The adage goes that traditional PR doesn’t “get” digital. This probably remains true for a large number of agencies. Certainly, on the Brussels front, PR/PA agencies are going about business as usual, although I had high hopes for 2008! However, I spoke to someone recently who works on online campaigns for one of the larger Brussels agencies, and apparently 90% of his work is commissioned via London and New York, simply because none of the strategists in the Brussels office know much about the web and thus never recommend online solutions to clients. It appears that 2008 was probably a little optimistic.

So it’s comforting to see Richard Edelman‘s vision of his industry really embracing digital. In a recent post on his blog, in which he explains how PR should hold its feet during the impending recession in the US, he makes 5 broad points which all contain strong elements of digital, whether it’s simply how to tap the medium (e.g. including bloggers in media outreach initiatives); or perhaps more interestingly, identifying developments that result in stakeholder expectations which digital is best placed to respond to (e.g. greater trust in peer recommendations and less in traditional advertising; giving employees a voice; respecting a broader set of opinion leaders; more listening, dialogue and feedback mechanisms etc.) Definitely worth a read.>