We began this book by saying that the internet changes everything. We are
confident that we have made a compelling case that it has to do so.
We have embraced the controversial – and provocative – idea that the
internet is driving something that can rightly be called ‘the new PR’. We
have accepted that social media make it imperative for the discipline of
public relations to change, whilst never wavering from our conviction
that the essential elements of public relations, which we consider to be
relationship management, have not changed and will not.
We suggested that online public relations would provide a roadmap for
anyone engaging with public relations in the age of social media. Certainly
anyone who has got this far will agree that there are endless challenges
ahead, and that our response must go way beyond merely developing fresh
tactics to also addressing more fundamental strategic questions.
We hope our core argument is proven: that the internet and the rapid
growth of social media have at least begun to shi� the vector of communication
from a vertical organization-to-audience model to a horizontal
discourse among networked commentaries that aggregate into reputation.
The need for PR to develop messages that can be distributed through
mass media channels has not gone away, but it is equally clear that the
‘horizontal’ vector is becoming ever more important, and that more than
ever it will be the actions of an organization that ma�er rather than the
desired messages.