The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly

This book gives great details on new media. It was a great guide for quick references especially if you're looking for key words/summaries when describing new marking and pr opportunities in recommendation memos or presentations.

Traditional PR is dead, what is important is creating compelling online content that will both bring search engine traffic and inspire traditional media to cover you, your product, your service.

That is the basic premise of the The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly."

The underlying belief is that the ability to speak directly to your "publics," the people you want to reach, has dramatically changed the landscape. We've moved from a media-centric communication model to an online model. The process has changed from traditional media relations (working with reporters to get your story out, hoping that they will get the facts straight) to directly getting your story out on your website, blog, podcast or YouTube video.

And, perhaps more importantly, the model has changed from one-way controlled communication to a two-way conversation.

This model has definitely worked for the author, who has been writing a blog for years, and has been consistently covered by the media as a direct result of his writing.

Interestingly, both the "new" and "old" approaches require many of the same skills. The ability to listen to your market. To convey the news, craft a story, and write intelligently. To be creative, persistent and consistent.

In those ways, the "new" rules highly depend on some "old" (and unfortunately scarce) skills. This book reminds all PR and marketing people (myself included) of the importance of those skills, whether we are doing traditional or "new" marketing and PR.

I've read probably 10,000 plus pages about marketing on the net. From articles, blog posts, eBooks, white papers, news releases and throw in a ton of video and audio.

I consider this book the most comprehensive and insightful of the lot.

The book is very "production-oriented." What I mean by that is that every facet of marketing and PR that David Scott discusses is presented from the viewpoint of your presence on the net being PRODUCTIVE. Not pretty, not snazzy, not high tech...PRODUCTIVE.

If you're selling a product or service, he gives solid advice on how to increase revenues. If you're interested in recruiting volunteers for a cause, the advice fits to get ACTUAL RECRUITS. And so on for virtually any kind of activity on the net.

Having an orientation of this kind is refreshing.

In "the New Rules", David hits on this key point - to survive and grow as a company today, you must learn to create relevant content in new and compelling ways. There is an opportunity to communicate directly with customers now that the "middleman" of media is going away.

My copy is completely marked up, and I refer back to it religiously in regards to news release best practices, blogging and application stories. I strongly recommend.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR is an in-depth exploration of the principles and philosophies behind marketing. It begins by examining the "rules" of the past, and exploring the mindset that went into the ways in which marketing was handled and why, and contrasts them with the new "rules". The book then explores the various avenues open to today's marketers: blogs, press releases, podcasts, forums, wikis, viral campaigns, and content-rich websites of your own.

Although I must admit that I found Parts I and II of the book a bit dry to read, they do an excellent job of providing insight into the ideas behind marketing, delves into the differences between the old and new rules, and providing a general understanding of each of the marketing avenues listed above.

But for me Part III, "Action Plan for Harnessing the Power of the New Rules," is where the book comes alive for me. It's there that we transition from the passiveness of discussing philosophy into actually putting the New Rules to work for you. At first we learn how to build a marketing plan, and then we transition into creating the content for our marketing materials, the kind of content that will distinguish you from the rest and earn your potential buyers' respect and loyalty. From there we move on to each of the avenues previously mentioned, giving each a chapter of its own so that we learn how to utilize each of them to great effect, always keeping the customer's needs and wants at the forefront of our thinking.

I don't feel that The New Rules of Marketing and PR alone will teach you all that you need to know to be a successful marketer. One of the book's "flaws", such as it is, is that it has more of a corporate business-minded slant, making some of the ideals it presents not as accessible to those of us who run smaller businesses. Nor will it teach you all you need to know to write effective ad copy or press releases, although you will come away understanding the goals to strive for when writing them. But what the book does very well is introduce you to the world of marketing, and give you an understanding of the "old rules" as a foundation to teach you about the "new rules," and if you are a small business owner like myself with little to no knowledge of the ins and outs of marketing, it will provide you with the mindset necessary to become a better, more savvy marketer.

As a primer to begin your study of marketing, this is an excellent resource.

- Gregory Bernard Banks, author, reader, reviewer