Old dog learning….

If I look back a year from now and can point back to one period of time when I made the quantum leap in my journey from PR 1.0 to PR 2.0 (+), I will likely be pointing back to this week.

This is the week where everything sort of clicked in.  This week I:

• Approached 500 people following me on Twitter (I know for some that’s not a big deal but for me it is).

• Used my new found Twitter friends to make connections that lead to my discovery of a powerful tool that helps measure social media and makes it valuable to folks I work with.

• Had several meaningful discussions about social media and marketing and community building that can help colleagues, clients and hopefully my business.

• Made connections and discussed PR with folks around the country and around the world at 140 characters at a time (and it actually made sense).

• Saw clearly how social media and community building should have a place in every conversation about PR.  Not everyone will embrace it right away but just the act of having that conversation is meaningful.

• Used Facebook and Twitter to drive more readers from more places to this blog (Hello to my new friends in Seattle, Julia says hello too).

Have I “drunk the Kool-Aid,” well maybe.  But the bottom line is that I am more convinced than ever that PR should take the lead on this. 

As a mentor of mine always says, “if they just took five percent of their ad buy budget (sorry my media buyer friends) and applied it to PR their ROI would go through the roof.  This new PR practice of social media and marketing is the piece that engages the community that evolves out of the traditional PR tools of media relations, reputation management, etc. 

Not a bad week, huh.  (BTW, 11 days to Shankman in Richmond).