An understanding of online word of mouth and the positive and negative potential
51. How to set-up, promote and maintain a wiki
Cheers!
Would definitely add Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) basics, understanding clients’ search keywords and phrases – possibly moving from not very technical to ‘a bit more tehnical’…..but essential if PR is to compete against Search marketers as online pr/social media budgets become more competitive in 2009.
I’d add …
– how to pitch, but not over-pitch
;)
Hey – that rocks. You just helped me with my interview script for our next hire ! : ) Great post – keep them coming….
I would add:
30. Be able to monitor when someone has linked to your blog.
Why? Because I never saw this post or your link and have just found it through a referral from another blog. Having checked the publish date though I was in Bucharest on holiday at the time and remember specifically making a pact with myself to stay off the grid.
Apologies.