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Book Review

A Wonderful Book on
How to Do PR Right
Strategic Communications Planning For Effective Public Relations and Marketing, 5th Edition

by Laurie J. Wilson and Joseph D. Ogden
Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 2008, 284pp
Buy it at Barnes&Noble

Review by Katie Delahaye Paine

A new PR/Communications/Marketing book shows up in my mailbox every other week. If I know the author, I might actually open it up and read it. If not, the first thing I do is see if there's even a mention of measurement anywhere in the text. If not, it goes right into the donations bin at the Durham Public Library.

When Strategic Communications Planning arrived this week I immediately conducted the measurement test. With my usual skeptical and biased perspective I turned to Chapter 10, "Effective Communications Measurement and Evaluation." The first thing I read was a page on measuring social media -- which I apparently authored. Not only does it promote my basic rules of measurement, it offers up "Katie Paine's Nine Immutable Laws for Measuring Social Media."

Flattery gets you everywhere, of course, so I was hooked. I went back to the beginning and read the entire book. It's great. I suggest that this book be required reading, not just in every PR class on the planet, but in most PR firms as well. I know anyone in my organization that even dreams of speaking to a client will have to read this book first. It's a wonderful overview of how to do PR right.

The core premise is that public relations is all about building and maintaining relationships. (Blatant self-promotion warning.) In many ways, this book is the prequel to my own book, Measuring Public Relationships. If you want proof, look no further than the title of Chapter 1: "Trust and the Relationship-Building Approach to Communications."

It starts with a wonderful explanation of the transition from one-way, publicity-driven communications to the synchronous two-way conversations at the heart of PR today. The reason for the new 2008 edition is the impact of social media on PR relationships, and there's a lot more information on social media than any other PR text book I've seen. And it's great, highly practical advice.

My favorite part of the book is its organization and simplicity. Take this, for example:

In public relations we are ultimately trying to get people to:

1. Do something we want them to do

2. Not do something we don't them to do

3. Let us do something we want to do

And of course, once you've identified which of these three outcomes you want, measurement becomes remarkably simple.

The style and format are a key element to the book's success. It's beautifully laid out, with clear, easy-to-read text and lots of great "Tips from the Pros" that reinforce the points being made. It's full of case studies and exercises that prove and back up the lessons.

So whether you're new to PR or an old pro who wants to freshen your skills and learn more about social media, this is a great place to start.

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1. You’ll learn how to use hard numbers to prove the results of your PR efforts. (Plus, it's free.)

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