Robin Williams gave his students in the popular movie The Dead Poets Society? A couple things I’ve been reading the past several days have me thinking that same advice may be very apropos for B2B PR and marketing communications professionals right now.

Last week, the Institute of Supply Management reported a solid increase in its manufacturing index for July. And while economic indicators are still somewhat mixed, it seems everyone agrees that we may be seeing some glimmers of light at the end of our long, dark economic tunnel.

No doubt this is welcome news for PR and marketing communications pros. Many — especially in the Advanced Manufacturing & Energy sector — have been diligently working to do more with less for longer than they care to remember. I’ll bet some would really like to take the positive economic indicators as a reason to relax a little, cruise through the next few months and dream of better budgets and resources for 2010. And why not — they’ve earned it!

I’ll tell you why: because their competitors might just follow the advice I read recently on the PRWeek Insider blog from Gibbs & Soell president Luke Lambert. He observed that some companies are wisely starting to more aggressively leverage their strongest brand assets now to catapult market position ahead of the full economic turnaround.

Lambert offered this advice for our profession, encouraging us to be in the moment and act swiftly: ”Be bold and seize a larger share of voice in a less cluttered market, and explore new, non-traditional, focused, and cost-effective ways of communicating with potential customers.”

Or as Robin Williams said in the movie: Carpe Diem! Seize the Day!