The Seven-Year Itch.

The seven-year itch. Is it the same with a business as it is in a marriage? I honestly can’t speak to the scratching that allegedly occurs when one crosses the seven-year mark with a spouse, but I can tell you that having crossed that mark with GroundFloor Media, I am not sure how one would have had time to even stop and scratch.

For those of us in the PR world, it’s amazing to look back and see how our industry has evolved so quickly. Back in 2001…
• People heard “Facebook” and thought, “what a great new name for the yellow pages”
• VNRs were all the rage
• Local newspaper reporters had specific beats
• $25 gift limits for reporters were laughable
• PR agencies barely looked at a start up unless they were willing to fork over at least $20k per month
• Farm reporters and kindergarten teachers were being hired to run major accounts at technology-focused PR firms – because there were no other warm bodies to hire
• Press conferences were still in vogue.
• Tracking a crisis happened on the evening news; not on Twitter
• An opt-in SMS campaign sounded like a public health program for teens
• IM was cool and the word “blog” sounded like a bad bug bite
• The SEC didn’t dream of recognizing Corporate Blogs as public disclosure
• Newspapers wouldn’t have discussed integrating their online and print news operations
• Many of us still had dial-up Internet access
• Faxing press releases was still commonplace
• Telecommuting was frowned upon

Now, traditional advertising dollars are being siphoned over to implement strategic, creative, viral PR programs; clients are (rightfully) demanding a strong ROI on their PR spend; and as practitioners, we are constantly challenging ourselves to stay ahead of a curve that keeps bending by the minute.

My guess -- anyone who has time to even think about stopping to scratch that itch won’t need to worry about what’s next.