Sorry to hear about your event, but I don’t think you can use one example as a reason to throw out methods that work, and PR mixed with social media and social networking *does* work. I can’t tell you why your event wasn’t successful, but I’ve had plenty of experiences that are the opposite of yours.

-Steve

And barely anyone showed up.

So my conclusion almost has to be this: PR itself as a marketing technique is dying. There’s just too much competing for everyone’s attention — both the press as well as the consuming public — and unless you have the $3 million for a Superbowl commercial, it’s a crap shoot as to whether anyone will hear, see or read your message, whether paid for or PR.

:)

Regarding ease of searching: it’s only easy to search for specific words or well-tagged documents. Hard copy has already mastered this.

It’s not as efficient, but if the internet goes out or your computer dies, it will still work.

While no one will argue about the power of web-based directories that are thousands of pages long, there are a few important pieces of value in hard copy editions.

- If the internet goes down on either side of the connection, you have lost access. Hard copy works as long as you can see.

- There is a very strong difference in researching in hard copy. There is an intuitive understanding in finding information in a book, both with page number and location on the page.

- You’re also more likely to read through the information on the pages if you don’t find it, instead of searching for key words while analyzing the surrounding context. This allows you to pick up more information that can help you later on.

Technology is wonderful, but if you become dependent on it, something as simple as a lack of access to the internet can cripple an entire day’s work. Books shall never die because they have the ultimate user interface that is intuitive, simple to master and stands by itself.

-Joshua
@joshualogan

http://tinyurl.com/cdugjz

It’s largely tongue-in-cheek, but makes some good points.

The thing is, I’ve never suggested PR people abandon traditional media relations altogether. That would be a mistake. The #1 item on this list says “Newspaper-based Media Relations Strategy”. What I meant was a media relations strategy that is build solely on getting newspaper hits. I suppose if you’re selling adult diapers, that might make some sense … and I suppose I should have given that caveat. But, for most businesses, that strategy simply doesn’t make sense. You can’t rely on the traditional media to reach most of a general audience anymore.

While its no doubt true that today’s seniors are not heavy Facebook users, baby boomers and middle age folks in general are heavily adopting many of these tools and over time the users of SM will become the seniors.

I wonder what Tom’s thoughts are about the serious decline we are seeing in traditional media such as newspapers – half of all classified advertising is gone and the number of newspaper layoffs is growing at an incredible pace. In my community, the newspaper has elimianted 2 days of op/ed coverage and just laid off the editorial page editor – on top of many newsroom cuts.

Sure, seniors may want the “touch and feel” of traditional paper newspapers, but the advertising system that supports it is rapidly dying. See Detroit, Flint, Saginaw et al which have stopped 7 day paper delivery in favor of the web. Yes, these seniors are going to have to go online to find out about Social Security.

In the old days, PR folks could direct much of their attention at reporters, “building relationships with editors” ect., but I simply see those tactics as being 50% less important – not dead, just less important. There are simply fewer reporters/editors out there to influence and less print real estate on op/ed and other sections to seek to get placed in.