In the age of Twitter, does a mention in The Wall Street Journal, or a similarly respected business publication, even carry the same weight anymore? Simply put, does anyone still care?

Should PR teams even be tasked with chasing reporters at traditional media outlets when there are bloggers and Twitterers who wield even more influence in particular business niches?

In a larger context, if the function of public relations is all about "getting our name out there," do traditional business periodicals even deserve a place at the table?

Before I get ahead of myself, I think it's worth noting that public relations efforts must serve two purposes: To satisfy the proverbial "getting the name out there" to as large a (relevant) audience as possible, and to brand (though all you advertising people out there will beg to disagree).

If the social networks, search engine marketing efforts and press release distribution services (we all know that press releases are pushed to websites these days, not to conventional newsrooms) aim to distribute a message to the largest, broadest audience possible, then securing a mention in a respected media outlet serves the other purpose—the most noble in the PR profession: building brand.

Let's face it: We love to name drop. Our clients and paymasters love to name drop as well. We all want the bragging rights to, "We got in to the Journal" or "CNBC called us back." For many, this holds more of an allure than, "We're up to 253 followers on Twitter!"

However, let's find the happy medium.

To satisfy our various constituencies, coworkers, bosses, clients—even our ego—let's think about how we can maximize the reach and effectiveness of a traditional press mention in a branded media property, while still accepting the fact that we work within the context of a 140-character world.

Some are obvious, while others aren't:

1. Post the article to your website. Post an abstract, with a link to the article, or obtain permission to post the article in its entirely on your public website. No brainer.

2. Circulate the clip internally. As with the posting of the article to your external website, your internal audience is still important for brand awareness. I am continually shocked at how many coworkers from other departments around my company are impressed that daily media relations activities are being carried out—and they are thankful when they learn of when we are mentioned or quoted in a story. It will impress them and will bring confidence to you and your department.

3. Tweet about the article on Twitter, providing a link. For those of us in the Twittersphere, this is a given. Write something insightful or unique, drawing attention to the article, and then add the shortened URL (by the way, is everyone loving the URL truncating services?) Clearly, you don't want to tweet, "GREAT ARTICLE ABOUT MY COMPANY IN THE WSJ!…" No one is going to care. But something brief and curious will most certainly pique other Twitterers' interest. For maximum promotion, ask colleagues, coworkers, vendors and others you work with to re-tweet your posting.

Additionally, for the executive quoted in the article, have him or her add this to the "What are you working on now?" message on LinkedIn.

4. Give to the sales team to forward to clients and prospects. For this, some will understand, and others will not. As salespeople are on the front lines, communicating your company's value proposition to the people who wish to do business with you, sales is perhaps best suited to present a media clip as proof of brand to the client or prospect. Forwarding a media clip via email is a great way of sending a heads up, a way to check in, and also a way to tacitly inform their audience that, "Hey, we know what we're doing—we even speak to reporters at The Wall Street Journal." As companies scrutinize their spending more and more, every little bit helps—and seeing their vendor's name in a top business publication can only move the needle in your company's favor. It's best to explain this to salespeople that are unfamiliar with this process, but you will be surprised to learn how many salespeople will be happy to use whatever they can to get in front of their clients' noses.

The other benefit of this is that (a) you will make fast friends with another corporate function, if you haven't done so already, and (b) you will help justify your existence, as now you can now have another metric in place to demonstrate the effectiveness of your media campaigns.

I'm hoping this hybrid approach to traditional media relations and forward-thinking social media marketing will ease some of the pain for those of us practitioners still trying to make sense of our day-to-day responsibilities. In one ear, we hear the gospel of social media, but when we look down at our desk, we know our bosses and clients still expect the big hit.

If we reconcile our responsibilities with our clients' needs and the ever-changing dynamics of the media marketplace, I think we'll figure out what works. Gone are the days when we can simply high-five each other for that Wall Street Journal clip; we now need to use it to our advantage, measure its relevance—and develop ourselves professionally in the process.

Jake Wengroff is the global director of corporate communications at Frost & Sullivan. Follow him on Twitter @JakeWengroff.