Sally Falkow — November 18, 2016 
One of Donald Trump’s major platform promises is to tighten immigration laws. We already have a shortage of workers with digital skills and recruiters report that they are struggling to find people with the right talent. Predictions are that tighter immigration laws will make it even harder to find technically skilled workers.
Marketing and PR jobs are one area where digital skills are in high demand. A recent scan of 75000 job postings on LinkedIn found that digital marketing jobs being advertised required candidates with a wide range of skills, from SEO and social media to Google Analytics and content marketing. A quick look at the current PR jobs posted on LinkedIn shows that they require these skills too.
How this impacts PR:
- The need for digital skills is only going to increase in the next four years
- PR doesn’t need programming or science skills, but it does now require a much higher level of technical skill than before.
- If you have not yet mastered these new skills your ability to implement successful PR campaigns is waning rapidly
The Top 10 Digital Skills Needed in PR
- Research: Monitoring online conversations.
- Data-mining: Analyzing the data collected to find insights.
- Measurement Framework: Set up a measurement framework so you can track where you are now, progress and results.
- Analytics: Track all activity and content – social, media coverage, referrals and on-site behavior in your newsroom and blog. Know what works and what doesn’t. Report ROI.
- SEO: Search engines are now regarded as a media source by the public. Your content has to be found in search and news engines.
- Visual Literacy & IQ: By 2018 84% of all content online will be visual. Develop the ability to use images [composition, color, shape, line] to tell the brand story.
- Digital Photography: Take stunning images on the go. Learn the art of smartphone photography and editing.
- Video: According to a Cisco study by 2020 75% of all Internet traffic will be video consumption. In the US that number is 77% Every PR practitioner needs to learn to storyboard, script, shoot, edit and distribute high-quality brand videos that engage their audiences.
- Graphic Design: Since you need excellent images with your content it has become a necessary PR skill to design and produce great visuals and infographics that are correctly sized and formatted for each platform. With tools like PicMonkey and Canva it’s not that hard.
- Finding and ranking Influencers: How to identify and rank the right influencers for a brand or organization and build trusted relationships with them, so that they will help spread the brand message.
Used correctly these skills will build a community of loyal and engaged brand advocates and create a secure environment for the brand.
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