When I say USA what do you think of? Baseball, stars and stripes, patriotism or maybe even John Wayne, the epitome of rugged masculinity?

When I think of the USA, I think about their expertise in staying ahead of the game when it comes to the communications industry and the fact that they are managing to successfully capitalise on social media networking at a rate unheard of here in the UK.

Did you know that one-third of homes in the UK still lack internet access and although this may seem quite astonishing to any Internet savvy person, it is not surprising considering the rate that technology has changed in recent years, and how there is an expectation that to some degree we are all supposed to just ‘go with the change’ without looking back.

Some people have clearly chosen to buck the trend, whether it’s out of choice, or lack of willingness to learn. The fact that some people are living without internet access does suggest some autonomy on their part to not accept the cyber world that many of us have come to know and (sadly?) rely on.

In the world of public relations staying ahead of the game has increasingly come to mean that we need to embrace the world of social and digital media with open arms and move forward at quite a rate of knots.

Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube, we haven’t been able to ignore the impact of social media both on businesses and individuals. Their varied forms have meant that we have been able to take a step back and look at those which really do help enhance usual communication systems.

So with the above in mind are we living in a sink or swim society? If we choose not to follow in the footsteps of the US and buck the technology trend do we sink or does by embracing social and digital media in all its forms mean that we continue swimming?

I believe this really depends on what you want to achieve. As with anything there are pros and cons and what works for one may not for another, but if we are wanting to stay ahead of the game surely we should take a leaf of the USAs book?

As they do say the proof is in the pudding and with claims that the use of social networks helped win Barack Obama the presidency and with many major companies represented across a growing number of social site, why should we not engage?