I spent too long today driving on the M1 and missed a spirited online debate. So here it is for future reference.
Rick Bruner mocks PR people for our slowness to adopt new technology. He lists the many innovations marketers have introduced (think spam, among others),
Versus, what innovative uses of the Internet has the PR industry brought us? Well, let’s see, there’s the sending of press releases via email, and then there are press release archives on web sites, and virtual clipping services and…webinars, and…PRNewswire’s ProfNet…and… I know I’m forgetting something. A little help?
He further criticises PR blogs for writing about PR, not for the purpose of PR.
Tom Murphy acknowledges the force of this argument, but resents the crude depiction of PR people as slow and stupid. Tom is a PR blogger and a PR practitioner in the technology sector. He can put up a better defence than most of us.
It will take me longer to come up with a list of PR-led online innovations. I’m thinking about it…
PR Studies 
Hi Richard,
Yes, the unfortunate thing is that Rick does have a point. As a profession we are technology laggards and whilst this didn’t matter in long gone days, now that the Internet is an important medium for our clients and our clients’ audiences we can no longer afford to stand still.
I’m glad to see things are improving. We are getting better at understanding the impact of the Internet on communication, but we’re still well off the pace.
As THE communicators we should be adding Search Engine Optimization, monitoring, e-mail newsletters, web site content, blogging etc to our list of services, but how many of us are? A very small number in the bigger scheme of things.
The problem is, other marketing disciplines are quite happy to take over these responsibilities in our absence, even though it is PR people who are best qualified.
It’s a rather depressing thought…..
Tom