Want to join the discussion of “How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging PR Business”?

I did yesterday when I began the day writing my take-aways from Part 1: “The True Value of New PR” — Putting the Public Back in PR by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge — and ended the day engaging in an online chat with the Social Media Book Club discussing Part 2 of the book.

The five chapters in PPBPR’s second section covered these areas:

Not ever having participated in an online chat before [I can’t believe I’m admitting that], I was surprised to see how easy it was to (a) sign up at Tweetchat through my Twitter account, (b) write in the hashtag #smbookclub, and (c) VOILA, I was in and waiting to begin.

Lara McCulloch, an event planner from Ontario, moderated the discussion for the seven or so Tweeple dropping in. The key points discussed included the following:

• For effective blogger relations, PR people need to read and understand what a blogger writes about BEFORE contacting him or her.
• If bloggers have a large following, then the comment section can be as valuable as the blog post itself.
• Gobblygook [i.e, meaningless jargon and cliche expressions] does not belong in press releases.
• Many companies are finding the news releases, distributed by wire services, may only be necessary for huge product launches.
• PR is all about relationships, and if you want someone to write about you, you need to establish a relationship.
• The problem with most traditional releases is that they are designed for a mass audience — and that’s no longer effective, either for the media person or the end consumer.
• Marketers and PR people need to stop thinking about sending messages, but rather tell stories, i.e. telling rather than selling.
• Social News releases focus on the facts clearly stated in an easy-to-read format as in the template offered in the book.
• Newswriting — and the teaching of newswriting — is a different ballgame these days.
• Print media is looking for community engagement and is doing more stories on local residents.
• VNRs are time-consuming and expensive, but they are very effective.
• Video logs, or Vlogs, are not as common as their likability would suggest because they are more time-consuming to create, and they are not as searchable as text-based blogs.
• Corporate types find it difficult to get into the dialogues that ought to be achieved through company blogging.

The final task of the discussion was to list some quotes that resonated with us:

“We earn the relationship we deserve.”

“To be an effective marketer, you must think like the consumer.”

“”The true influencers are the peers of your customers.”

“Blogs are little First Amendment machines.”

“The game is changing: It is no longer about survival of the fittest, but also the most capable and sincere.”

Don’t forget that you can join next week’s discussion of Part 3 to share your ideas on “Participating in Social Media” – Tuesday, Sept 15 at 8 pm EDT/5 pm PDT. Log into Tweetchat and put in the hashtag #smbookclub.

If you missed this week’s chat, but want to add to the conversation, please write your comments below.