The Blogosphere and PR; Defining the Tail and the Dog

Ever since blogs came on the scene -- and yes, even before the whole movement was defined as social media -- perhaps no topic has raged on as much as how this will impact PR.

There have been blogs launched to out poor PR practices, blogs and wikis devoted merely to publishing e-mails and domains of PR firms that send misdirected e-mails and scads of predictions that only those who succeed at understanding social media will make it in PR.

The latest "smack down" of sorts came this week when Edelman blogger Steve Rubel opined that the future of PR is in peril because most bloggers feel no need to work with PR firms and because most PR practitioners who correspond with social-media writers send them mistargeted e-mails and unwanted information.

As Jeremy Pepper wrote, it's almost as Rubel forgot he works in PR, let alone at the biggest independent firm in the business. Surely the firm has the resources to devote to turning this trend around, at least when it comes to its own associates.

Whether or not you agree with any of these predictions on the future of PR, one thing is terribly clear: Despite internal efforts to educate, often with clever names evoking an educational mission, there's very little educating being done in PR. Why? The people who need the most educating are also the most profitable, since the ratio between their billing rate and annual salaries mean it's to an agency's advantage to keep them as busy billing as possible.

That's not to say there aren't others offering bona fide education programs. The Public Relations Society of America offers them to their members at discounted rates and numerous other private providers, such as Ragan Communications and its publications do as well.

That said, given the large number of people who work for small firms that likely can't/won't either make the investment or can't spare their staffers for the time it would take to complete the programs, this isn't likely going to cut it. As a profession, we simply have to do better, but the best way to do that is to offer solutions, not just scathing criticisms of the status quo.

To that end, I'm in the process of developing a new platform specifically developed for entry-level professionals. More on that soon.