"Web 2.0 technologies have certainly reshaped our industry and approach to PR—starting with having the tools to communicate with our publics and customers directly," says PFS Marketwise president and author Deirdre K. Breakendridge, who recently finished her fourth Financial Times business book "Putting the Public Back in Public Relations," co-authored by Brian Solis and set to hit books stores in early 2009. "Before, our work was all about going through third party influencers like the media and analysts. That's still done, but now we have access to new influencers and can talk directly to the people who matter most to us or our clients."

That doesn't mean standard media and analyst relations will disappear—it means they will change and eventually incorporate some of these tools, depending on each market's needs and unique characteristics. "For example, pharmaceuticals and heavily regulated industries continue to fear social media and be slow to apply it to their businesses, but the sea change ultimately will be unavoidable," continues Breakenridge, who has also authored "PR 2.0, New Media, New Tools, New Audiences," "The New PR Toolkit" and "Cyberbranding: Brand Building in the Digital Economy."

"It's the same with traditional media finally embracing online. Today, it came out that the Christian Science Monitor won't be printing anymore," says Breakenridge. "Pundits have been talking about the death of print for years—but my take is that while I love social media and online social networking because it's meaningful and builds relationships, I'm still reading my local paper (Asbury Park Press) every day. Similarly, Wired magazine's Chris Anderson is totally entrenched in social media, and his print title still looks good and remains packed with ads."

Her point: "Traditional media or social media, traditional PR or PR 2.0—it's all about communicating, language and sharing your story. Powerful communications work still comes through loud and clear via these new tools, whether it's a podcast, streaming video or blog. In the end, it all boils down to the written word—even on Twitter," Breakenridge believes. "Technology just makes it easier to reach and engage more people—it doesn't preclude or spell the end of what came before." Her insight and tips for tapping that technology:

What traits do the best corporate blogs share—any tips for launching a corporate blog?

I was just reminded of great example at last week's PRSA conference in Detroit. Bob Lutz spoke about his blog there. He started it around 2004. What makes it exemplary is the way it was approached—it was organic to him and what he wanted to say. It wasn't driven by some corporate initiative or marketing communications campaign. It was his way of talking to reporters. It started as an open letter that morphed into a blog. So, it was natural to him. The best corporate blogs share that trait. They're not forced communiqués.

When Debbie Weil wrote about him in "The Corporate Blogging Book," there were already 10,000 people commenting on the blog. One thing mentioned in her book was that the blog was about design of the cars. So there was a reason to go there. It had, and continues to have, an editorial mission. Did other things creep in? Yes, sure. But they would swing it back on topic. So, the second best practice beyond a blog being a natural fit is its having an editorial focus that's not driven by a communications team. Finally, successful corporate blogs are frequent in terms of posts, consistent, transparent and show a human side. Lutz's blog certainly does that, and it's an obvious blogging success story.

Number of comments may be a worthwhile metric—but what has the blog actually done for the perception of the company, really?

It has helped communicate the company's vision and innovation. At PRSA, Lutz said that you might have a beta car, for example, in the auto industry—but you don't typically get to talk about what happens as you build it. This blog takes people into that process. It tells their story of innovation by showing and sharing it. It promotes transparency and trust—and those are harder things to tie metrics to than, say, number of comments.

Who is using online social networks effectively from a communications standpoint?

Kraft is on MySpace and the mac-and-cheese contests are fun and engaging. That's the way to go for younger audiences—they use MySpace. So do artists and musicians. I wouldn't recommend my B-to-B clients or tech people go there. Beyond that, Facebook isn't the college hangout anymore. It's much ore. For example, we worked with a technology analyst firm recently. When they were having a hosting summit in Las Vegas, they built a Facebook group as part of their strategy—it became a piece of their plan. So now, when planning an event or launching a product, Facebook has become for them a communications channel to add to the mix and make things more viral.

That's easy, low hanging fruit: Set up a profile on Facebook for your next event. Get presenters and sponsors to join the group. You can start the conversations around the event early—you can send questions out to the group and get people engaged in dialog. That way you already have a community before the physical event. Then when it's over, you can go back and keep the discussion going.

Would you consider Twitter a social network?

Yeah. It is a social network in a micromedia format. It's condensed content—but you still put up a profile. People are still connecting to you. And they follow you, like they can in social Networks like Facebook.

I think companies are finding great success on Twitter. FedEx, Jet Blue and Comcast are using it as an outbound customer service channel. These communities aren't about brands jumping in with their messages. It's more about listening and learning—and if there's an issue, acting on it. It's a great tool for answering questions and helping people.

What do you say to PR practitioners or others who fear the "Twitter Time Suck"?

If you fear a Twitter time suck, you might not be using it as effectively as you could be. There are ways to minimize your time and maximize what you get out of it. For example, you can use Tweetscan.com or Summize.com. Those tools can help you winnow the information down. It's important to learn these tools. Another one to check out is Influencing.com—it's sort of the ProfNet of Twitter. There are queries and reporters there looking for PR people to help them.

Do journalists and bloggers like to be pitched via Twitter?

Everybody is different. Robert Scoble recently asked why PR people were still sending him email. He wants people to reach out via Twitter. But before doing that, he wants you to listen, hear him, understand his needs or preferences—otherwise you'll be called out. So, it depends on who you're dealing with. It's standard media relations. Build a relationship. Target everything. Be brief, concise and targeted. If you've done that, then the biggest challenge in a "Twit Pitch" is keeping your pitch or notice to 140 characters or less.

I'd like to point out, however, that no matter who you're dealing with—it's not about pitches, messages and audiences. It's about engaging in dialog. It's not about broadcast messaging. It's like minded people with needs that match. You don't talk at people, you engage with them. Conversations, frankly, don't happen in a "pitch" format. Instead, an engaging story will spar, a great reaction and response.

Your warnings for incorporating online social networks into a PR program or campaign?

What not to do: If I join your group on Facebook or wherever, whether you're an author promoting a book or it's a group about a tech product, don't spam me. Don't constantly send meaningless information and updates. Don't be sales-y when approaching your social networking. Avoid hollow, disingenuous messages.

Three most common mistakes PR folks make when using social media?

The PR person who thinks they can blog for somebody else is a making a very big mistake. Tone, voice—it's all missing. Of course, you're supposed to know the product or service, but the public wants the real thing. So, a PR team putting out the CEO's blog is a recipe for disaster. Another common mistake is being a little overzealous in "marketing" and not treating social networks like they're made up of real people. Take your PR hat off for a little bit and put on your cultural anthropologist's cap on. Observe behaviors and listen. Start with listening, instead of talking and messaging. Another major mistake is not knowing enough about the people there in the social network.

Could RSS be called the gateway drug to social media—if so, why?

Social media is about people opting in. That has to happen before there can be a two way dialog. RSS is a tool that lets people "opt in" or "subscribe" to your news, updates, feed or whatever. The second thing RSS represents is that it's one of the first things a PR person must do before they get into social media: Listen, listen, listen. An RSS feed is a simple and natural way to familiarize yourself with the talk going on about your company online. It will let you pull relevant information in. You can either stick your fingers in your ears and ignore what you hear—or you can get involved. So, you advance from there.

What social media tools and channels are on the horizon that PR practitioners and communicators ought to be watching for?

After I left the PRSA event, I sort of felt that PR people are just now getting in tune with Web 2.0. But the tech industry has early adopters who are way ahead. For example, there is a lot of talk in those circles now about the "semantic Web"—which is basically a more intuitive web experience focusing on natural language processes and artificial intelligence. The Web as an intelligent medium is where this is all going. All the data mining and social networking that we do manually now will be automatic and streamlined. What this means to PR is that it would make our jobs increasingly easier. As the Web continues to evolve, PR  people continue to evolve because we're no longer paper pushers. It makes us more strategists—people who are a greater part of the communication function and bring more to table because our tools are stronger.