In his latest post, Steve Rubel has asked whether PR is obsolete and I generally agree with the sentiment.

Traditional PR is, to a degree, dead. Distributing press releases far and wide in the hope of getting a hit (the machine gun effect) is time consuming and delivers little if anything. The same goes for press-conference style events - they no longer pull in the numbers.

Conversation has changed forever but as PRs we have been slow to adapt our approach and tap into “the new way”.

One of the problems is moving out of our comfort zone. Clients have to report upstairs and have numbers to hit, numbers that are measured by circulations, OTS and AVE - it’s hard to measure conversation. So why put ourselves out by trying to encourage the use of new media and communications tools such as Twitter.

Well if we don’t then one of two things will happen. Either our competitors will demonstrate how new media can be more effective and clients will walk out the door; or our clients will realise the power of new media on there own and guess what, they will walk out the door.

Our clients demand to be where their audiences are and it is our responsibility to take them there, whether they like (or understand) the journey or not.

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