It’s hard to overstate how social media is transforming the PR business. In 2008, Twitter was barely on the radar screen. Less than a year later, Ashton Kutcher and Ellen DeGeneres now have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of Ireland, Norway and Panama! Since my wife is a nurse, I had always associated SMR with “Standard Metabolic Rate.” Now when I hear this acronym, I immediately think “Social Media Release.”

It ain’t easy keepin’ up with the “social media Joneses.” Becoming an expert in social media means staying on top of social networks, blogs, viral video, SEO, RSS, digital apps, online communities, measurement & monitoring, legal & ethical considerations — the list goes on and on…New issues crop up every day. Social media is simultaneously overwhelming and exhilarating, depending on the day (and sometimes the hour!).

As social media continues to evolve, I believe there’s at least one constant. When it comes to leveraging the enormous power of social media, PR is the marketing function best equipped to take the lead. Why? Well for starters, PR practitioners are trained in the principles of dialogue (two-or many-way communication), rather than monologue (one-way communication). And PR is all about the “soft sell,” and so is social media. For more reasons why PR should assume the pole position in the social media marketing mix, check out the op-ed I recently wrote in Bulldog Reporter’s Daily Dog.

Happy friending, tweeting and posting to all!

Jason