Do you know this person? Is it you?

Practically every day, people ask me for help and advice in creating the sorts of new rules marketing and PR that I speak about and write about.

This is always a difficult request that I never really know how to answer.

"Read my book and my blog" sounds egotistical.
"Attend my seminar" sounds like a sales pitch.
"I don’t know" sounds like I'm an idiot.

About 6 months ago, I put a little note on my site that went like this: "Please note: Due to the tremendous success of my latest book The New Rules of Marketing & PR, except for seminars, I am unable to take on new consulting clients at this time."

However, some people really need help and support, both full time and part time. Many companies are looking for smart people.

So I wanted to create a sort of new rules of marketing & pr job description. The idea for this came from Jeff Ernst, VP marketing at Kadient (I'm on the Kadient board of directors). Jeff has an open position right now and this is how he described what he's looking for:

"She (or he) created her Facebook profile well before any of her buddies did, then encouraged them all to join, and now has 700 friends on Facebook. She writes her own blog where she talks about her favorite bands. She loves to experiment with new ways to drive traffic to her blog. She's read David Meerman Scott’s book The New Rules of Marketing & PR, and is passionate about combining her love for social media with her work by applying the new rules in a B2B marketing environment. "

(I think Jeff was buttering me up with that last sentence, don't you).

Jeff says: "This doesn’t sound like the typical marketing job description."

I agree. But new rules marketing & PR isn't a typical marketing job.

I'd add a few other random things to our emerging alternative job description:

1. You're curious about new things and always try stuff like Skype, Second Life, Twitter, Ryze, XING, digg, and reddit early. But you are busy and there is so much to do so you don't keep up with the things you try (like Second Life for example) and you don't feel the least bit guilty when you leave a network.

2. You know that the bosses who tell you that ROI and leads and clipbooks are the most important measurements are dead wrong. To prove it, you are building up evidence that the things you're doing outside the traditional stuff -- like commenting on blogs, focusing on the phrases people use to search and tossing out a few online news releases -- are beneficial. But its tough because you really have two jobs -- a full time role in new marketing that you know is the way to go, and a full time role with the traditional crap to keep your bosses happy.

3. You don't "go online" and you don't "use the internet" because your physical life and virtual life are one in the same.

4. If you are located in the US, you follow the presidential election, but do so online and salivate at the thought of investing the sort of money that the candidates are spending on TV ads to implement a bunch of cool viral initiatives.

Does this sound like you? If so, you've got an amazing career in front of you.

Got something to add to the job description? Please add other thoughts to this ongoing riff.

Looking for a job? Maybe post a comment here with a link to your blog or Facebook page and someone in a cool company will find you.

Comments

[Pamela Seiple]

5. You have more RSS feeds than can comfortably fit on your browser's toolbar.

[Linda Patch]

5. As your client outlines the traditional markers of PR success they hope to see, your mind is already operating in a parallel universe writing enews releases to their opt-in email list, and on-line news release service. The blog and web pitches are taking shape, as are the discussion group postings. You're already planning the giveaway/review copy options, and the My Space profile. You can see the new blog on-line.

Most importantly, you know all the traditional markers the client wants to see will be met far beyond their expectations due to the effectiveness of the tactics outlined above. In the planning meeting, you're alrady crafting one heck of a project results report.

[Jeff Ernst]

You nailed one of the strains that holds marketers I talk to back from applying the new rules. Their internal customers understandably want more leads entering the top of the funnel, today, as they’re under the gun to hit their quotas. When those folks look at the marketing calendar, they get more excited about a webinar or seminar with 100 attendees than a meaningful mention in an influential blog or podcast that is followed by 20,000 people in the company’s target audience. I don’t expect this to change until we’ve built that evidence.

Some more additions to the job description.

- You update your Squidoo lens more often than you fill up your gas tank.

- You’re used to writing your email in this manner…“jernst at Kadient dot com”…because you know what happens when you don’t.

- You've stopped buying magazine ads with the hope that it will get you editorial coverage.

- If you happen to be old enough to be married, your S.O. no longer gets jealous when you get poked on Facebook.

If this is you, email me at jernst at Kadient dot com because I have a job for you.

[Terry Smith]

I've been recommending to a client that they hire precisely this type of person. The job description will be a great help for them and really hammer home the points I've been trying to make - thanks!

[David Meerman Scott]

Glad to help Terry.

By the way, the other route is to just hire a journalist. Here is an alternative way to get the right job description. http://www.webinknow.com/2007/05/attention_marke.html

David

[Shama Hyder]

As a marketing consultant, this made me laugh out loud!

You got me David. = )

I would add

- I get more excited about reaching 100 RIGHT individuals, rather than 1000 random ones.

- If I lost all my social media networks tomorrow, I wouldn't blink. I could re-build it in a few hours.

[stefan day has a blog]

While I only opened up a blog less than a week ago, as a 27 year-old everything else is just a pace of life.

On top of the above I am a proficient digital video editor and cinematographer who has kept close tabs on the evolutions in web-video broadcast platforms.

My goal this year is to ignite 17 full-scale viral video frenzies.

I have a niche market knowledge in the holistic, alternative health, organic pursuits arena.

[Ryan]

Read David's book and blog

Attend David's seminar

[Shannon Golladay]

Definitely read David's book, go to his blog and do everything he suggests!

I've been doing traditional public relations for three years, and I've never gotten results as quickly as I have by following David's suggestions.

In college, my professors mentioned that PR would move online someday, but they never said how. This explains the how.

[Brian Keith Mullins]

David,
I thought your book was terrific, and I'm working to implement the New Rules here at Marathon Technologies. But what is striking to me is that one of the key tenets I took from your book is not even mentioned in either Jeff's or your New Rules job description.

My key takeaway from your book was the importance of really understanding your customers, their needs and goals, thier language. Then developing a content editorial calendar based on the key buying personas and providing quality content to them.

For me this translates into working to spend a lot more time with customers to understand them and listen to them, in order to provide them with content that they value, when they value it. Since we are a B2B company, it doesn't translate into more time on Skype, Second Life etc.

[David Meerman Scott]

Brian,

You're absolutely correct. THe most important thing is what buyer persona you are trying to reach and what media do they consume.

Someone else pointed this out to me as well.

I think that Jeff has already identified that his buyers are online and now he needs a way to reach them and wants the right person to do it.

Thanks for your comment

David

[Melody]

Hello,

I am 27 years old and finishing college in May. I found your book extremely helpful and this was even more helpful because it is forecasting the future of marketing.

Thanks

Melody

[Jenni]

I would also add:

It takes a half hour to go through your bloglines account.

You subscribe to any and all PR and marketing newsletters to try and stay on top of new developments.

Google news alerts are mandatory and sites like Technorati, Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, and LinkedIn are monitored almost daily.

[Andrew Bruce Smith]

Buyer personas are fundamental. Yet I am still amazed at how little companies know about their own customers and prospects - even very large businesses. How many marketing campaigns are designed to reach vague, ill-defined groups like "senior IT decision makers". More time and resource devoted to specifically defining who you are trying to reach, along with what they are really interested in, the media they consume, the language they use, etc, must surely be the start point for any marketing approach.

BTW David, your book so inspired me, I decided to start a brand new business (launching shortly) based around the principles you espouse. You cogently expressed many of the things that I'd been grappling with myself. So your book has certainly changed one life. ;-)

And before I forget:

5. Firefox and Internet Explorer have become a distant memory since you began using Flock as your primary browser.

[David Meerman Scott]

Andrew. Wow. I'm stunned that my writing has "changed your life" how cool. Good luck with the new biz.

David

[Julie]

You talk about Google as if it's one of your dearest friends that you've grown up with through high school.

You subcribe to Web Ink Now, Seth Godin, CopyBlogger, SEOBook, Duct Tape Marketing, Grokdotcom & ProBlogger Blogs all via your iGoogle account (or any other favourite RSS reader) - and you get a warm glow each time you view your personal page.

[bmo]

52. You understand the medium is the message and the message of the new medium is not messaging.

53. Your working days are one ethical crisis after another and at the end of the day you generally come out ahead.

54. You hesitate before you hit publish because you are genuinely nervous.

55. You understand that social media is inherently social which means people are involved and people are complex and simplicity is out the window.

[Nettie Hartsock]

You interviewed the folks at Google before Google was so cool and got the CTO Craig Silverstein to confess he loved Star Trek and cite certain episodes. You know that social media is one piece of the giant piece of the puzzle. You were on the MOO before the WWW and you know where the term Metaverse originated from. You never tire, you were on the Web before the dotcom bonanza and after the burst. And you've seen Startup.com (the movie) at least a dozen times along with still occasionally enjoying Spinal Tap the movie, which has nothing to do with anything other than if you like Spinal Tap, you might be a good marketer.:>)

[Annabel Spore]

I am this kind of person but when I mentioned these 'new pr' attributes in recent job interviews with top PR agencies (I have 8 yrs experience with agencies) they reacted as if I had just suggested that I'd like to drown the CEO's first born in a sewage farm,

Needless to say I didn't get hired so will remain working for myself until these Luddites see sense.

[Annabel Spore]

By the way David. I'm so glad I bought your book. I thought I was going mad beforehand.

I had 'some; of these ideas about doing PR & marketing; but when I ever told other pr or marketing profs they looked at me as if I'd gone insane. Now I know I'm not mad; and have loads more ideas and knowledge.

[David Meerman Scott]

You're not mad at all. Traditional PR isn't dead. It's just that those practitioners are chasing smaller influencers every day. Yes mainstream media is important. But there are many other ways to get noticed today.

Best
David

[Robert Weir]

I would add to the blog -- Your age or sex doesn't matter and even though you might have 20 years experience in marketing, you think like a 20-something.
You are sick of the political game that exists in most companies, rewarding those that play golf, not those that produce new and interesting results.

[Maggie]

This person is 100% me and reading this is so encouraging!

I have no marketing background, no graduate degree and am not even close to being a Gen Y-er. However, I have been glued to my computer basically non-stop for over 12 years now and I see my lack of knowledge about ROIs and direct mail and who knows what else to be a huge plus rather than a negative. I know it's just a matter of time until these new rules become the time-tested rules of marketing and PR and I'm able to dance my way into a great job--or better yet, be able to support myself by blogging and writing.

I just bought your book and look forward to reading it.