“Public relations” isn’t “media relations,” folks. The definition of PR seems to have moved away from its literal meaning — relating to and interacting with the public. If I focus my attention on individuals — or any number of “second-tier” websites and blogs (or third-tier or fourth-tier or even the guy who only gets 3 hits a year) — I can reach a massive audience. Those individuals appreciate even a moment of your time — particularly if you’re working for a company they adore — and will become extensions of your PR efforts (not necessarily your media efforts, of course), telling their friends, Twitter followers, and everyone else about your company and its products. They want to help you succeed. Let them do that. It just takes a bit of your time.

Three more luminaries have tossed their opinions into the mix, and those are collected here for your reading pleasure. It’s still not actually a roundtable… more like a trough. A trough of knowledge. So step up to the trough, little piggies (yes, still got swine flu on the brain) and suck up this nutritious opinion.

Again, the question posed was, “In your experience, how has the emergence and growth of social media and social networking affected or changed the way companies interact with their customers?”

Of course you can read the rest of the article, but the gist of it is that, according to a Nielsen Online study, only 40% of the people who post on Twitter this month will still be there next month. But… but… Oprah and Ellen and MC Hammer use Twitter. Surely Ashton Kutcher can’t be campaigning for global prominence on a service that can’t even keep an audience. That’s what you’d be saying if you’re one of those people who actually cares about celebrities and their one-way communication on Twitter.

I get it, social networks are all the rage (see my roundtable post coming soon.) But as with all formal business, why would you leave something to chance? With the unreliability of the ever-growing Twitter, is it really fair to assume that I’m going to get your DM for assets in a timely manner? Or [...]

This site isn’t just going to be about pretty people talking about pretty things, you know. We actually do hope to generate some intelligent discussion on issues that are important to marketers and consumers alike. To get that discussion going we’re going to do occasional roundtables about relevant topics, having our contributors chime in with their thoughts.

Hit the jump to hear the responses to this question from luminaries Scott Steinberg, Sean Hollister, Douglass Perry and Rob Fleischer:

In your experience, how has the emergence and growth of social media and social networking affected or changed the way companies interact with their customers?