Will Social Media Kill PR?

Social media has clearly emerged as a powerful communication tool on multiple levels. The amount of information collectively generated has unearthed a treasure trove of insight that helps companies with lead generation, customer service, market research, and product development. It’s become such the shiny toy of the marketing world that it’s birthed an entire industry, but should it stay a separate practice or become absorbed into an existing one, if not several? Is Social media, in the long run, going to claim a new distinct discipline to join advertising, marketing and PR?

PR is a multi-pronged business weapon. It has channels of support like event management, market research, media relations, guerilla marketing, or customer relations. Social media is joining that arsenal, bringing a new distribution avenue, the social media channel that serves a function within larger business development and communication efforts. It’s a new channel an entire workforce need to master, which they will in time.

The emergence of the channel of social media has exposed a weak area within public relations. Because PR has long been pigeonholed into focusing on press while the marketing department was the one out connecting directly with consumers, PR professionals (agencies and in-house alike) were suddenly confronted with a direct-response communication channel. But most PR folks don’t grasp (or have nearly enough time to try) the big picture impact of communicating through social media, let alone the right tone and approach to use when doing so.

No. But it is forcing the PR industry to work harder to reinforce its positive role within the business environment. Most savvy PR people I know LOVE the Internet. LOVE social media and the interaction it brings. And it shows. PR programs are expanding rapidly with more comprehensive communication techniques being recommended. Social media will become part of a broader knowledge base of PR and communications and marketing professionals. Whatever those distinctions are these days.

Social media is revolutionary. It will become an extremely important funnel that touches all levels of the business. But it’s going to take smart people who get it to explain it to those that don’t, like the CEOs and those CMOs that just don’t know better. Communications departments are the obvious choice where social media responsibilities would lie, or would it be marketing? Or is it all just headed to being the same thing, serving the same purpose- communication and lead generation.

The interaction with social media channels creates more information to be distilled through the organization for response. Over time, people in every department will access and use social media as part of their job, be it customer service, market research, product development, engineering, promotions, etc.

So What’s Next?

That’s a HUGE question that’s going to take me a little while.