The PR industry has changed rapidly in the past 10 years. On one hand, technology has made our lives easier by providing us with instant access to information and new forms of communication. On the other hand, it makes your head spin.

On any given day, I’m monitoring several print pubs, and dozens of websites and blogs. I’m answering two phones and a Skype line, texting, writing blog posts, checking two email accounts, responding to instant messages, following LinkedIn group strings, and Tweeting and Facebooking from several accounts. This doesn’t even account for all the client calls and team meetings, and all the work that has to get done.

So, how do you avoid the drinking-from-a-fire-hose mentality and leave at the end of the day feeling as though you have been productive, efficient and effective?

For me, there have been two key behavioral/thought process changes that have helped curtail the madness (which I secretly adore, by the way).

The first is all about focus. Shut it down, turn it off, ignore it, and focus on the task at hand. My colleague, Julie Sellew, said it best in a recent post about monotasking. I highly recommend that you refer back to her piece, but in short, it’s about not trying to be everything to everyone, all of the time.

I’ve always taken great pride in my ability to multitask. I’m certain that the word “multitasking” was in the resume that helped me get this job … and every gig before it. Staying cool under pressure is one thing, but finishing the projects you start can be extremely challenging when information is coming at you from every direction. Focus on one project and complete it before you let something else grab your attention. It sounds easy enough, right?

I’ve also changed the way that I think about every task at hand. One of the biggest challenges PR pros have now is that with all these new communication channels comes the need to communicate through them on a regular basis. We’re writing press releases, pitches, blog posts, newsletters, Web and brochure copy, speaker abstracts, articles, and anything else that a client might need.

The key is to avoid reinventing the wheel every time you need to come with that new content. Think of blog posts as pitch topics, and use excerpts of bylined articles as newsletter articles. It’s about cross-utilizing some or all of the content that we create and ensuring that we make the most of the insights that our clients share with us. So, rather than thinking of every task or assignment as a siloed project, I try to think, “What else can I do with this?”

All of this is about working smarter. It can be tough to slow down and think about what you are doing and how you are doing it when the pace quickens, but in the end, it can save you a lot of time – and make life a little easier.

Now, about that email …

Is someone doing PR for PR? This week, Advertising Age reported that the public relations industry fared well compared with other industries in a national survey gauging opinion of the professions. AdAge said, “In a Gallop poll this month that asked adults whether their overall view of various sectors is negative or positive, the ‘advertising and public relations industry’ fared better than those other businesses. One-third of respondents voiced a positive view of the advertising/pr industry (6 percent ‘very’, 27 percent ‘somewhat.’)”

To that we say, bravo! It appears that we as an industry are not only positively managing our client’s reputations, but also our own. Sometimes it’s difficult to hold our heads up high in the face of those who see us as no more than corporate shills or, even worse, one of the “friends of the Kardashians.” But every day we see evidence of the positive impact PR can have on a company’s sales and profile. CEO and WSJ blogger Jennifer Walzer, who formally voiced her opinion of not seeing the need for a PR firm, just today announced that she has changed her mind and even went as far as hiring a firm for her business. Heck, even the great state of Arizona realizes PR could help improve its image.

We hope this upward trend for our industry continues!

It’s nice when things come together.

Clients call on us to help them do something. Maybe they want media coverage to raise awareness, or to help position them a certain way to a certain audience. Maybe they want awards or speaking opportunities to help differentiate and elevate them in a crowded market. Maybe they want assistance navigating the waters of social media to help them manage their reputation and connect more meaningfully with customers, press and other key constituents. Some of our clients invest in PR because they need help establishing who they are to investors or to make them appealing enough to get acquired. Whatever the reason our clients enlist our services, they’re doing so because they want a partner that will work with them, counsel them and help them do something that will translate into leads, sales or other tangible business results.

In PR, it’s all too rare that the PR team gets to see or hear about those tangible results. It happens, just not as often as we all would like. So when a client is profiled in PR Week for having a creative, successful PR campaign, is quoted saying things like “the campaign was successful beyond our wildest dreams,” and then goes on to detail the web traffic and impact on sales our collective efforts have yielded, it’s incredibly gratifying. Reading the story, we have two things to celebrate: the praise for a campaign we’re proud to be a part of, and the actual results being reported in the first place. Because this is why we do what we do – to help our clients uncover leads, drive sales, grow, establish themselves, leap ahead of their competition. Our objective is not just to execute PR for PR’s sake, but to actually deliver PR support that matters to their business.

It’s nice when things come together.

We have all (including myself) spent a fair share of time talking about new media here on Matter Chatter. And yes, it is indeed the face of the future. As someone who spends a significant portion of her day reading blogs and managing Facebook and Twitter pages for clients, it’s easy to get sucked into the instantaneous information-overload that is online and social media. I had a little nudge out of the online bubble this morning when I read about a new statistic from the Pew research center (via TechCrunch – all that blog reading!): 21 percent of American adults say they don’t use the Internet.

Now, I suppose that this shouldn’t really be shocking. But when you’re bombarded daily with news of folding newspapers or budget-cuts at magazines, it’s difficult to remain upbeat about the future of traditional media. Stop for a minute and think about it though – would you knowingly cut out 1/5 of your audience before you even started trying to get a message out? And what about clients whose primary targets include older-generation consumers who might not spend much time reading or put much value in online media?

I know we all go after the Wall Street Journals and Good Housekeepings… but next time you’re thinking of only pitching print with that top-tier circulation number, make sure you remember the 1/5 that still enjoys reading a daily local paper or niche magazine. Understandably, the outlet depends on the message, and for many of our clients the best strategy is both print and online… just don’t forget that well-rounded perspective on your target audience.

A new report from Nielsen reveals Americans are spending more and more time on social networks. I guess that’s not surprising. But would you believe social networking now accounts for more than twice the amount of time spent online compared to any other activity? According to the report, social networking represents 22.7 percent of the time Americans spend online (from computers, as opposed to mobile devices)– that’s a 43 percent surge from last year. Online gaming (10.2 percent) and email (8.3 percent) fall in second and third place. You can check out some extended findings and useful comparisons, tables and graphs on Nielsen’s blog.

Perhaps it’s fitting I first learned about this newly released research during one of my handful of social media perusals throughout the day. Case and point? Well, maybe not. I don’t track my time online to the minute, but I honestly don’t think the time I spend on social media surpasses the time I spend on email. Not yet at least. I do, however, find myself spending more and more time on Facebook and Twitter, both for personal and professional reasons. For example, I often find Twitter to be the most useful tool for keeping up to speed on what my top media targets are writing about and to interact with them in a casual, non-intrusive way.

Taking into consideration Nielsen’s findings (and that I sometimes notice the reported trends in my own behavior), what does the uptick in online time spent on social media sites mean for our clients? Is it realistic to think PR professionals should be connecting with reporters more often on Twitter? Should we be making sure your clients’ messages are heard loud and clear on Facebook? Or maybe we should make like Old Spice and better utilize online video as a PR tool. After all, as Big Mouth Media pointed out, U.S. Internet users streamed an average of 3.25 hours of online content in June. What do you think?

Numbers and statistics, of course, can sometimes be interpreted in different ways and should not be solely relied on. Rather, PR professionals can use research findings, like this recent set from Nielsen, to help make well-informed, guided decisions when it comes to our own use of social media and steering our clients in the social media direction that makes the most sense for their businesses.

The Associated Press Stylebook has been guiding word usage, punctuation and grammar for countless reporters since 1953, and while it’s not the only style guide out there, it’s certainly the most popular. AP reporters are known for their strong reporting, and the Stylebook is constantly referenced to ensure consistency and excellence in writing. But as newer forms of media evolve, is there another set of rules needed for online content creation? Yahoo! thinks so.

Yahoo! has launched The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World, whose purpose is to provide a framework for grammar, punctuation, writing and editing for the Web. Some of the article topics in the guide include, “Streamline Text for Mobile Devices,” “Be Inclusive, Write for the World,” and “Construct Clear, Compelling Copy.” It also includes a word list and an “Ask an Editor” page to help clear up questions about word usage and upcoming developments for the guide.

As Mashable points out, there are a few points on which Yahoo! and the AP disagree, including whether to hyphenate e-mail (the AP says yes), and “smart phone” or “smartphone” (one word, according to Yahoo!). The overall topic is particularly timely, as Matter recently held a training session to refresh everyone on strong writing practices. We explored common mistakes that writers make and looked at the differences between the AP Stylebook and Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style.

But the debate came down to two core factors that guide Matter’s writing: consistency and client preferences. Often, Matter’s clients want their teams to bend AP writing rules, and as long as we’re consistent in our deliverables, the content we generate passes their tests. For example, serial commas are a source of debate between teams. Some clients require them (X, Y, and Z) and others don’t want them (leave out the comma before “and”). For the clients that don’t have a preference, we simply use them or don’t use them throughout all our writing.

It will be interesting to see to what degree writers gravitate towards the Yahoo! guide over the AP Stylebook, if at all. What do you think will happen?

Peter Shankman makes all the right moves.

The guy is brilliant and, if you’re in PR, you can’t help but know that he has a cat named Karma and, when he’s not jumping from an insane altitude, he’s training for an Ironman. Oh, and he’s the founder and CEO of a PR/journalism game-changing company called Help a Reporter Out (HARO).

HARO was founded on Facebook in 2008 and has since grown to be THE social media services company that connects writers and sources. In my opinion, two things make HARO particularly unique: It’s a free service for all involved and it’s a no-BS community where PR pros are held accountable for the pitches they send. Users get booted for spammy, spray-and-pray pitches and, as a result, HARO is somewhat of a safe haven for members of the media.

The lucrative HARO “sponsorship” program that Shankman created is also noteworthy. He places advertisements at the start of each email, which are chock-full of media queries, and the open rates are said (by HARO) to be about 75 percent.

In fact, this business model is so remarkable that, just last week, Shankman announced that his little enterprise had been scooped up by Vocus, a company that provides on-demand software for public relations management and manages the press release distribution service called PRWeb.

We join the industry in congratulating Peter Shankman on this significant accomplishment. According to a Mashable story, he will continue to build the HARO brand with the help of the folks at Vocus and, more importantly, the service will remain free. We look forward to seeing what the future holds for HARO – and continuing to use this fantastic service to supplement our daily PR activities and outreach!

I sat down to write this blog, ready to tell the people of the world wide web all they need to know about monotasking, and I couldn’t. At the same time I was digging up material to reference, I was sorting through my emails, perusing HootSuite for client mentions, pitching a new story idea, and so on. The longer I had an empty Word document in front of me, the more I realized how many other things I should and could be doing.

At a time when jobs are scarce, competition is fierce, and employees can expect to play various roles within an organization, why should we care about learning how to monotask? Monotasking, as defined, means focusing on a single task. However, I’ve yet to see a job description that reads “monotasker preferred.” Is this not a skill that is desired in the workforce? If not, why even bother trying to master the art of performing only one task? I’ll tell you why: because it works. Seriously. Try it. Look at your to-do list, pick one thing, and do it without any interruptions. Ignore email for a set length of time, hold your calls, and just finish the task. Listen, the world doesn’t stop when you take a break from your desk to grab a bite to eat, so why feel the need to open every email as soon as it hits your inbox once you are back in the office?

The truth is, as PR professionals, we have been trained to perform this way. With multiple clients and the need to always be “connected,” we are multitaskers at heart. Maybe this quality has become so engraved in our minds that we have overlooked the importance of monotasking. I think it’s time we give monotasking a chance.

To the colleague that introduced me to this phenomenon known as monotasking, I say thank you. You may have changed my world as I know it. I’ve always prided myself on my multitasking abilities, but am taking a stand for change. Power to the monotaskers! From this day forward, I strive to perfect the art of performing only one task at a time…right after I feed the cats while cooking dinner, call my mom while washing the dishes, read a book while watching the evening news…

*How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking – Harvard Business Review

*Multi-Tasking Vs. Mono-Tasking – Dumb Little Man

*Electronic Multitasking is a Brain Drain – SF Gate /The Tech Chronicles

At Matter we were honored this week to receive a Bell Ringer award from the Publicity Club of New England for business press coverage for our client Altman Vilandrie & Company. It’s always nice to receive a pat on the back from the experts in your own industry.

The award event, held at a nice hotel outside Boston, was an amusing snapshot of the PR industry – 300 people who talk for a living gathered in one room. If there was a single moment’s pause in conversation all night, I didn’t hear it!

In large PR gatherings I’m always reminded of the predominance of women in our industry – more than 70 percent by some estimates. It wasn’t always this way. In 1981, as this New York Times article points out, female membership in the Public Relations Society of America had risen sharply – to 33 percent!

PR events are always a good excuse to step back from the fast pace of the day-to-day and think about the work we do. One speaker mentioned a Facebook page that had the whole place laughing: “I work in PR and my family and friends have no idea what I do.” I can definitely relate – after years in PR my family still thinks I work in advertising.

“You must love that show ‘Mad Men,’” they say.

Today CNBC posted a countdown of the most anxiety-inducing professions in America, sourced from a CareerCast.com survey. Aside from the outrageous omissions of corporate lawyer and Andy Dick’s personal assistant, it’s a well-reasoned register of vexing vocations. A cursory peek at the subject matter would tempt one to believe the listed jobs are day-in, day-out nightmares that no one would possibly desire. Not so it seems: “a number of the most stressful jobs are considered highly sought-after positions, and workers frequently undergo rigorous and costly training for the chance at one of these careers.”

Here is CareerCast.com’s summary of what makes PR a particularly stressful career and worthy of the number eight slot: “Public relations specialists make speeches and give presentations, often in front of large crowds. Because it is a highly competitive field, specialists must work quickly and creatively to meet deadlines. In addition, some PR officers are required to interact with potentially hostile members of the media.”

While the above responsibilities don’t come without a fair amount of pressure, expectations and artful navigation of occasionally unfriendly human interaction, I think it’s what makes this career fun. Call me crazy, but I suspect the fast pace and inventive, on-the spot thinking might be part of the draw for many of my colleagues. Furthermore, I’m a firm believer that competition breeds creativity in all disciplines.

What do you think? Are you a PR stress junkie or just stressed-out?