It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

~Charles Darwin~

Find the audience and get the message in front of them in a manner they want to receive it. On the surface, that seems like fairly easy marching orders. Peel it back a bit and you'll understand why companies hire PR agencies.

I speak to many young PR pros and they all seem to think they are on top of Social Media, Web 2.0..blah, blah, blah. PR Week even focused this week's issue on Digital Media with a panel of PR Pros spouting off about the new frontier of digital media. Folks, it ain't new! We've been following/influencing bloggers and social media for over 2 years now. Tell us something we don't know!

Our clients don't care their audience is hanging out on Pownce, Twitter or FriendFeed. Our clients are worried about getting their product to market on time, opening new sales channels and managing the day-to-day rigors of their business. They need their PR Agency (or PR team) to help drive sales. In order to drive sales, PR Pros have to find the audience and call them to action.

Web 2.0 (I really disdain that term) and Social Media have indeed opened the door for PR Pros to explore many new ways of getting in front of your client's audience. Some "ways" are better than others, and GREAT PR Pros understand how to use Social Media as a powerful PR Tool.

As a professional PR practitioner, today's media rich environment has never been more exciting -and it has never been more challenging. Juggling the demands of multiple clients is hard enough as a PR rep. Mixing in the demands of trying to follow a fickle audience traverse the web is equally as challenging. What separates good PR folks from GREAT PR folks is the ability to influence "the target audience du-jour" NOW. Not tomorrow, not next week and certainly not "when the product lands on the shelf"....NOW. In my experience, leveraging Social Media is the quickest and most powerful way to accomplish this.

What worked yesterday to identify that audience and get in front of them may not work today or tomorrow. What are you trying differently to identify and influence that audience? What new avenues are you going to turn down today to see whose hanging out on the corner? Great PR people choose to make those turns everyday.

.......Find the audience and get the message in front of them in a manner they want it delivered....that's my definition of Social Media (some things never change).