By Cokey Falkow
Lee Daniels’ “The Butler” has taken box office honors for two weeks in a row. It’s a thought-provoking film and one of the aspects it brought home is how much a business needs the same thing: a good butler.
Just as a good butler stands aside but is always observing and anticipating needs, so a good digital PR agency should be able to unobtrusively tap into conversations that are happening and be able to read the lay of the land in a split second. A business should never feel that the PR agency is jumping in with its boots on and doing a dance on the boardroom table, but rather that it offers a quiet assured presence at your elbow, ready at a moment’s notice to make sure you look the best you possibly can in any given situation.
When hiring a digital PR agency what should you look for?
1. Experience is key. If you were welcoming a butler into your home you would do your homework on them. How long have they been doing this? Do they have recommendations?
2. Crisis management skills. A good butler takes care of the house and home. He can also provide security. He is a gatekeeper and at times a voice for the master of the house. A digital PR agency has to be able to contain and deal with any storms of controversy that may rear their ugly heads on social platforms, as well as manage traditional media. Imagine if you will, Downton Abbey. You need the staff to run the mansion and turn away ne’er do wells at the gate. This includes detractors and competitors.
3. Grace under pressure. Business can be stressful. A butler should lessen your stress. Make sure you have a team you can count on to get the job done, no matter what. The butler/ digital PR agency gig is 24/7, 365 and it takes a certain kind of skill to operate over multiple time zones and languages. Competence and intelligence are a huge factor, but the number one sought-after quality is a personality that is cool as a cucumber under fire and able to improvise solutions of the highest caliber on the fly.
The landscape has shifted and what was once normal operating procedure is now a whole new world. Among other things, you have to deal with a constantly moving marketplace. This can seem daunting, but it can also be empowering.
Get your digital pr agency team in place and you will be master of the house in no time.
