PR firms must move with the times
September 23, 2005
Rob Key, CEO of Converseon and formerly head of the innovations group at Young & Rubicam, was interviewed yesterday on the challenges facing PR in the new media landscape.
One comment particularly resonated:
PR firms will need additional skill sets: RSS fluency, search engine optimization skills, tracking/monitoring and data-mining capabilities, along with sophisticated monitoring of consumer generated media to make this successful.
That’s very true and I worry about the number of PR professionals who have joked to me that they can barely work their email.
New technologies are often dismissed as just more tools in the communications inventory but to be used effectively, you have to take time to study them properly.
Otherwise you will be still be making flint axes while the competition puts the finishing touches to the combustion engine.