5 skills every PR professional needs

Although a lot has changed since I graduated from college in the ’90s, many of the core skills that make a public relations professional successful and sought after remain the same.

So, here’s a short list of what I think are the most in-demand and important skills for public relations practitioners.

1. Writing

You will always need to write excellent, persuasive, and grammatically correct copy. Members of today’s texting generation may find it difficult to embrace this more traditional public relations skill, but they will have to embrace it to be successful.

The shift here is that the audience for which public relations practitioners are writing has changed. It no longer comprises full-time journalists. Given today’s social media tools and the Internet in general, public relations pros write as much for the end-user—the target audience—as they do for the media.

Also, the writing that public relations practitioners do has changed based on the screen for which they’re writing—TV, computer, tablet, mobile phone, etc.—and the publication: traditional or digital, in a newsletter, e-mail, magazine, blog, newspaper, etc.

2. Creativity