Online Public Relations Thoughts

A hat tip to PR Machine for this catch. It is a discussion in PR week about integrated marketing and how PR firms are adapting to changes. There isn't much new in the article, but it is good to see there is movement toward cooperation among marketing communications arms to serve clients. One would expect that integration might be farther along than it is. The problem still seems to be yielding of control. Each marketing communications arm has to be willing to give a little for the greater good. That is hard to do. It is usually up to a company's marketers to enforce discipline. I suspect PR often takes a back seat in marketing discussions because it is not considered strategic, and it doesn't have the biggest budget. Of course, the only way PR will become strategic is when PR practitioners think and act that way. As long as practitioners are order-takers, there will marketers willing to give orders rather than to listen.