No Way! PR Isn’t Dead!

So the big conversation in the PR world last week was the question: Is PR dead?

Many who say yes have pointed to how social media has taken over and how it’s important to have personal conversations.

Yup, I agree. But that doesn’t mean PR is dead. Not in the least.

The real issue is that a lot of PR people aren’t adopting social media as part of the public relations toolkit. And some are even shunning it. And I hate to say it, but there are plenty of people out there who think PR stands for press release.

Well, tell that to Motrin, who started a marketing & PR campaign  to help all those moms with bad backs after carrying around their babies in slings. (By the way, I did this a lot with my twins – one at a time of course – and yes, my backed killed!) One weekend, moms got together on twitter and flamed Motrin for it’s poor judgment.

So did the PR people turn off their lights and computers and Friday and call it a week. It appears so.

A good PR firm is always working. And is monitoring and using social media as one of the tools to make their campaigns reach the right target market. That’s why PR won’t die. It will change; just like it changed when TV came into play, and radio before that.  It will adapt, but not die.

Here’s the commercial that sparked the latest debate: