Modern Marketing And PR Pro Fluency Matrix
August 30, 2010
Author 
In Recently, Eric Friedman published an EarlyStager approval matrix I found quite interesting. Taking inspiration from that I decided to create a modern marketing and PR professional fluency matrix. See below for a breakdown of my perspective on the current state of marketing and PR pros. Since this is, of course, a view from my own experiences – I’m curious what you think?
(please click image for full size)
image credit: Hugh MacLeod for the “self-proclaimed experts” graphic and Shutterstock for the stock photo images.
Catherine Lockey replied | Aug 30, 2010 (60 comments)
hahahaha ouch! I’m gonna cross that line someday soon. Save me a spot in the upper right corner.
Dave Malone replied | Aug 30, 2010 (10 comments)
You have “Owns name on page 1 of the SERPs” as Common & Savvy. I disagree that this is common. You should see the other Dave Malone’s I compete with out there – a member of the UN, and the CEO of Fox Sports, to name a few. You may rank higher in a much larger search result group on Google, but you also work in the industry, which I would categorize as rare and savvy.
Shane replied | Aug 31, 2010 (1 comment)
Nice one and its pretty much spot on, though I think you would be able to build an even more interesting one for Digital Marketing firms/pros lol
KatFrench replied | Aug 31, 2010 (1 comment)
Nice. Although YMMV definitely holds true–unfortunately, I find a lot of the items you have in the upper left (rare/shameful) quadrant all too common. Well, maybe they’re not that common. Maybe they’re just so appalling, they jump out in my memory more.
On the other hand, I can check off a rather alarming number of items for myself in the upper right quadrant, which is highly encouraging. :-)
Way to feed my ego, man!
Chuck Casto replied | Aug 31, 2010 (1 comment)
This chart is fascinating and in many ways, true. However, much of this depends on your target audiences and your industry…If you’re in the home decor or furniture industry, you need to tackle a lot of digital marketing, but you need to make the most of magazines and other more traditional outlets, too. Great chart, though…Quite a conversation-starter.
JamesM replied | Aug 31, 2010 (1 comment)
Good to see you have natural SEO skills in here. Such skills will be more and more in demand for digital PROs in the next few years.
Oh, and phew! Glad that I can tick a majority of the items on the right hand side.
Gary Lee replied | Sep 10, 2010 (2 comments)
I would add “Understands Influencers” and the role of Influencers to the upper right. You hint at this, but I would make it stronger.
See my blog post here on the topic: http://blog.mblast.com/mbwordpress/?p=119 We’re working heavily in this area and will have more to share.
Great graph. I love it.
Gary Lee
CEO
mBLAST
Susan Lindner replied | Sep 15, 2010 (1 comment)
I get, “trusted by influencers”. That’s a baseline as a communications pro, getting influencers to act is quite another. As a tech PR person, steeped in a lot of the topics on the right, i feel like you’re leaving out some of the softer skills that make great media relations people, great. Breadth of knowledge about the business, exceptional writing, trend spotting, creative strategy development and nailing the angles that reporters, and readers of any outlet, respond to. The skills of traditional PR and media relations matter more than ever as PR people shift to both content creators and content pitchers. I love all of the top right pieces you mention, but don’t forget the interpersonal skills that move these digital tactics to success.
Jaclyn replied | Oct 27, 2010 (3 comments)
Great graph! It definitely hits all the main aspects needed today to keep up with marketing/PR. However, I bet it would be really interesting to look at this graph, say five years from now, or maybe even less, and see how many of the once “savvy” items have fallen into “rare” or even “shameful.” It’s definitely has a good grasp on today’s necessities though.
Adam Singer replied | Oct 27, 2010 (550 comments)
Thanks Jaclyn!