Later than planned to blog this but I am loving the list by ex-Weber pal Ged about the top 29 not very technical things all PR people should know…a short summary here:
- How to manage your email inbox: this article from The Times is a good place to start
- How to touch type
– if you can’t manage your email box or have to do hunt-and-peck typing how are you going to find the time to think about working smarter?
- How to create a link. Look at the source code of this blog post or Google it if you don’t know how.
- How to embed photos and videos
- How to buy a domain name
- How to set up a flickr account
- How to buy an ad on Google AdWords
- How to use an RSS reader
- How to set up Google Alerts
- How to do some advanced searches such as phrase matches, Boolean search terms, and site-specific searches
- How to conduct research efficiently and effectively using online tools
- How to understand the nature of a community and assess a blogs authority
- How Wikipedia works and how to get involved in the process for having a post changed
- Understand the nature of conversations and their appropriateness for your client
- How to upload photos and video to the web
- Understand the basics of how to record audio
- How to take interesting photos and the basic operation of a digital SLR
- Understand the basics of shooting video
- Understand the simple data of web analytics tools
- How to use social networks, beyond Facebook and LinkedIn
- How to use Twitter
- Understand the basics of community management.
- How to use free online survey tools
- How to use tags
- How to use social bookmarking tools and have a collection of useful and interesting resources
- How to share a presentation online
- How to use FTP software to move large files about (I can’t believe that PR people often don’t know this, especially when many picture desks have made use of FTP servers for a good while)
- How to use online calendar services
- How to use event registration management systems
Wanted to add a few more of my own:
30. How to source, use and reference photos for presentations, documents, blog posts using flickr and other image sites
31. How to set up a PR community online using Huddle or similar
32. How to edit a short video clip
33. What dpi a publication requires (cringe if I see people send over crappy little images)
34. How to pdf a document (using primopdf or other)
35. How not to rely on social networking as the only tool to build their contact book #reallifeandallthat
36. How to set up a blog
37. How to write for the web
38. How to set up their Blackberry/phone with useful mobile apps
39. How to take a screen grab
40. How to manage a quality online filing system so stuff doesn’t go wrong/get lost/piss clients off
I’d like to tag Wadds and Jed hallam to see if they can add any more.
I am freelance 
I’d add that PRs should know how to do picture cutouts – surprised me how often that request comes in from magazines.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention Becky. I think all newbies to the industry should read and review this.
Excellent article!!!