A few months ago, our staff was treated to a presentation by an expert in technology development. He discussed how the use of technology affects companies in all industries every day.  I have to admit, it was an eye-opening experience for me, and I could see the same reaction from a few of my colleagues.

The most interesting part of the presentation was his explanation of how the technology industry has basically taken over many other industries.  One good example he gave was the takeover of the music industry by companies like Napster, Apple iTunes and Amazon.

His next point was that if we’re not careful, technology companies will move in and take over the public relations industry.  I thought long and hard about this.  And I’ll give him credit, it really made us all think.  Specifically, we started to think about own technology prowess, which has been greatly improved over the last several months through our internal self-education efforts.

But here’s where I disagree with our technology expert.  Public relations is based on our ability (or our client’s ability) to build and maintain public relationships.  We can use social media outlets and electronic communication tools all day, and we do.  But there should never be a replacement for individual relationships.  After all, the relationships we build through Myspace and Facebook are largely superficial.  If we start treating the business of public relations this way, we will fail.

Has anyone noticed that many large companies are bringing people back to answer incoming phone calls instead of an electronic service?  It is the realization that consumers want real exchanges with real people.  Companies finally realized that consumers place a high value on this simple service. 

The parallels are easy to see.  Good PR firms practice good customer service.  Good customer service is based on personal relationships.

There are a lot of great things – great strides – we can utilize in our business due in large part to technology advances.  But we will be remiss the day we replace the personal relationship with a program or a computer.