PR agencies are in a world of transition and leaders are re-defining roles as they move into unchartered territory. At the PRSA International Conference in San Francisco, heads of some of the top agencies in the nation sat down to discuss what the future holds and contribute creative ways the profession will need to adapt to address changing client needs.

One central theme is around becoming a Specialist instead of a Generalist in PR. Unique titles are emerging such as Creative Catalyst or Community and Conversation Analyst. At the same time, PR firms are hiring candidates with special skills including videography and even comedy writing.

Key takeaways:

Janet Tyler, co-CEO and founder of Airfoil Public Relations
• The employee of the future will never look, act or think like another, they will understand the power of data is a connector and believe in the power of community.

Jack Martin, CEO, Hill+Knowlton Strategies
• Talent function is the most important part of the business

Fred Cook, CEO and President, Golin Harris
• Employees now go through an assessment process to uncover their strengths and passions which are furthered nurtured.

PR Newswire’s VP of Business Development on the agency vertical, Andrew Meranus talked on camera afterwards to Rob Flaherty, CEO and President of Ketchum and Peter Himler, Founding Principal of Flatiron Communications about these career twists and turns already happening in PR:

If you’re going to hold a Facebook sweepstakes, give away the sort of prize that will generate true fans to your brand. The common iPad giveaway was not the right choice for online jewelry innovators Stella & Dot. Social Media Director Amy Gilmer says instead they offer up the sort of sparkle their followers savor – a chic necklace or gold cuff.

Donning her own Stella & Dot estate necklace, Gilmer shared her secrets to leveraging key channels at the Social Media Strategies Summit in San Francisco.

“Our Facebook page has grown by 90% in the last year,” [with a zero advertising budget],” Gilmer told the audience. One of the biggest drivers is sweepstakes.

To celebrate reaching 200,000 Facebook fans in June, Stella & Dot gave away a weekly $250 shopping spree. Fans who could round up at least three friends to enter, received an additional prize — tripling the number of entries.

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If you’re like me, you want to know how people find your videos and how long searches remain active.  Just like with press releases, it helps to get a handle around which keywords or key phrases are being used to find your content — and how long it’s popular.

I maintain a YouTube Channel of original San Francisco travel videos that has generated slightly over 50,000 views over the last three years.  One video on the “Wave Organ” (wave-activated acoustic sculpture in the San Francisco Bay) generated over 1059 views according to YouTube analytics.

I never thought to call it a ‘sea organ’ or ‘drum sculpture’, but those phrases led to viewers finding the video according to YouTube’s enhanced metrics; so I should include as tags.  A video on a popular sax player at the BART station was found under “weekend player subway”.  The word ‘weekend’ is certainly key to when he performs.  But it was missing from my description.

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