My name is Julia, I’m a PR manager at Usetech. I’ve been working in this field for more than 3 years. During this time, the formats and styles of communication between PR specialists and journalists, approaches to working with the media, types of content and current agendas have changed. For long-term career success, PR specialists must constantly study. New analytics tools and new approaches are emerging, which are becoming an important part of PR.
In this article, I’ll tell you what soft and hard skills a PR specialist should have for successful work, as well as share useful tools for work.
Before you start reading, I want to warn you that I’m expressing my opinion based on personal experience. Of course, you may have your own point of view, and you may think that some of the skills are not needed by a PR specialist. I will be glad if you complete me in the comments.
Once again about what soft and hard skills are
PR work continues to evolve with increasing responsibilities in the new media landscape. PR specialists should master new skills to strengthen their career prospects. A successful career requires more than a higher education in the specialty. To be in demand as a specialist, it is necessary to master additional skills. These are the so-called soft and hard skills.
To begin with, let’s define what soft and hard skills are. Of course, you may have read about this before, but a little theory wouldn’t hurt. So, soft skills are universal skills, even psychological ones, which include the ability to get along with others or delegate tasks. These skills are impossible to measure, but they are just as important as hard skills. Hard skills are “technical” skills and abilities that can be measured and can be learned. In other words, these are the professional skills necessary to perform work tasks. Soft and hard skills depend on many factors, but developing in your field and your abilities is a good idea, regardless of the direction of activity.
5 necessary soft skills
Let’s start with soft skills. First, it’s sociability. If you don’t like to communicate with people, and a new letter in the mail or an invitation to a Google Meet makes your eye twitch, then I have bad news for you. Without the ability to keep up a conversation or arrange for publication in the media about your company, it will be difficult for you. In my opinion, communication with people is one of the main tasks in the work of a PR man. You should be able to leave a comment in time, give an answer to a question in a crisis situation, and just be able to “pitch” your story to journalists (by the way, we’ll talk about pitching in more detail in the section about hard skills). Believe me, sincere communication and interest will play into your hands. I got incredible pleasure from calling colleagues from The Wall Street Journal, and a letter with a response from the editor-in-chief of TechCrunch forced me to answer him outside my working hours.
To the communication skills I will add the ability to negotiate, the skill of public speaking and networking. If it seems to you that you by nature do not know how to negotiate, you are afraid of public speaking to the point of trembling in your knees, and networking causes you horror, I will hasten to reassure you. These skills can be learned. The following books will help you with this: Larry King “How to talk to anyone, anytime, anywhere”, Chris Anderson “TED TALKS. Words change the world. The first official guide to Public Speaking”, Dave Kerpen “The Genius of Communication. The art of attracting people and turning them into your allies. 11 skills of effective communication”. Watch the TED lectures — they are great inspirational, and at the same time show how you can speak.
How to develop communication skills? Just communicate more. “It sounds easy” — you may think, but in fact, you should just start, at least with social networks. Effective networking is one of those necessary things that you need if you want to grow as a specialist. Join a debating or negotiating club to master the skill of effective negotiation. Start speaking at least in front of friends, organize discussions on any topic you like, and get experience.
The second skill I want to talk about is attention to detail. A PR specialist often writes press releases, works with analytics, prepares presentations, and sends letters to journalists. Agree, it would be very stupid to send an email without an attached file or call a person Michael instead of Jack (no, I don’t talk about my personal mistakes). You are responsible for your company’s brand, and when it comes to presenting it to the public, it is absolutely necessary to check every detail.
The third skill is the ability to work in multitasking and uncertainty modes. It’s no secret that crisis situations typically occur in PR, in which the ability to react quickly and make a decision is extremely necessary. To compete in the market, you need flexibility and the ability to quickly adapt to changes.
Teamwork plays an important role. To be honest, there is a lot of debate on this topic. Someone knows how and likes to work in a team, and someone is more comfortable doing tasks alone. But a PR specialist doesn’t work in a vacuum — usually it’s a whole team, and it’s important to be able to interact with it, correctly distribute tasks and ask for help if necessary. In addition to your team, you can interact with the heads of other departments, designers, HR specialists and others, so don’t miss the opportunity for team interaction. In fact, it is a powerful resource and powerful support.
The last soft skill that I want to pay attention to is leadership qualities. Your voice will be heard when making an important decision if your leadership skills are honed.
5 necessary hard skills
Now let’s move on to hard skills. Writing about it turned out to be harder than I thought.
One of the most important skills is the ability to use analytics and conduct research. Yes, most companies now expect that a PR specialist should be able to measure the indicators of a PR campaign and demonstrate how these indicators affect business efficiency. Many PR specialists note that analytics and data analysis are just as important skills as interpersonal communication.
I like to analyze the coverage indicators of publications in the media and social networks. This helps me understand if my audience liked my content.
The second important skill in the work of a PR specialist is pitching. The word “pitch” has long taken root in PR slang. This is a short message to a journalist, aimed at making him pay attention to your topic and company and, possibly, write about it.
They talk a lot about pitches, and not always correctly. Someone prefers to “pitch” on a mobile phone (spoiler: don’t do that!), someone on social networks, and someone by email. Personally, I’m in favor of e-mail, especially since many journalists write about it on their social networks.
A bad pitch will negatively affect your name and your company. I know many examples when PR specialists’ mistakes cost them dearly.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of emails are sent to the trash or are not opened at all. Often an irrelevant topic can become a mistake: you suggest a journalist interested in blockchain to write about education in England. In addition, the lack of personalization may be a mistake. It is much nicer when you are addressed by name, rather than writing an impersonal “Dear journalist”. If journalists read me, they can confirm it.
You can talk about mistakes and rules for a long time, but the article is not about that. I want to convey to you the idea that it is important to follow the agenda, as well as constantly develop your skills and learn from professionals.
Now the work of a PR specialist is not limited to writing press releases and communicating with journalists. Of course, a good text is necessary, but this does not mean that you should focus only on writing press releases. A PR specialist should have analytical tools (I mentioned this a little above), graphic and multimedia editors. You may object that you are not a designer, and in general you do not need it. But imagine if you need an advertising banner for publication or an infographic, time is short, and you work alone? In this case, you will regret that you did not learn how to work in any of the graphic editors. Many free courses and training videos on the same Adobe Illustrator or Figma are now available.
The fourth skill that you will need in your work is the ability to manage advertising campaigns in social networks. PR specialists often organize advertising campaigns and monitor analytics, so this skill is critically important in order not to waste the budget and tell about your brand.
And the final, fifth skill is understanding digital and PR tools. Google Analytics, Google Trends, Mention, and other analytical tools are worth noting here. Owning various tools gives you a huge advantage.
Be sure to develop these skills in order to become a versatile specialist. We’ve been learning all our lives, so why not enjoy it?
Bonus: several tools that will help you in your work
No, this is not an advertisement for tools. I’ve tried a lot of PR tools in my work. Some things I liked, and some things I didn’t. I want to recommend something that I continue to work with.
– For analytics, you can use Coverage Book — it is a tool that will show you the coverage of your publication in social networks and media. I have not met any alternatives to him. If you use something, then advise in the comments.
– In addition to the well-known HARO, you can use alternatives such as Terkel, Qwoted and SourceBottle. From this list, my favorites are HARO and Qwoted.
– For convenient storage of all data in one place, use CRM solutions. I used Prowly. Intuitive interface, great features and convenient tariff plans.
– It is extremely important to track mentions of the brand or its representatives in order not to miss both positive and negative comments. Try Mention or Brand24.
Thank you for taking the time to read the article. Leave your comments, I will be glad of your feedback and questions.
