One of the consequences of social media is that public relations has become a lot more difficult.  News channels are highly fragmented and twitter is more often the port of call for the latest news than the so-called news sites themselves.

However, is social media really driving the news or simply republishing it?

A glance around the Twitterverse seems to confirm that certain news stories tend to resonate better through social media because of their provenance.  News stories that break on the BBC, for example, tend to reverberate rapidly (excuse the alliteration).

Similarly, in the world of new media, articles (or rather posts) that start off their lives on sites like TechCrunch or Wired are rapidly retweeted – especially if they contain information that is seen to be important or relevant in the search for cutting edge information.

For example, I’ve just scrolled down TechCrunch’s home page and most of the articles on there have been heavily retweeted.  But one story, knocking Facebook’s new iPhone app, has received over 1,000 retweets at time of writing.

The story, it hardly needs explaining, is now viral.  Hundreds of thousands of Twitter users have had the potential to read the story and retweet it.  The negative comments about the app will have reached far and wide – and, no doubt, to Facebook’s boardroom.

But it’s the provenance of the story that gave it legs.  We’re seeing a return to form in media – although it’s supposedly highly fragmented, it is, in fact, driven by hugely important internet based media assets with stronger provenance than most others.

Therefore it’s back to basics for PR.  Stories that are most likely to influence the writers on TechCrunch and Wired are those from organisations that have gained credibility.  These are organisations that are likely to be visible on social media, that deliver their stories via social media pressrooms.  However, it’s also about building social media credibility for the brand and for the media owners – by providing useful and relevant fact-rich information.  Such information may not have a self-seeking agenda.

Rather PR in the new media age is about greasing the wheels of a media industry that does things differently.  Stories are no longer pitched – rather they emerge out of relationships.