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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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PR skills of the future

Ogilvy PR Worldwide produced this video for PRWeek’s “Next” conference, held in mid-November. Leaders of PR agencies talk about the skills of the PR counselor of the future. John Bell weighs in with his own 13 skills, including SEO, influencer identification, community management, conversation (not just messaging) and digital crisis management.

01/03/09 | 7 Comments | PR skills of the future

Comments

  • 1.I found a disconnect between the message and the visual here. The contrast between the graphic used in this video (female clad in leather combat gear) and those interviewed (very corporate male)was quite shocking in a way that makes me think, what are they really saying? That women are the future of PR, but they'd better dress for the kill 'coz it's gonna be one helluva fight! Just a thought.

    @NatalieSecretan | January 2009 | Toronto, Canada

  • 2.Let's hope PR professionals of the future more closely represent the diversity of their clients than do the experts portrayed in this video. My PR professional of the future is female, male, brown, white, black,Hispanic, multilingual, etc. And, some of them are even younger than 50!

    Christine Smith | January 2009 | Toronto, Ontario, Canada

  • 3.Such a disappointing video. They got all these industry leaders together and all they could talk about was the 101 stuff you see in any PR textbook? What a wasted opportunity.

    Interesting points re gender, Christine and Natalie. I don't necessarily agree with you that women are the future of PR (as in 'only women': guys are too), yet your points are well made re diversity.

    Neville Hobson | January 2009 | UK

  • 4.I think calling this a "wasted opportunity" is too kind--this is horrible. The point about diversity isn't a minor one--women make up what is it now? 80%? of the PR industry (to the point that the imbalance is considered a problem by some) and they only have 2 women in this piece? Along with the age issue (uh, in a piece about the PR pro of the future, wouldn't it have been nice to include some entry-level folks?), this is incredibly lop-sided...

    Wow. Just awful in content, execution, and almost no mention of the real skills needed, plus loaded up with corporate jargon ("mastery of shareholder value" etc.-bleh).

    Jen Zingsheim | January 2009

  • 5.I easily could have won a game of "Bullsh*t Bingo" using this video.

    Robert J Holland, ABC | January 2009 | Richmond, VA

  • 6.Wow... what a strangely listless video.

    If that's the "thought leadership", we may be in trouble after all :-)

    I agree with all the comments above - it's beyond belief that a video purporting to communicate about the future of PR is wall-to-wall male suits with a couple of brief female cameos.

    That doesn't look like PR today don't mind tomorrow....

    Tom Murphy | January 2009 | Dublin, Ireland

  • 7.Is it any wonder why those of us who are in-house PR professionals sometimes despair of dealing with or receiving communications from PR agencies?

    Not only do I agree with the comments above, but I think that clients' views on the future of PR (skills) are conspicuous by their absence.

    Tom Barton | January 2009 | London

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