Over the past few years people working in PR have been overwhelmed by new tools or new ways of using the “old”, traditional tools (e.g. press releases) and have been challenged into being creative with their pitches and campaigns. A major reason for this has been social media's growing importance which provoked the emergence of e.g. the social media release and the video news release. With these new tools progressive PR professionals try to be different and innovative to stand out among the hundreds or thousands of releases that journalists receive.

However, it is not just through such online activities that PRs can be creative. You can do it offline too. In fact, because now many are focusing on the social media and online hype, they are forgetting to consider what other things they can do to get noticed, presenting a great opportunity for the few who decide to cleverly pursue such ideas. And I recently came across a great example that illustrates just that.

The Corner Shop PR, a London-based PR and marketing agency, sent the launch press release for the upcoming Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical (directed by Oscar winning Sam Mendes) to journalists on a USB stick shaped like a Wonka branded chocolate bar.

As a discipline PR dates back to the beginning of the 20th century and is strongly linked to the growth of print, TV, radio, online. With the media always evolving PR has had to change and adapt to the power of each channel, old and new. The biggest change for PR however was the emergence of social media, which has affected the entire media landscape by putting the power of influence in the hands of normal people and has been the main reason why PR is now hardly recognisable to what it was a decade ago.

The growing importance of social media provoked a new era where ordinary people have a ‘say’ on every possible matter, anytime, anywhere. Social media has altered our lives enormously by giving everyone the opportunity to be a publisher and a communicator.

This means, the age of ‘we talk, you listen’, top-down style of company communication is now gone as social media has been the reason for the democratisation of information helping to change the way consumers form opinions and make decisions as well as enabling various stakeholders to easily and quickly engage in a two-way communication process with companies.

It still seems to me that many companies are not taking social media as seriously as they should – they either don’t believe in its potential as a communications and engagement channel or they don’t put enough effort into their activities to foster real relationships. This in my opinion really is a missed opportunity, so I wonder: What is it that is going to make skeptics open their eyes?

Social media has been around for over a decade now and has been gaining more and more power and relevance as it has become a normal part of people’s everyday life. It’s certainly not a hype, nor a fad. To substantiate this with some actual data, here’s what a research performed by Experian Hitwise found: In 2012 the UK spent 37 billion hours online; 13 minutes of each hour were dedicated entirely to social media.

One of the main reasons why businesses are still ‘scared’ to jump on the bandwagon and put themselves out there on social media platforms is because of the potential criticism and negative comments they might receive from users. Indeed, such negative reviews can be damaging to a company’s reputation, but hiding behind the scenes is no good either – these conversations are happening with or without the company’s involvement, so businesses might as well start participating in them to potentially change people’s minds, gather ideas how to improve their products and services and so drive the conversations into a positive direction.

Similar applies to negative media coverage. A new academic study coming from the US, Burr Under the Saddle: How Media Coverage Influences Strategic Change (registration required), shows that even though negative press is unpleasant and especially unwelcome by the C-suite, it can also influence strategic decisions to make significant company improvements. As the authors of the paper identify, “the media is neither an enemy nor an ally to upper management... but one of a number of key stakeholders that can significantly shift a firm’s direction, often for the better.”

On 22 April 2013 approaches yet another Earth Day. This international movement that aims to protect the planet and secure a sustainable future has been around for 43 years and now has more than 22,000 network partners in 192 countries participating in the event and supporting the activities. This year more than 1 billion people are going to take part in Earth Day. Are you?

The theme of the movement this year is “The Face of Climate Change.”