By Peter Brinch
My last "Between the Pages" column, "Mastering the Masters, Part 2," appeared in October, and PR News provided it to more than 3,200 attendees at the four-day Public
Relations Society of America International Conference in Philadelphia.
At the conference I participated in several sessions and got plenty of commentary and feedback on that column. More important, I received an idea for this column from Karen P.
Katz, a career strategist based in Pennsylvania. Ms. Katz guides executives and professionals toward career transition and success strategies using traditional and Web 2.0 tools.
Having read my last two columns she suggested I talk about a few books that are not "so yesterday."
I did some research and found books published within the last twelve months that deal with the changing nature of work and the volatile employment landscape for communicators. Here
are three that will help practitioners stay competitive.
*Career Distinction -- Stand Out By Building Your Brand, by William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson, Wiley, 2007.
Like the Biblical injunction, "physician, heal thyself," this book takes the approach that PR people should, first and foremost, do their own PR. Arruda and Dixson maintain that,
in today's marketplace since your reputation is your most valuable career asset, you must be proactive and continuously position yourself for ?success.
They postulate a personal branding paradigm and provide topical case studies of successful professionals in a variety of fields. While some of the phrases ("unique value
proposition") are outmoded, the authors provide clear guidelines on how to identify all components of your brand environment, and how to establish your personal style. They then offer
suggestions on how to make "your brand environment consistent with your unique promise of value."
Additional information at:
- http://blog.williamarruda.com/
- http://www.reachcc.com/
*The New Influencers -- A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media, by Paul Gillin, Quill Driver Books, 2007.
Hasn't corporate communications, public relations, reputation management, etc. always been about influencing influentials? At various times, such individuals were people of
privilege, power and rank.
In the brave new media world of today, almost anyone can be an influential. The question is, "who are the influentials du jour, and what is the best way to reach them?"
Because of his background in tech journalism (he is the former editor of Computerworld), Gillin was among the first to spot and explore the new phenomena of blogging,
podcasting and myriad other consumer-driven activities that are bringing word-of-mouth advertising to life and redefining the roles of media and marketing.
This book is both a primer and a crash course on the social networks media phenomenon and the fact that marketers (regardless of what they are marketing) must exchange information
with their consumers via conversations, instead of just delivering information via advertising.
In 17 extremely readable chapters, Gillin postulates that consumer-driven influencers are in an early evolutionary state and current favorites such as blogging and podcasting are
only the beginning. So to harness the power of the Web in your communications efforts, read this book and make your new mantra communicate directly with important and influential
constituents.
Additional information at:
*The New Rules of Marketing & PR, by David Meerman Scott, Wiley, 2007.
American communications history has a recurring theme: "out with the old, in with the new." For example, the Pony Express was founded in April 1860 and rode off into the sunset for
the last time in October 1861 as the victim of a better information distribution system--the telegraph. The obvious lessons: First, you can't do today's communications work with
yesterday's skills and infrastructure. Second, change is going to happen with or without you.
The Web is the biggest, broadest and fastest sea change in communications since Gutenberg enabled mass printing half a millennium ago. What does that portend for communications
practitioners?
Scott documents the fundamentals of the evolving new media toolbox such as blogs, podcasting, wikis, online discussion forums, social media, video, Web sites and search marketing
and states that most organizations use some of these tools regularly. But to maximize the reach of our messageswe must stop thinking of them as disparate elements of a communications
campaign and use an approach that integrates the best of traditional PR and marketing tactics with the reach of new media tools.
He counsels that when pitching mainstream print and broadcast media, extend your research to include blogs. "How difficult can it be to read the blogs of reporters you're trying to
pitch? It teaches you precisely what interests them. And then you email them with something interesting that they are likely to write about rather than spamming them with unsolicited
press releases."
Sounds obvious when you read it here, but how many of you have actually done it?
Additional information at:
CONTACT:
Peter Brinch directs marketing strategy and communications at CityBizList. He can be reached at [email protected].