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

A bit dated.

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 RelationsKaren FrebergDoctoral Student[...]University of Tennessee

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.

I was really glad that I can get and read this book. It discusses the new influence of PR unlike others only discussed case by case. It also brought up many interesting ideas that can be apply in PR business. After read it, you would find out the importance of PR.

There is a lot of "why" but very little "how" in this book that bills itself as being about the transformation of the public relations industry brought about by Web 2.0. Page after page describes how social media are supposedly dictating new priorities and practices for PR professionals and their clients. While there is certainly much validity to the author's claims for the growing influence of social media, there is a distinct shortage of practical advice on how the reader is supposed to use it.Unfortunately, the few recommendations the authors do make sound like they were written by PR practitioners (which, of course, they were). "Engage the bloggers" and "have conversations" are about as specific as the advice gets, with few examples of exactly what those bromides mean. Much is made of the need for one-on-one communication rather than scatter-shot distribution of press releases, but there is absolutely no explanation of how this is supposed to be done in a time-efficient manner.What's really missing is a hint of how PR campaigns built on social media platforms are supposed to reach the great unwashed--the non-techie consumer (millions and millions of them) who never blog, tweet, or even look at the Facebook page their kids set up for them. Publicizing the latest chipset for tablets via Gizmodo may well be the way to go, but how do you sell Buicks online?