communications

What it takes to be a Great Public Relations person

We’re looking for a few good people. It’s something we do at Arcis Communications from time to time and it never gets any easier. Recently I was asked why we’re so ‘picky’ about our people and how we decide what a good PR person is.

No easy answers to either question. Sometimes we pick the wrong people - it could be skills, attitude or even just the wrong personality but it’s never a pleasant process.

I suspect we could spend hours trying to tell you how we do it but it would come back to  our gut instinct, the way they carry themselves, their past experience and a couple of other points.

Not very helpful to someone reading this … so here’s a few pointers as to the more ‘physical’ aspect of what we’re looking for.

The Right Stuff

I’d be looking for someone who is excellent at public relations in a truer more holistic sense of things.

Someone who revels in exploring the interaction between a company, an industry, a government, an individual or even a cause and it’s public. Not just a media relations specialist - important as I think that role and skill is.

However, media relations, strategy, creative work, social media, B2B marketing … they’re all pieces of the same puzzle. I think - I believe - that the best PR people are the ones who can stand at the intersection of these different tools, make sense of them and then wield them like finely tuned instruments to make a compelling story emerge.

Some of the skills* they would need would include:

• The skin of an elephant. PR people are often abused, seldom appreciated and almost never welcomed with open arms;
• Honesty - with your clients, yourself, your partners and your work;
• The ability to get in touch with people. To communicate. This goes beyond just email or face-to-face meetings and extends into the written word, instant messaging, twitter, social media and networking platforms … you get the picture;
• Being able to look for the answer to the old question - will this help me sell my product/ service?;
• Integrity. If it sounds like a bad idea  it probably is;
• A head that is full of big ideas and dreams - big is never big enough when it comes to ideas;
• A sense of the audacious - and the willingness to do whatever it takes to get our job done … within reason of course;) ;
• A keen commitment to understanding what it is we’re talking about. Research, learning, finding and understanding … and starting all over again when needed to;
• The willingness to customise your message to the person or audience your looking to speak to - we aren’t running a spam operation here!;
• Being willing to do the work and measure it’s results. ROI matters here - regardless of what you may have heard about some of the other disciplines out there;
• Being able to see multiple sides of the same story - emotional intelligence, actual intelligence, common sense;
• An eye for detail;
• Have I mentioned common sense yet?;
• Being able to play well with others;
• Knowing when you need help and being able to check your ego at the door long enough to get it.

We maintain very few rules but most of them have to do with respect - for yourself and for the team. For what we do. We call it a whole bunch of things but mostly we refer to it as the ‘no asshole rule.’ Not mine but that phrase stuck when I first read it - can’t remember where though.

Now this is just some of the things I look for. I don’t expect to find all of these qualities in all of the people we work with but some of them would be a good start. The rest we tend to learn from each other.

So what do you think a good Public Relations person should have as skills and qualities? Or do you know someone (or are you someone) who you think could learn from us and teach us some new tricks as well?

*the inspiration for the description of a couple of these qualities courtesy of Kyle Flaherty as his thoughts resonated my own

© 2009 Journeys Through The Line.