Questioning old industry standards: Don Draper, social media, and you

POSTED BY stephanie ON October 12, 2010

The guys at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce might not be in trouble after all, thanks to a game-changing ad that Don Draper ran in The New York Times.

What happened on Sunday’s episode of Mad Men (“Blowing Smoke”) resonated with many of us in PR today: that is, the old agency model is broken. Lucky Strike has left the building, and now it’s time to take a long, hard look at how business as usual is carried out.

Well, the old industry standards in PR aren’t completely gone, but they are definitely changing the way we do our jobs. A new study released last week confirmed that not only is social media an essential component to publicity, it just might overtake traditional media as the primary PR tool in the very near future.

According to the study, which was authored by StevensGouldPincus, the use of social media for PR purposes by U.S. communications and consulting firms jumped a whopping 15 percent in the last year.

And here’s the most interesting nugget:

“If this trend persists,” said SGP managing partner Art Stevens, “within the next two years social media will replace traditional media as PR/PA’s primary tool for reaching client audiences with news and information. When you consider that traditional media have been the bedrock of professional PR/PA practice for more than 100 years, the implications are profound.”

An article on Slate’s Biz Box blog, sourced a PR Newser poll of 58 PR agency heads saying 30 percent of their work is devoted to social media rather than traditional media.

This is big news for an industry that has virtually been playing by the same rules since the 1970′s. So while the partners at SCDP adapt to an evolving Madison Avenue, the conversation is changing here in PR as well.

Many big questions remain: How do we measure the impact of social media? What is the standard by which we evaluate credibility of online media outlets? While we rise to meet the new challenges of PR 2.0, we clink to all the new opportunities it’s brought us.

Cheers to a bright future, PR industry!

So, what do you predict for the the future of PR? Authors and fellow publicists: how are you changing your practices?

Tags: Mad Men, PR News, Social Media, Stevens Gould Pincus

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