Can PR drive the uptake of social media

Steve Rubel says medium and big agencies should get behind blogging, BL Ochman  (hey do these two NYC dudes agree on anything?) says that's BS and that big agencies are the furtherest behind in understanding the Internet. Which is true despite Edelman's very public identification with cluetrainer David Weinberger.
I agree with BL in the sense that I think smaller agencies and solo practitioners are more likely to adopt and drive the uptake of new ideas. Change comes from the periphery not the centre - as the saying goes.
Big agencies tend to talk revolution but just see social media as another product line.
In February this year Hill & Knowlton got the bright idea of a blogging breakfast for quote the whole PR & IT community and I was invited (as the only PR blogger in Australia at the time it made sense) but when they realised I was a competitior (d'oh) I got quickly disinvited.
So I don't fancy Steve's chances of getting these paranoid suits in a forum together. But good luck anyway.
(PS Steve only contacts me these days when I gratuitously insult him so I don't expect him to continue the conversation just because I disagree, with Steve you need more savagery than that to prompt a response from his bloated A-list frame, perhaps that's why BL said his idea was BS not just wrong)
UPDATE: I've just noticed that H&K blogger Niall Cook (no relation) claims: "Our team in Australia were also early adopters, running events on blogging last year."  This takes me a little by surprise because I seem to remember that they promoted the blog breakfast mentioned above as a first of its kind in Australia. The blog associated with this H&K blogging event seems to have died and there is no mention of blogging that I can see on the H&K Australia  website. Oh sorry the blog has moved to here. Judge for yourself the seminars and the posting seems a little infrequent for 'early adoptors'. Still, that's a long way ahead of the other big PR outfits downunder.

Comments

[B.L. Ochman]

Who you calling a dude Trevor?

BL

[Niall Cook]

Trevor,

For what it's worth, I responded to Steve's call to action exactly so that we could get the social media skills across our agency up to similar levels as those we see from the smaller agencies and solo practioners.

That's what I understood it was all about, why it was targeted at large agencies like ours, and why I agreed to participate.

Reading some of the recent posts on the subject, I don't think that getting caught up in this bun fight is the right way to achieve that any more.