I wrote an article last week entitled
"Is PR Dead?"
that seemed to touch a nerve. In the article I said that
I don't think PR is dead, but is in need of major re-invention
. There were over 40 comments and it seemed like the majority of them agreed that a re-invention is in order for many firms.
Based on the re-invention I proposed in that article , I thought I'd follow-up with my thoughts on what the ideal profile is for a modern PR professional that I hope will be useful to those of you who are hiring a PR agency, looking to transform your own agency, looking to start a modern inbound marketing agency, or looking to bring PR in house .
I have come up with an acronym (DARCs) to describe the important characteristics required in an "inbound" PR agent. These criteria are a derivative of the criteria we laid out in our recent ebook on how to hire " inbound " marketing staff.
For more information on DARCs, downlad the free eBook: Are the Right People on Your Marketing Team? , an excerpt from my book Inbound Marketing .
D -- Digital Natives: Some people are good with hammers and wrenches while others are good with the web. I think somehow we are either born with these particular genes or not, so make sure your modern PR agent is genetically predisposed to the internet. Good sample questions: How does Google decide organic ranking? What is RSS?
A -- Analytical: Your PR agent should be able to look at your analytics data and draw meaningful conclusions (or help you set it up so you can do so). The PR agent should be able to look at your campaigns by funnel and figure out what is working and what is not and suggest where to double down. Good sample questions: Can you show me a spreadsheet you built with pivot tables and tell me the conclusions you drew from it?
R -- Reach: A traditional PR agent has tens or hundreds of contacts at traditional outlets. A modern PR agent has thousands of followers between Twitter , Facebook , LinkedIn, and their own blog. Good sample questions: What is your Facebook grade ? What is your Twitter grade ? What is your Blog grade ?
C -- Content Creator: A traditional PR agent connects with traditional media. A modern PR agent helps create content that will attract new media (bloggers, Twitterers, etc.). Good sample question: Can you show me the piece of content you created that you are most proud of and why.
S -- Strategic: Ten years ago, you could buy your way to a successful launch with advertising and PR. Today, the market is growing immune to those techniques, but if your idea/product is truly remarkable, it will spread on its own. Therefore, it is more important than ever to have the right strategy because all the dollars in the world can't help you move an also-ran offering. A modern PR agent should be very strategic and may have a background from a firm like Innocentive (Clayton Christiansen's strategy firm) or BCG. Good sample questions: Summarize Blue Ocean Strategy for me?
Do you like this acronym? Do you have something better you could share with us?
If you like this stuff, I wrote in a lot more detail about in the new Inbound Marketing book .
Free eBook: Are the Right People on Your Marketing Team?
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Download HubSpot's Free DARC eBook
An excerpt fron Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah's new book,
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Paul Roetzer 9:03 AM on October 14, 2009
Brian,
I think the DARCs acronym is simple and accurate. We recently did a post 10 Traits of an Emerging PR Pro to define the type of hybrid professionals we believe will take a leadership role in the evolving PR industry.
jeni wehrmeyer 10:02 AM on October 14, 2009
excellent article, particularly helpful are the sample questions to ask.
Melissa Paulik 10:15 AM on October 14, 2009
I think these are good points. In the section on Reach you recommend that you ask them about their Facebook, blog and Twitter grade. They may not be aware of Hubspot's tools, but even so you can enter in the urls and see the grades for yourself.
I would also ask them questions directly about how they use these tools to reach their audience. I can use those same tools to reach out to my target market, but I want to know how my agency uses them to reach out to the media and analysts - an audience I would be less likely to reach without their help.
Melissa
Jim Grapes 11:03 AM on October 14, 2009
This is an area I'm working at improving on with a very limited budget. I'm going to get a copy of the book.
Tony Loftis 11:35 AM on October 14, 2009
Well said, especially the section on content creation. About 10 years ago, PR people were facilitators, managing relations between clients and the media. Today, PR and marketing is much more about creating content for various channels, and traditional media is only one of those channels.
abbott 12:38 PM on October 14, 2009
Hi Brian, Great post. I enjoyed your sample questions. The Blue Ocean one got me digging a little bit. There seems to be quite a controversy over wether to consider Blue Ocean 'strategy', or merely good marketing. For example: http://twoscenarios.typepad.com/maneuver_marketing_commun/blue_ocean_strategy/index.html
Toni Anicic 2:41 PM on October 14, 2009
Since you're talking about blog grade and twitter grade, I already asked via Twitter but got no response, are you working on fixing the problem with Technorati ranking? Technorati changed today (redesign, different metrics for Technorati Rank) and your graders currently retrieve no Technorati rank for blogs.
Bugs-n-Blooms 2:54 PM on October 14, 2009
Thank you for the info. I wish our PR was higher, no matter what we do, just cant seem to get past a PR2
Patrick Rafter 3:19 PM on October 14, 2009
Brian and my other friends at HubSpot:
While I like and respect you all... Brian's recent posts prompted me to respond. See my article:
"Is Marketing Dead? Why PR should drive 'The Connection' " http://bit.ly/IsMarketingDead
Long live the conversation
--Patrick (Rafter)
Twitter @prafter
Nadine 4:27 PM on October 14, 2009
Aren't you describing a digital marketing specialist here? A good online PR exec will have the above traits but what about the value gained from having articles published in traditional media, and the ability to create good quality content that is newsworthy and interesting enough to gain some third party credibilty which is what good PRs can do?
Oxzen Media 8:23 PM on October 14, 2009
Great post. This would be very helpful.
Thanks.
Brian Halligan 12:22 AM on October 15, 2009
RT @PaulRoetzer I had a quick read of his article and I think it is better than my criteria. Worth reading: http://www.pr2020.com/page/10-traits-of-an-emerging-pr-pro
@Melissa Yes, I recommend asking them how they do in things like blog.grader or twitter.grader. If they are unfamiliar with those tools, you can ask what their Technorati rank is for the blog and how many followers they have on Twitter. I always ask folks I interview about how they do in HubSpot's Grader tools b/c I want to see if they did their homework.
@abbott I wasn't aware of the controversy surrounding Blue Ocean Strategy. Thanks for forwarding that link. All I can say is that it helped me think through HubSpot's strategy and I feel like we have created a relatively "blue ocean" for ourselves that is relatively defendable at this point. I'm a fan.
Brian Halligan 12:31 AM on October 15, 2009
@Nadine I guess I think the role of the PR person is really evolving from someone who is well connected in the "traditional media" world to someone who is half marketing strategy ninja and half "digital marketing specialist." ...I had a conversation today on the phone with Scott Kirsner, a columnist for the Boston Globe ("traditional media") who says he gets about 125 "pitches" per week from PR people and on average he writes covers 0/125 per week. He may be unusual because he is a very tech savvy journalist who knows how to use tools like Twitter and Google alerts very well to find his own news, but I think he is emblematic of where journalism is heading. ...I tend to think ahead of where the market is today and where things are going, so I may be too far out in the future here for you, but I guess I think this is "where the puck is going."
Brian Halligan 12:45 AM on October 15, 2009
@Patrick I responded on your blog directly.
Steve Su 5:20 PM on October 15, 2009
Dear Brian,
Recently i am concerning our PR to promote the new technology product to the local market. After reading your article it help me a lot on what is the criteria and new way that we can do from good to great.
Thanks and Best Regards
K. Howison 6:06 PM on October 15, 2009
Good, fresh perspective. Social media understanding is clearly critical, but remember -- so are a lot of other "traditional" skills too. It's what I call Fusion-PR ... injecting the new into the traditional for spectacular results. That's the future.
Patrick Rafter 9:10 PM on October 15, 2009
Brian:
Vive la conversation!
Thanks for your considered reply to my “Is Marketing Dead” response to your “Is PR Dead" post.
The fact that we’re conducting a constructive, interactive exchange (over the blogosphere) is proof positive that PR and marketing are evolving, and moving in the right direction.
You know I’m a HUGE fan of HubSpot and regularly give props to you as the originator and “best practices” provider for Inbound Marketing!
No one does it better.
Through its vision, free and for fee products, proactive education and evangelism, articulate thought leadership and “practice what we preach” example--- HubSpot is the vanguard of inbound marketing.
Companies who adopt inbound marketing and PR 2.0 approaches and practices will better connect with those who see their relevance and value. I look forward to helping you spread the word to help reform PR and marketing into superior new industries/practices that deliver value for all concerned.
Respect
--Patrick
Patrick Rafter
Rafter Communications/Intrastand
Seth Resler 4:14 AM on October 16, 2009
Interesting questions, although I agree with @Nadine that you may be describing a digital marketing specialist. I still think you may be taking a narrow view of PR agencies as people who have nothing more than relationships with journalists. I've written two related articles:
What to Ask Your PR Agency About Social Media and Public Relations in the Age of Social Media
Yasmina 6:45 AM on October 19, 2009
Just wanna say thank you for the information you have shared, but I am wondering if you can explain the difference between Digital Marketing spe and PR as it looks the same in your article.
As I know PR is more involved in external communications and corporates side , could you correct it if my knowledge is false.
Thanks
Aaron Murphy 1:18 PM on October 20, 2009
I think this is a fantastic article in not only the content but the many links it provides for continued research/reading on the subject. As a partner in a recently started marketing agency hoping to leverage social media this is all VERY relevant information when it comes to our strategies and decisions regarding PR. Both myself and my partner have our background in marketing and not PR so any illusions we held about being able to translate one into the other has been outright crushed through reading this article and related links. It's given us a lot to think about as we decide on how we're going to proceed with PR and what sort of criteria we should be looking for in an agent should we choose to hire one.