With BlogWorld Expo happening in Las Vegas this week, Aaron Brazell, director of technology at b5media has seen fit to put together a panel of very smart people (and me) to discuss five big questions facing the PR industry and the challenge of social media.

The first question was posted today on Aaron’s “Technosailor” blog, and here is my answer:

What do you think the biggest challenge is for the Public Relations industry to fully embrace social media?

Doug Haslam, Topaz Partners: “The biggest challenge for PR at this stage is to stop treating social media as an orphan, distinct from the “traditional” media. While pitching blogs may be different from pitching, say, a business weekly, so too is there a difference between pitching one blog vs. another blog, or one weekly vs. another. The larger point is that all pitches need to be properly targeted, and individualized for the recipient. So, those who would treat blogger relations as a separate effort from other media relations are, in my opinion, making a mistake.

“This leads back to all the talk about “relationships” and conversations.” This isn’t something new, but the need to pitch bloggers and other social media has brought us back– or should bring us back– from the brink of “spam pitch” hell.”

To see the rest of the answers, from Read/Write Web’s Marshall Kirkpatrick, blognation’s Marc Orchant, social media consultant Cathryn Hrudicka, and Brian Solis of FutureWorks and the PR 2.0 blog, please visit Technosailor.