2012 Is the Year of the Virtual Protest

With the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation backing off of its decision to rescind funding from Planned Parenthood and the halting of SOPA last month, 2012 is turning out to be the year of the virtual protester.

After Komen made its announcement, a bunch of blog posts, tweets, and hacks helped push the cancer awareness organization to revise its position. Before social media evangelists celebrate another victory, it's worth noting that this isn't just the result of the new Internet-empowered class, but also an indication that entrenched public relations pros are scrambling to manage a new medium and a news cycle that moves faster than ever before. The year of the virtual protest has only just begun. We can see the Internet push-back followed by corporate fumbling everywhere, from Verizon Wireless' and Bank of America's reversals on new fees to the Kayak and Lowe's All American Muslim controversy. As the year goes on, we're sure to see more examples emerge. And as the Internet landscape keeps changing every day, we don't expect the PR establishment to catch up anytime soon.