I won’t spend too much time on this post, because Sterling Hager does it for me.

There’s a lot of debate going on about how – or even if – social media will change PR. This is frustrating because there’s a new world of opportunity and we, as a PR industry, seem to be more focused on debating who can do what, than really embracing its potential. First and foremost, social media is so new, there are no tried and true rules. But when those rules best practices do start forming, they should be based on what works and what doesn’t. NOT, what the earliest adopters of blogging thought.

The reality is that social media is about creating a web presence, and PR is about building and managing a company’s awareness and reputation. So of course we should embrace this new channel to extend the reach of our messages, whether it be pushing content out through RSS feeds, pulling traffic to our websites with SEO, or engaging in blogs to facilitate a two-way discussion.

At the end of the day, PR people need to understand social media so we can make smart recommendations to our companies and clients about how and when and where to incorporate it into our communications plans. Those who ignore this evolving medium are going to be left behind.