Those are some of the topics I’ll be talking about at this year’s Seattle PRSA Jumpstart event. PRSA Jumpstart is an event for the next generation of PR pros that  are coursing through the pipelines of the various schools offering training on what we collectively call PR.

But what are they training to do? They’re still being taught how to write press releases, but is that important? How about we teach technical skills such as HTML/PHP, SEO techniques, video editing or visual journalism?

The future of in-house PR

Here’s my theory: In-house corporate PR will become a strategic counsel, relying upon external agencies for execution, measurement and reality checks. In the next 10 years, in-house corporate PR teams will essentially shrink to as few people as possible, depending on the size of the company.

I’ll get into the hows in a bit, but for now, let’s focus on Why? I think that as public relations as we know it continues to blur the lines between marketing, sales, customer support and PR, the focus will be more on strategic communications and less on day-to-day PR activities.

As we continue to realize that social media (or pancake media) is simply media — a way of sharing information — we’ll get less hung up on the tools were using and again focus on the messages we’re sharing.

Peter Shankman is fond of saying that good writing will save society and I think this is essential for the future of PR especially.

But how will we shift?

The shift from a traditional client/agency/consultant model to a more fluid and collaborative effort is already happening. Ubiquitous methods of broadcasting to a public that’s more willing to consume information are emerging and systems for effectively using and measuring them are evolving.

The focus needs to be on quality. It’s no longer enough to throw up some blog posts and *poof * you’re a social media guru coach rawkstar. The challenge with PR as it stands today is that people are treating the Internet like a public access TV station. Everybody. This blog included.

But the problem with public access TV is that a lot of it sucks.

The good is rising to the top. The herd is being thinned. But how? By providing quality content. Social media tools have leveled the playing field of who has access to the public. But they don’t make you a good strategist or a good analyst or a good communicator. Those are traits that need to be honed and refined with experience and execution.

So, what will corporate PR look like in the future? I think it will look a lot different. Corporations need to think like a network. Find good shows that people want to watch and your audience will come.

Tell me your thoughts about what the future of public relations looks like in the comments. I would love to hear them.

How do you measure the ROI for a Tweet? How do you measure ROI for a video posted to YouTube? How do you measure ROI for a blog post?

The concept of ROI in modern public relations and corporate communications has evolved from the old standby of column inches earned * ad rate. The common belief now days is that retweets, blog comments, saves to Technorati etc… are all forms of currency.

ROI = $$$

Yes. A return on investment can only be measured in actual dollars. An increase in reach and “authority” are great. But how does the use of social media affect your or your clients’ bottom line?

Using social currency or “whuffie” or any other social metric is icing on the cake. But the cake needs to be a financial impact of the marketing or communications program. This applies to consumer goods just as much as it applies to enterprise software or discreet manufacturing. The units may change, but the affect to the bottom line is still what matters.

The concept of attributing a sale to the use of social media has become relatively easy. Marketing automation companies such as Marketo or even URL trackers such as bit.ly have made it much easier to follow a lead through the process of becoming a contact to becoming a customer.

The bottom line

As Olivier Blanchard over at The BrandBuilder reminds us “ROI is always financial.” Lots of people are beginning to pontificate on that stance. That it’s time to make some money on social media. There’s no reason for the consultants and gurus to be the onws making all the money. But nobody’s offering a solution.

Now it’s time for me to offer a solution. Instead, I am going to try and offer a mathematical problem, so bear with me.

The first item I’ll tackle is twittering a link to a product purchase form. First, let’s define some variables. X= my hourly rate, y = the amount of time in hours it took me to get to the point I can publish that tweet, z = the final cost of publishing a form. So:

(x * y) = z

Now, let’s continue. Lets try to determine the ROI of you publishing that tweet. More variables If you have a = number of people that fill out the form and b = the cost of each unit sold and c = the number of new customers we can use the answer from above to find the ROI of that tweet campaign.

(b * c) – z = ROI

I know this is beyond over simplifying. How do RTs or word of mouth affect this calculation? I’m hoping you all can help me out with that. Can somebody check my math?

All. Or nothing.

During shows such as Web 2.0 Expo or CES or SXSW, so many people are clamoring for attention you either need to completely stand out from the crowd or risk getting passed over. So, if you’re planning on making an announcement at a show, make it worth your while. And, the reporters, analysts and bloggers you’re looking to have cover you.

Otherwise, spend your efforts building relationships and connections. Then, you can reach out to those relationships after the show and make an announcement then.

According to TechCrunch, more than 100,000 layoffs occurring in the tech sector at the end of 2008. And some of the largest numbers came from large enterprises. No longer is joining an established tech company a refuge for talented people who find themselves jobless as companies such as Sony, 3M and AT&T announcing heavy cuts.

The rise of the microbusiness

Using TechCrunch’s numbers, this is more than 100,000 people that are looking for a paycheck. Not necessarily a career, but a paycheck. They are taking freelance development and design gigs, working with staffing agencies or services such as Elance and building a modest client base.

But a decision will need to be made. Do they continue down the freelance path or seek the stability, opportunity and shelter of a full-time job? Freelancing is a contact sport these days and strong, talented and effective people will survive.

Unfortunately, most statistics aren’t current, but to give you some idea of what I’m talking about, here are some stats I was able to find:

• According to the US Census Bureau, 17,646,062 firms existed in 2002 that were classified as “nonemployers.” This meant that they were one-person businesses. This represented more than two-thirds of all businesses in the US at the time.
• By 2004, the number of nonemployer firms was 19,523,741.
• In 2004, of the 5,885,784 firms with paid employees, 3,821,128 had fewer than 10 employees.
• Sole proprietorships can be lucrative. According to BizStats, Internet publishing-Broadcasting businesseshad a net profit margin of nearly 65% in 2004.
• According to SCORE, there were 637,100 new businesses, 560,300 business closures and 28,322 bankruptcies in 2007.

These numbers show that we’re not afraid to venture to new, uncharted territory. When we take control of our own destinies, we are able to shape our lives to fit our ideal. What is your ideal?

Charting the path

This is where technology comes into play. Building a product is easier, cheaper and faster than ever. Social media and social networking are eliminating a lot of the overhead and burn that would consume an investment. Social networks, blogging and social advocacy are making it easy to create a network of passionate users.

All of these changes will make it easier for entrepreneurs to venture out as sole proprietors and make a product or a service that works. Sure, there will be some casualties. There always is. But, what makes microbusinesses different is the sef-reliance, bootstrapping mentality will come back into vogue. New avenues will be explored and new revenue streams will be identified.

What will you do to make your microbusiness succeed? How will you move your idea forward and make your microbusiness succeed?

But what does it take to really tackle a fear or move past an initial hesitation? In our highly-social, highly connected world, it’s difficult to imagine that we have real emotions that cause us to pause, and have to stare something in the face.

But in reality, a lot of our daily decisions are, at a minimim, affected by fear. The fear of failure, the fear of not being acceped. Even the fear of success.So, let’s look at fear from a sociological perspective and determine how to fix fear.

According to a paper in the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, fear can be divided into two primary types: fear as an emotion and fear as a consequence of or motivation for social relations.

Fear as an emotion is often times based upon learned or natural behaviors that external forces have no bearing on. But what about the fear we can control? The social and business interactions.

Social fear

In my opinion, situational and social fear is normal. Being hesitant to enter a situation, sign a term sheet or hit submit means that your brain is firing as it should. But the challenge is what methods can you use to conquer the fear?

Information is power

I’ve found that being knowledgeable helps to alleviate any fear or intimidation I may have been feeling. Make sure you are factually accurate and can defend your points and perspective. Then you have nothing to worry about.

Trust your gut

Making any decision is difficult. If you’re educated on the circumstances, then trust your instincts. Usually the first reaction is proper and won’t lead you too far astray.

Talk about it

Find somebody you trust. Having one person that can serve as a confident but is honest enough to provide a reality check is an essential business tool.

These are just three tips that I use and help me make decisions and proceed in the face of fear.

So, what do you do to confront fear? Let me know.

The author (Laura Fitton, who is AWESOME), has an interview with the two guys that developed a service for Best Buy called Mix. Mix is an initiative to get Best Buy’s employees micro-sharing and micro-blogging. This is absurd.

We’re all a bunch of geeks. Those of us on Twitter have adopted this way of communicating as a means to fool ourselves into thinking we’re interacting with people. For “micro-sharing” to be thrust onto an army of retail workers seems like an inherently bad idea. Now, I’ll be even more self conscious when I check out, wondering what they’re going to post about the 6’8″ guy that just bought a Wii.

But I’ll Twitter that, so you’ll find out I guess.

The other issue I have with this is the productivity suck these services are. Think about this. I work in a small office. But in a given day, I will email, call, Skype, IM and maybe have a Twitter conversation with people in my company. Now, compound this by expecting me to participate in a micro-sharing thing makes me wonder when any actual “work” will get done.

Am I completely wrong?