Get the know-how

It is impossible to plan for the unknown unknowns (as Donald Rumsfeld rather incoherently updated the media in February 2002).

The next best thing is to arm yourself with a bucket of tools and experiences to meet the challenge of what feels much like a tsunami of change.

Get to know Emerging Social Media

We probably all dabble with the big social media names: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube but a working knowledge of the ecosystem of social media sites all with different value propositions can be found by using a site such as Traffikd: list of social media and social networking sites. A social media distribution platform, such as Shoutlet, (where communicators can distribute content across many channels at the same time) is going to make the job of managing the social web do-able.

Web video production

One study found that 52% of viewers exposed to an online video took some form of action yet a PRWeb survey of 1817 respondents found that 94% see value in including video in news releases yet only 12% have ever included video in new releases they have distributed.

PR professionals need to become familiar with basic video production and online news distribution channels so that they can integrate video seamlessly.

Search Engine Optimisation

Writing news releases optimized for search engines produces demonstrable results - Soutwest Airlines attributed this technique to creating $2.5million in ticket sales.

Search engines are a primary way for readers to find the information they want and creating quality keywords anchored back to websites brings content to your audience online.

There is a great opportunity out there to ride on the crest of the wave of sea change and embrace all that is new but it will require learning some new tricks and wearing a few more hats in 2010.