It’s been a bizarre week.  Been traveling and in meetings – A LOT – which has meant less blogging than usual.  But, ‘lo!  The RSS subscribers went from 1,600 to almost 2,000 (at least as-of this writing), and we’re getting within spitting distance of a return to the Top-10,000 on Technorati. 

So, maybe next week, no blog posts from me?  I foresee a fourfold leap in PR-Squared’s popularity resulting from a week-long furlough.  That’ll give Rubel, et al., a run for their money!  (Naw, won’t happen; a man’s gotta contribute: damn the statistics!)

Today’s entry is about “The State of the PR Industry.”  In preparing for my bi-annual employee presentation on “The State of SHIFT,” I try to take industry trends into consideration.  This year I had the benefit of input from the Twitterati:

•      JasonFalls @TDefren PR Industry: Finding themselves in need of social media aptitude. Furiously searching for own asses.

•      JohnAtkinson @TDefren -PR Industry:Traditional media tactics – no trust, filtered out. Social media: signs of trust w/ early adopter targets – IMHO.

•      mediaphyter @TDefren I think that if the majority of PR people out there don’t learn quickly how blogs can work for and against them, the answer is trouble.

•      lrivers @TDefren Like anything, there’s a huge delta between the best and everyone else. Really good PR is expensive and worth it…

•      kbodnar32 @tdefren in transition… major transition.

•      jenzings @TDefren: Under fire – for spinning, the rep as being obfuscators. Redeemable, but need to listen more and learn more.

•      briguyblock @TDefren we’re sitting pretty at the moment, but we’re branching out. I’d like to think most PR folk are expanding their minds.

•      tombiro @tdefren – still full of echo-chamber line followers who do things because they heard it was the new thing to do rather than the right thing.

•      mjkeliher @TDefren FUN! Constant change, new tools and toys (and the related challenges) keep us interested and on our toes. FUN!

•      mediaphyter @TDefren Confused.

What do you think?

For my part, I wasn’t surprised to see that most of the responses were negative.  As the old chestnut goes, “The cobbler’s children have no shoes.”  Despite the best efforts of industry organizations like the PRSA, we’ve historically (and oh-so-ironically) fared poorly in the court of public opinion.

But, count me as one of the optimists, along with good ol’ Mike (“FUN!”) Keliher.  I think that the PR industry had been in the doledrums for many years, but that the rise of Social Media has energized the field.  While the advertising agencies will always find a way to make things sexier, Social Media is ultimately about authenticity; about maintaining a respectful, attentive, running dialogue with stakeholders: this is PR’s bailiwick.  There’s plenty to improve on but I think we’ve found our new groove.

Hey – before ya go, some shameless appeals: put us over the top!  Are you subscribed?  See any posts here that might be worth linking to, to help nudge us into the T’rati 10,000 zone?  Either way, thanks for stopping by.  Have a great weekend!

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