“Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR” was appropriately the fourth and final class reading. In many respects, Groundswell, Here Comes Everybody, and The Long Tail should be prerequisite reading requirements for anyone who is about to read this book.
Brian Solis and Deirdre Breckenridge have written a “how to manual” for today’s public relations practitioners. This book is a must read for public relations professionals that wish to survive in the Web 2.0 environment. Solis and Breakenridge use their own experience in the PR industry coupled with their knowledge and understanding of the new age of communication to lay out their suggested framework and recipe for PR success in today’s digital market.
Groundswell set the stage regarding the current state of play, Here Comes Everybody explained the social and human behaviors in this new age of communication, and The Long Tail explored the emergence of niche consumption. Putting the Public Back in Public Relations is a “nuts and bolts” user manual for PR 2.0 sucess.
The landscape has changed
Part 1: The True Value of New PR
Along with identifying what is wrong with current PR practices, Solis and Breakenridge challenge the status quo and explain the difference between PR 2.0 and Public Relations. They discuss the emergence of blogs and compare new journalism to traditional journalism. Like Chris Anderson, they contend that bloggers are just one example of mass democratization and publication. In the final chapter of this first section, they discuss the importance of personal relationships in PR. This is important, because regardless of technological advances, personal relationships remain the most critical ingredient.
Part 2: Facilitating Conversations: New Tools and Techniques
Solis and Breakenridge introduce the reader to a myriad of new tools and techniques that exist in Web 2.0. More importantly, they introduce innovative tactics to successful operations. Some of these tactics include: blogger relationships, social media releases, video news releases, and corporate blogging.
Part 3: Participating in Social Media
Solis and Breakenridge explain that engagement with social media is essential, but will involve new and innovative approaches. In other words, just because you’re using social media, doesn’t mean you can employ tired and outdated tactics. These new tactics must not be confused with standard marketing and PR tactics of the past. Solis and Breakenridge provide advice and examples of how to integrate a successful social media plan into any PR strategy.
Part 4: P.R. 2.0: A Promising Future
Here they explore community managers and customer service 2.0, socialization of communication, breaking news and metrics for PR 2.0. Again, they discuss the new challenges with respect to new influences vs. traditional journalism. Specifically, they explore how bloggers are involved with breaking news stories and the role of social media and the news process.
Part 5: Convergence
Finally, Solis and Breakenridge explain how the practices of PR 1.0 and PR 2.o can converge into today’s new environment and allow PR professional to succeed in this changed landscape. As the other readings focused on Web 2.0 from a macro level, I found this reading to be a micro view for the individual PR practitioner. This book relates to changes that each individual professional must proactively take to steer their respective company towards PR success.
The Coast Guard PR Professional
A rare benefit that the Coast Guard has related to PR is that generally public affairs officers complete graduate work in communication before they are assigned to executing any PR responsibilities. As such, many of the officers stepping into PR roles are well-informed with respect to PR 2.0 through recent advanced education. In fact, their overall inexperience doesn’t come with any of the PR 1.0 “baggage” and thus there really isn’t a status quo to change or overcome. I believe the Coast Guard is well suited to succeed with PR 2.0.
