According to the Council of Public Relations firms, PR is on the rise this year. This leaves more room for growth in 2010. It is more important than ever for our bread and butter of the nation (small businesses) to keep their budgets in tact for marketing and public relations costs. Staying visible to consumers is key to maintaining a strong business.

Using social media is a free option to help your company stay visible. Although not everyone has an account, there are still ways to reach your target audience.

Using tools like Squidoo, Digg, and Twitter  allow many small business owners to promote their brand. Some users claim to be “social media experts”, however the truth is, anyone can utilize social media to promote themselves or business. In my opinion, social media is not rocket science. If you make enough time and effort, you can easily brand yourself!

Do not get me wrong, anyone can sign-up for a Twitter account, however it takes skill and strategy implemented by PR teams to help their clients. Working together, getting to know your client/product can prove to be successful with many of the free social media tools available.

With PR on the rise, it is great news for those of us investing our time building our careers in this field. The future seems bright for us young professionals, keep up the good work!