By David Jenkin

When the same question was put to a few experienced PR professionals, each were eager to share insights from their own perspectives. All agreed that the industry has changed a great deal in a relatively short space of time, but views on exactly how that translated to different skill and knowledge requirements were as varied as the industry itself.

Desiree Gullan, executive creative director of Gullan & Gullan 

At G&G we believe traditional PR skills are no longer enough. We look for what we call T-skills – candidates that have traditional PR skills and experience (and that makes the upright line of the T) and also bring an additional skill set or passion that crosses over and adds to their existing skills (the horizontal line of the T).

G&G only employs PR talent who have strong T-skills – traditional PR experience and on top of that, experience and knowledge of digital and social media.

We call ourselves a ‘new PR agency’ in that we look to get our clients publicity in traditional media spaces and online. In addition to getting publicity within online properties, we also aim to get consumers talking about our clients’ brands (when appropriate to the strategy, of course).

Understand that consumers believe the advice of friends and family and members of their social community much more than they do paid-for branded messaging. What’s more, they’re also influenced by well-known or revered people (influencers) who may not be in their direct social orbit, and will seriously consider their opinions before paid for messages issued by brands.

When a brand successfully gets positive news and publicity in traditional media or online media and gets people talking, the results are potent for brands.

Today's PR practitioners have to have a clear understanding of this matrix, the intersections of influence, conversation, news and publicity, and how it impacts people’s perceptions of brands.

Tamra Veley, managing director of Corporate Image

The public relations industry is not homogenous. It’s now composed of different subsets that all require different skills. This makes it difficult to generalise not only about skills requirements, but skills availability.

The ‘classic’ PR industry has changed very much, mostly driven by technology, and an ever-savvy consumer that now wishes to be engaged rather than spoken to, and who often (but not always) is influenced in purchasing decisions by how they best identify with brands and companies. Naturally, this has meant that new ways of communicating through technology have become important, as has the use of multiple media platforms. The buzzword often used in this new era is ‘authenticity’ – consumers like to know they are dealing with real people behind real companies with real values, who can and will communicate directly to them and identify with their needs (and often demands).

This part of the industry is also highly visual – stories are often told through, or with the help of, a visual medium, and this can be very effective. Education levels required differ and technikons are often a source for companies specialising in this part of public relations.

The other broad grouping inside the industry is what is loosely defined as reputation management (and sometimes public affairs), although many classic PR companies have started to define themselves as reputation managers but essentially are doing the same thing with a new, sexier moniker. The real reputation managers (and there are very few good ones in South Africa) deal with complex issues that can, and often do, surface in public debate, and therefore the skill set is somewhat different.

While technology plays a role, the skill required falls more into a broader understanding of economics, politics, the legislative cycle, and societal pressure. Positioning companies within this nexus of where public debate and public policy intersect has meant that those entering this field are often required to be more broadly read, highly literate, harder working and possess a keen interest in general knowledge, politics and economics. Those with a research background, or a background in financial journalism, often do better in this part of the industry. A university education, often with politics and economics as majors, will be sought after, as will journalism degrees.

In this latter case, the most pressing need is for verbal but particularly written literacy, together with well-developed numeracy skills. With newsrooms under pressure, better researched and written copy is much more likely to find traction, particularly if it is written on the back of public debate or a rising narrative on a given topic.

As to availability: good skills have always been in short supply, but they are even more so now. And in the latter case of reputation work, it’s not just skill that counts – its experience. There is no replacement for solid experience in handling complex issues or crises, not even good education or developed skills. Millennials entering this part of the industry often find the lack of quick advancement frustrating, but if they really want to be good at what they do, they need to exercise patience and secure a good number of years under their belts first.

In short, PR remains a Cinderella industry: often decried and criticised, it has an important role to play when done well. Those who look forward to long working hours, consistent use of multiple advanced skills and an addiction to the news cycle often do best in public affairs. The rest belong in mainstream PR.

Roxanne Marais, senior account manager (speaking in her personal capacity)

PR has always been most effective when implemented as part of 360-degree communication model, and the model has changed, affecting all communication disciplines, I believe.

PR is most affected because news and brand position, now more than ever, needs to happen in real time with very serious consideration for what other disciplines are executing and when news/ positioning is being executed (else the effectiveness of great PR can be lost). What has caused the shift?

Two things.

• PR professionals now wear the hat of content creators. They’re required to know when a press release is needed and when to break down communication into ‘bite-sized’ pieces, captivating images with captions, video content, social media posts, interview motivations, app-related content, exclusive sell-ins and trade alerts.

• With social media integration and the trend towards short format content, the modern-day PR professional needs to expand their skills into these fairly new territories – and without the basic theoretical knowledge or skills development in these new disciplines they often get left behind.

I can think of five new skills needed in the industry today.

• Understanding communication strategy from early in their career is important. Traditionally PR pros were only afforded the opportunity to craft their strategic thinking skills later in their careers, say from a senior account manager role onwards. But to be able to wear the many hats effectively, young PR pros need to be seated at the strategy table – if only in an observation capacity at first – the lessons are invaluable. I can attribute some of my success to this approach and was exposed to strategist who thought about more than traditional PR.

• Another skillset that will need to be developed is visual content creation (video and image manipulation) for social media and online PR disciplines. Online content saturations calls for the skills set of being able to direct, conceptualise or implement visual content that tells an authentic story whilst remaining unique and of interest.

• News rooms are being re-shaped daily – knowing how to pitch to an under-resourced, time-constrained and multi-beat media is the difference between getting published or not.

• PR has grown in leaps and bounds as more and more top management see the value and lean on PR Professionals for input, so corporate PR may be a very useful skill to develop from an early stage in their careers.

• To add to that, I think online learning is perhaps the best tool available to young PR pros at the moment. There are tons of online conferences and video tutorials that educate and present great case studies from which the future PR professionals can learn – and it puts their skill development in their own hands.

I wouldn’t dismiss any traditional skills. The fundamentals have stayed the same, it’s applying the fundamentals to new and different channels that has caused the skill expansion rather than leaving more traditional skills behind. In my experience, the veteran PR professionals are the ones best adapted for the ever-changing world of PR as they’ve been dealing with the changes since their careers began. The only difference is the rate at which communication is changing. So with good fundamentals in place, messages can be adapted to any medium.

I see many young PRs hungry for growth – nearly all of them will tell you it’s a key objective for them to grow into their next roles. But learning takes time, and impatience only stunts their ability to really specialise in a PR sector.

Karey Evett, founder of Wired Communications

The media landscape has shifted so much in recent years. So while the original skillset of good communication around the creation and selling of news and feature angles still applies, what is becoming increasingly important is the understanding of how to leverage advertising spend in the media with relevant and appealing content. Negotiation skills and an understanding of advertising therefore need to be added to the mix.

This is a huge subject though and detail around B2B or consumer media relations vary vastly, of course.

How do you think the PR landscape has changed? Tell us in the comments below.