Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR [Hardcover]

Not a bad book. I thought it read pretty well. It's full length, has some good content, and is current as far as I could see when it comes to the topic of social media MARKETING (SMM). And it presents SMM from the slant of a competent up-to-date public relations professional. If you are a public relations professional and have not yet crawled out of the Dark Ages and become computer literate, then I highly recommend you give this book a read. But for the rest of us who have been following SMM (whether we are public relations specialists or not), then I didn't really see much new covered or included in this tome. As a result I am going to drop my star rating for it down a notch. The book is broken into the following 5 parts and 19 chapters:

Part I. The true value of new PR (1-5)
Part II. Facilitating conversations: New tools & techniques (6-10)
Part III. Participating in social media (11-14)
Part IV. PR 2.0: A promising future (15-18)
Part V. Convergence (19)

0.1 -The socialization of media & PR 2.0
0.2 -Introduction: Social media is the reinvention of public relations
1. What's wrong with PR?
2. PR 2.0 versus public relations
3. PR 2.0 in a Web 2.0 world
4. Traditional versus new journalism
5. PR is about relationships
6. The language of new PR
7. Blogger relations
8. Social media releases (SMRs)
9. Video news releases (VNR) 2.0
10. Corporate blogging
11. Technology does not override the social sciences
12. Social networks: The online hub for your brand
13. Micromedia
14. New "marketing" roles
15. Community managers & customer service 2.0
16. Socialization of communication & service
17. The rules for breaking news
18. A new guide to metrics
19. PR 2.0 & PR 1.0 equals putting the public back in PR
A. The SEC & the importance of recognizing corporate blogs as public disclosure
B. It's alive! A roadmap to the social media dynamic landscape

I did not see a chapter on Investor Relations (IR). And since we all know that is ALL about public relations in large companies I viewed that as a gap, hole or deficiency in the book. I don't consider it to be something that can easily be merged into the topic of "corporate blogging." This is especially true after the authors included Appendix A regarding SEC regulations.

My favorite part of the book was Appendix B where the authors include a grid of URLs and short explanations for each. I found it to be a wonderful crib sheet or toolkit for an SMM professional to use when building his or her marketing and PR game plans. 4 stars!

Finally a PR book that doesn't suck! In fact, it's jam-packed with actual, tactical things you can do for your client TODAY, to start mattering in social universe. Too many PR books get bogged down by all theory (fluff) and no substance (meat). While this book does perhaps repeat one too many times the whole "we're no longer talking at people, but rather engaging in a conversation" mantra, it is by far the most useful PR book I've ever read. I won't read any PR book that is more than a year old and w/ a publishing date of March 2009, everything still seems relevant (today, anyway). Great read Brian.

In the course of taking public relations classes for about seven years now - from my first Introduction to Public Relations course at the University of Florida to going on for my Masters in Strategic Public Relations at USC, to now taking PR Strategies, Crisis Communications, and PR Management (Theory) at the University of Tennessee. In every class, we would of course be using a classic PR textbook, or we would have to buy the course packet of readings that the professor felt was more appropriate for the class.

However, I came across a public relations book a few days ago that is both refreshing and enlightening that offers strategic insights into the field, discusses real world cases and issues that public relations professionals are dealing with in this changing business economy, and where PR as a profession is going to the future. The book that I am talking about is "Putting the Public Back in Public Relations" by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge.

The book has a lot to offer to not only established public relations professionals who have been working in the field for years, but for the younger generation of public relations professionals that are just about to enter the workplace in their first job. Future practitioners and professionals need to understand what is the current status of the field and where it will be heading (here is a great post by Brian Solis from his web site PR 2.0 on this very issue). There were several points that I liked about the book - first, it was very thorough in the realm of discussing the impact of social media on the public relations field. If you want to have a book that details you all of the elements of social media and how to use them effectively - this book then is a must-have!

Second, what I do like in the book is that it is very upfront and direct on what public relations professionals need to do. Unlike some PR textbooks where the author may go on and on for pages about something that they could have said in two sentences, both Solis and Breakenridge provide a nice structured frame in their writing with a lot of content for the reader to process and reflect upon. Plus, there are so many topics that are covered in this book that are very hip and relevant to the public relations professional today. From understanding the new language of the new PR to understanding how a social media press release works to looking at where PR will be in the future (PR 2.0 +PR 1.o = Putting the Public back in Public Relations) - it is all very insightful and what a great resource for PR professionals. I do agree with the authors that we as Public Relations professionals need to make sure that we are establishing long-term and effective relationships with our audiences, and we need to be online and use social media to understand it fully.

The only thing that I wished that the authors would have done in this book is to address an issue that is indeed present in regards to social media and public relations - and that is there seems to be a struggle between what the practitioners in public relations feel about social media and how they use it for their daily PR practices, and how the PR academicians and researchers perceive this new form of technology and how they are using this in the classroom. I have definitely seen a huge gap in this area - and for professors, we want to give our students to tools and resources that they will need to be successful in the workplace and at the first job - besides, these are going to be the leaders of the PR field, and it is our obligation to make sure that they know where the field stands in terms of social media and public relations - and what they need to know.

On another note, as a student and future PR professor / researcher - this would be something that I would be interested in looking at specifically. For example, what would be some of the skills that the authors would suggest that are essential for students to have at their first position? What types of class activities / assignments would they recommend professors give their students? Also, what is their perception of the gap between the practitioners in PR and the academic community in regards to social media - is there even a gap, and if there is one - how do we bridge together to become a more integrated field?

So, in summary - I would highly recommend the new book "Putting the Public back in Public Relations" to not only PR practitioners and professors, but also to students (undergraduate and graduate) in Public Relations and Marketing to get a great resource on the latest in social media and PR from two established professionals in the field.

Hope you all are having a great day!

Best Wishes,
School of Advertising and Public Relations
Karen Freberg
Doctoral Student

[...]

University of Tennessee

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 25 reviews  4.2 out of 5 stars