What’s in a name? Job titles in PR

Posted by Paul Allen on 23rd July 2013 / 3 comments

I’ve worked in technology PR for more than 14 years and I’ve never been a ninja, wizard, evangelist or guru. Poor me.

I have though, had many different job titles in that time, from PR Assistant when I worked in the press office at PwC, to most PR job titles after making the move to technology PR. I’m currently a ‘director’ at my own freelance PR agency, or if I’m *really* trying to impress I’ll drop in an ‘MD’.

The common thread running through all my job titles is that they broadly describe what I do. People may shrug when I tell them but at least they don’t walk away. Which frankly, is the least that anyone with a job title including the word ‘guru’ should expect. The common thread running through the job titles mentioned in the first line of this post is that they seem to have come hand-in-hand with the rise of social media and digital PR.

THE CHANGING NATURE OF PR

Any technology PR consultant (or indeed any PR consultant) has seen their roles and responsibilities change drastically over the past five years, mine included. But as social and traditional PR have converged, so unfortunately have the job titles. A ‘community manager’ is fine by me and you can’t go wrong with a ‘head of digital’ or ‘social media manager’, but as soon as the ninjas and wizards get involved, that’s trouble as far as I’m concerned.

I blogged recently about joining the CIPR and helping to improve the reputation of the industry and a good place to start would be losing the twatty job titles. Working in communications has enough challenges as it is - job titles that say little and mean even less don’t help in the slightest. Having proper job titles won’t make it a perfect PR / social media world but it is a step in the right direction.

What’s the worst PR or social media job title you’ve ever come across?

Tagged: PR public relations social media digital PR job titles

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