This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

Breakthrough Web PR 2.0 Strategies and Tactics That Work

Forget the “pitch”: Yesterday’s PR techniques just don’t work anymore. That’s the bad news. Here’s the great news: Social Media and Web 2.0 offer you an unprecedented opportunity to make PR succeed more powerfully than ever before. This book shows how to reinvent PR around two-way conversations with traditional and new influencers, bring the “public” back into public relations—and earn a new level of results that just wasn’t possible before now.

Drawing on their unparalleled experience making Social Media work for business, PR 2.0 blogger Brian Solis and industry leader Deirdre Breakenridge show how to transform the way you think, plan, prioritize, and deliver PR services. You’ll learn new ways to build the relationships that matter and reach a new generation of influencers...leverage platforms ranging from Twitter to Facebook...truly embed yourself in the communities that are shaping the future.

Along the way, you’ll learn how to stop being a “publicist” or mere “communicator” and become what your clients or company really need: a genuine enthusiast for the product you represent.

·   What’s wrong with PR--and how to fix it

     Leverage Social Media and Web 2.0 to reinvent PR, build meaningful and valuable relationships--and supercharge its effectiveness

·   Social Media PR--a complete primer

     Build blogger relationships, reinvent the press release, and make social networks the hub of your online brands

·   Why it’s about sociology and anthropology--not technology!

     Master the art of listening and leverage today’s powerful, emerging micromedia

·   Real PR metrics for the Web 2.0 world

     Measure the results that really matter--and demonstrate your value as never before

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 19 Ratings

First 4 chapters redundant but then it gets good - 2009-12-01
Reviewer Rating:
I bought this book with several others including "Twitter Power" and "Barack 20."
In the beginning I was weary of hearing how the "landscape" had changed - PR has changed.... over and over again it became a tired refrain of what we already knew. If you bought the book "Putting the Public Back" you already knew it had changed... what you wanted to know was "how." How to use social media to reinvent your own PR...
After the 4th chapter it got valuable. So if you buy it -- keep reading - in the end I got more takeaways from this than any other book on social networking except the Barack 20 workbook.

A Survival Guide for the Future of Public Relations - 2009-11-29
Reviewer Rating:
I've known Brian Solis through our common industry involvement with social media and the Public Relations world for several years. We've never done business together, but I think of Brian as a thought leader not because he's popular on the social web or because his blogs ranks in the top 5 of Advertising Age Power 150 marketing blogs. (Consistently ranking 1 spot above my own - damn you Brian!)

Brian is a thought leader in the PR and Social Media world because of his leadership in advancing public knowledge on the topics. His thinking has helped pioneer the popularity of the hottest marketing and communications channel since the internet gained mass adoption. The best part is that he's partnered with Deidre Breakenridge, also a pioneer in the world of PR and accomplished author, to document their strategic insight into the changing world of Public Relations and specifically what PR and communications professionals can do to survive and thrive in a word of democratized information.

As an active participant in the PR industry, my own agency's work ([...]) with providing SEO consulting to Public Relations organizations as well as speaking at PR events has provided ample exposure to the explosion in interest in social media for communications. It's more than interest though. For many PR professionals and agencies, it's a desperate need to innovate to stay alive and be competitive.

Companies are driving their PR firms and internal staff to adapt to new media and social technologies in order to remain visible to their customers. Consumer trends in information discovery, consumption and sharing have shifted the centers of influence from traditional media outlets to a combination of bloggers and social media savvy publishers. With those changes afoot, this book offers a 360 degree view in 5 parts for PR professionals to begin participating vs pushing with customers vs users.

Part I: There's something wrong with PR. Putting the Public Back in Public Relations outlines some of the key issues facing public relations professionals and why traditional PR tactics simply aren't as effective. Instead of information conduits, PR practitioners need to be part of the story and conversation. It's about dialogue, not monologue.

Through their own insights and from those in the thick of the PR industry, Solis and Breakenridge cover key issues facing the PR industry and make comparisons between traditional PR and PR 2.0 as well as what role new media PR plays in the changing world of journalism.

Part II: Tools and tactics to join and succeed in customer conversations. Understanding the new world of social and digital PR starts by getting a handle on the language. That means getting rid of terms like "users", "audience" and "messages". It's customers we're trying to reach with information and stories, not generics like "users". Approach marketing more as a consumer and less like a "PR person" to show your investment in knowledge, your empathy for customer needs and understanding of what's important.

The tactics to engage customers outlined in the book include: blogger relations, social media news releases, video news releases (2.0) and corporate blogging. Tips are given in each area as well as tools.

Part III: Social Media is not about the technology, it's about the people. Social tools can be overwhelming, so it's important to remember that tools will change, but the importance of engaging with people will always be important. Using standard marketing tactics and messages with social tools does not lead to engagement. PR professionals would be keen to focus on the sociology of internet communities more than their need to disseminate information.

Participation with social networks (Facebook), micromedia (Twitter) and facilitating those channels to reach PR objectives is more about communicating with people, not at them. Besides outlining the key social roles of PR professionals, the book also provides specific advice on how to integrate those roles into the PR organization.

Part IV: The future for PR is about community. Social media isn't just about PR and can affect all aspects of an organization from marketing to customer service to product development. The role of community relations is essential in a PR 2.0 strategy. As PR professionals participate in communities and tell brand and product stories, they're also in a position to listen to customers and gain valuable insight into the effect of their efforts as well as new communications opportunities. Solis and Breakenridge provide specific guidelines for community managers, developing an inbound and outbound communications program, social tools, rules for breaking news and new metrics for PR 2.0.

Part V: How does it all fit together? The convergence of PR 1.0 and 2.0 means the PR industry needs to embrace the changes brought on by the social web and incorporate expertise from other disciplines such as: web marketing, web analytics, viral marketing, customer service, social tools, focus groups and crowdsourcing, cultural anthropology and market analysis.

As mentioned earlier, PR cannot succeed simply through information distribution, but through content creation and social participation. PR must become part of the conversation with customers.

I've only touched on a few of the key points from the book, which is why you should probably check out the book yourself. But my overall impression is that "Putting the Public Back in Public Relations" is a must-read book for anyone in PR or marketing that wants to stay alive and thrive on the social web. There's a well structured mix of PR industry level setting and social media principles right along with practical tactics and insights readers can implement as soon as they put it down.

Check it out here:

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

Not worth reading - 2009-11-28
Reviewer Rating:
Apart from the title of this book, which caught my attention and made me buy it, the book is not worth reading. Instead of thoughtful analysis, it is unstructured, unfocused, superficial, and filled with hype, platitudes and significant amounts of self-promotion.

Putting the relationship back in PR - 2009-11-16
Reviewer Rating:

Key idea: Public Relations today means attending to relationships. Good PR starts with listening to the desires, needs and pain points of our customers and potential customers. It also starts with an excellent understanding of what our organization can offer to the customer and potential customer. Then, engage in a conversation with the customer and potential customer. This is the crux of what Brian Solis has called PR 2.0.

Ah-has for me:

Solis draws a distinction between "PR 2.0 and "Web 2.0." In fact, he says his PR 2.0 predates the advent of social media. He wants PR practitioners to think first of the relationship, then choose the tactics that are helpful to that relationship.
The truly excellent thing about Web 2.0 is that it unearths conversations we haven't heard before -- or that we had to spend a lot of money to hear. Think of Twitter, blogs, Facebook, etc. as free focus groups.
While it's great to land your company in one of the top-ranked blogs, your bread and butter is the "magic middle" of the blogosphere -- those in the middle of the bell curve who as a group have influence over vast numbers of readers who trust them.
We have to get away from using the terms "messages," "audiences" and "users." Think, instead, of conversations with customers.
Measurement of success can include "number of conversations."

Favorite quotes:

Don't speak in messages. Instead, spark conversations based on the unique requirements of each market segment and the people within them.
The ideal PR professional of the twenty-first century is not only a market expert, but also an informed, socially adept conversationalist -- and we all know, or should know, that listeners make the best conversationalists.
PR is evolving into a hybrid of communications, evangelism, and Web marketing, strung together by the teachings and benefits of sociology, anthropology and psychology.
You must realize that the metrics for transforming one person into an evangelist far outweigh the resources required to repeatedly throw spaghetti on the wall in hopes that it just might stick.
What I liked: Parts II and III. Lots of specific advice on converting our old PR practices into PR 2.0 ways. I recommend the first chapter of Part III to those of you who are intimidated by the new media and despair at ever getting a handle on it. The authors do a great job putting it in perspective.

What I didn't like: Awful wordy. I love Brian's blog posts, even though they always are the longest ones in my feed. The book is loquacious on a grander scale. If you are a reader of Brian's blog, I recommend speed-reading through Par I to get to the good stuff.

Kindle review: This is pretty good for Kindle, even though some of the extended quotes do not render well. On the upside, I now have all my highlights accessible online and on my Kindle.

A New Era for Public Relations - 2009-10-09
Reviewer Rating:
Authors Solis and Breakenridge have compiled a very handy guide to lead the way for a new era of public relations strategy. Indeed, putting the "public" back in "PR" epitomizes a new paradigm for getting any marketing message out in the most effective manner. The old school methodology is no longer going to work. Thanks to such social networks as Twitter and Facebook, it's possible to actively engage like minded people in "real time" doses of information, in a way that's more personal, and more effective.

People simply want to be actively engaged in the entire marketing process; they don't want to be fed a bundle of information, with no feedback or personal intervention. The new format is more dynamic and relevent. Rather than passing along generic messages about a product or service, the smart marketer knows that engaging possible clients in an active discussion about what the company has to offer ensures a better relationship than ever possible; likewise, failure to handle this properly will lead to an inevitable failed initiative.

I recall seeing an interesting "tweet" some time ago on that 140 character limit site, Twitter. The observation was both humorous and accurate: "Twitter is like a PR firm on steroids!" That's a valid point; and one we should all embrace when planning any sort of public relations strategy in this new era of social media.

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