Everyone Needs to Drink the New PR Koolaid

At least, that seems to be the message of Steve Rubel’s article in PR Week. I couldn’t agree more:

This is where the PR agencies and internal corporate communications groups must respond – and do so quickly. We need to actively encourage our clients and our teams to put all of this knowledge into action. We don’t need more surveys or seminars. That’s paralysis by analysis. We need on-the-job blog training – and fast.

We need to show all PR pros how to read RSS feeds. We need to help them get immersed in writing blog posts so they get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. We need to show them how to monitor blog search feeds and then, appropriately, respond. We need to go the distance through immersion.

I’d change the phrasing on those paragraphs. We, being tech-savvy PR professionals, don’t have an obligation to instruct our colleagues. They’ve got an obligation to learn.

When I give talks about Web 2.0 stuff to PR professionals, I’m always surprised by the lack of laptops in the room. Despite the vocal PR blogosphere, the vast majority of PR pros are deeply scared of computers.