The Daily Show gives a whole new insight into social networking. So before you spend a billion pounds on the next big thing in social networking have a look at this critique.

So YouTube is worth nearly a billion pounds - not bad of 18 months work. I realise we don’t get paid as much as our mothers / girlfriends / wives think we are worth, but even Ashley Cole could not complain on that one.

But has everyone forgotten the dot com crash? Of course there is a reason why this time is different. Yet, the issue of copyright could scupper things before there is a return for buyers Google. There were a few cases against YouTube for copyright, but now it has cash how could a time rich cash hungry lawyers resist working on his client’s behalf?

As long as they still have the Daily Show clips – brilliant US satire – I do not care. And yes it is great and important.

Can you credit that?

Well, that is the claim from a business blog B2Day, which has been doing a little research. The results seem to have been sourced from a website called Indeed that uses over 50 million salaries to base such statements on.

If true it really shows how we are communicating is changing, and at speed.

If in any doubt about the increasing influence of social networking sites there is ample proof of their value in the eyes on commercial organisations.

Google is reportedly preparing a bid of $1.6 billion for YouTube according to a BBC story.

YouTube was only founded in early 2005 and yet it is worth £856 million!

Is that a realistic figure or have we forgotten the dot com crash?

Whichever way you look at it online PR practitioners realise that social media cannot be ignored, whether they are over, under or correctly valued in dollars, pounds or monopoly currencies.

Online PR will be the buzzword for communication professionals in 2007; it should have been so much earlier.

The Manchester Evening News recently featured a piece in its media business section commenting on the advent of this phenomenon.

True, the increasing popularity of blogging and social media sites as well as RSS feeds and other developments are making online PR all the stronger as time goes on. So perhaps the levee is about to break and this is the time when online PR will really grow in popularity. I realise some PR professionals have been invloved in online PR for some time and it is nothing novel or original to them.

However, with the increasing popularity and importance of online PR I have submitted an article - written with Simon Wharton of Push On - to acknowledge its increasing importance.

There is a new online dating service for media types called Mediadates.

Its a new site so it is a little sparse, especially in Manchester. But give it a little time. (Thanks to Connect Media for finding that one).

I thought this might tie in as the perfect link between Media Dates and the last entry on social networking.

There is a social networking site called Beautiful People that is only for the, you are ahead of me, beautiful people. The members decide whether you are worthy of being a fellow member based on looks and other essential criteria. I might try to gain membership to ascertain how low their standards are. Lucky for me that Media Dates is free and easy.

Online PR will be the big buzzword over the coming year.

Perhaps it should have been some time ago, but the PR industry has its fair share of technophobes; business can also be slow to recognise opportunities. Indeed, even if they do see the value of a certain technology they often fail to take advantage until their competitors do so and that forces their hand. I only have to think of the Internet and the poor sites that are out there to reinforce that point.

Anyway, the BBC seems to be up on the latest changes. There is an interesting article on the proliferation and power of the online social networking scene on the BBC website.

The rise of the social networking scene will further give power to the individual to communicate without having to pass a media gate keeper. That means marketing and PR will have to take note, understand the changes and work with the progression of information technology.

How many will take note and act on those three steps? I am not sure about that - I suspect not many for some time to come.

And will it become clear to clients those that have and have not taken note? To the most marketing savvy the answer is “yes.”

But that is not always the majority and so just as substandard websites exist, so will substandard marketing and PR campaigns.