I touch down in San Diego Sunday morning for my first PRSA national conference in 8 years. This time, I’m attending not as a PR professional or educator, but as a PR blogger — a media person in search of a story. (Stop your snickering!)

Photo from Creative Commons.

What does this mean? I have no idea. But as a “credentialed journalist” in a tough economic year, I’m not expecting a press room stocked with champagne and caviar. OK, it would be nice. But I’m told PRSA has eliminated the media room altogether, an anachronism from an analog age.

(Update 11/5/09: PRSA email says there is a “media center” at the conference. I stand corrected, but I still don’t need it. Opps! See next update. I guess I DO need it!)

No matter. I’ll find a place to collect my thoughts and dash out a few lines of copy. But don’t count on detailed coverage of the sessions or keynoters. I’m one of those oddballs who sees live blogging and tweeting as disrespectful to the speakers.

Reining in the budget. I stopped attending PRSA conferences when the out-of-pocket cost exceeded my academic travel budget by 4-fold. This year, it’s a bit different. I snagged a cheap flight and booked a 4-star hotel near the conference at less than half the conference hotel rate. The Hilton Bayfront, via hotels.com, is just $109 a night. I’m told you can find even better rates on Priceline.com, but I don’t trust Captain Kirk since he gained all that weight and became a travel shill.

Talk to me about tweet-ups. I’ll be watching the Twitter hashtag #PRSA09 for news about social gatherings in San Diego. I way more interested in talking with conference goers than listening to presentations. But I’m thinking the place for me, at least on Monday night, is Bub’s Dive Bar in Pacific Beach.

Bub’s is where the Steeler faithful of San Diego meet to worship. If you didn’t know, our World Champions in black and gold meet the Broncos on Monday night football. That’s a 5:30 start on the West Coast. A word of caution to the Steeler Nation: No boilermakers until halftime — or about 7 o’clock.

What will I write about? Maybe nothing at all. But look for some short blasts on my Posterous site and my usual snide remarks on Twitter. I doubt I’ll have time to write much for ToughSledding until I return, since real blogging requires focus.

Update 11/6/09: Just learned the conference center doesn’t have wifi available. Who knew? So I won’t be doing any microblogging on this trip, which means no Posterous and no Twitter. That’s fine with me. It’ll improve my focus! The media center at the conference does have an Internet connection, so at least I can check my email! And don’t suggest I run out and get an iPhone. Ain’t gonna happen.

Thanks to Arthur Yann and Diane Gomez, the PR pros from PRSA, for offering me a shot a covering this meeting as a “media guy.” I wouldn’t be making the trip were it not for their invitation.

Oh, yeah. If you hear of other places where the Steeler Nation is meeting up on Monday night, drop me a line, OK? I may not make it to Bub’s, but I gotta be with my people.

Photo from opendemocracy.net

When the Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago, I was a 37-year-old grad student studying social change. Hey, I was a late bloomer!

Each week, as our seminar convened, my classmates found something exciting to discuss as we dutifully applied our sociological theories to the events unfolding in Europe.

Two decades later, I don’t remember much about those theories. But I do remember wondering precisely what prompted the citizens of East and West Berlin to grab their hammers and tear down the wall. Surely, a small group of activists triggered the action in much the same way rebel colonists arranged to toss tea into Boston Harbor in 1773.

Behind most social movements is a core of committed souls who,  depending on their actions, become the heroes or villains of history. The effective ones use tools of public relations to influence opinion and drive action.

Unless you spend time with the literature of sociology, you probably don’t think of  PR professionals as “change agents.”  But that’s precisely our role: to influence and ultimately change human behavior to the benefit of our clients. When it works, it’s a powerful thing to behold, but comes with great responsibility.

Enter the role of ethics. If you believe PR people are, in fact, “professionals,” it follows that you must believe in a strong code of ethics. Ethical conduct is the imperative of every “professional,” by definition. And nearly every professional code of ethics stipulates a duty to client, but also a duty to society and its rules.

As we support those who pay our salaries and fees, how can we ensure the plans we implement serve both client and public? Or is it simply not our problem? And what happens when client interests conflict with public interest, as they so often  do — like here:

Marketing the Boffo Burger. Would  you resist if asked to promote the newest double bacon burger deluxe? After all, no one forces customers to eat these artery-clogging monsters, right? But have you studied the statistics relating to heart disease and obesity lately? I’m a libertarian at heart, and I like a good burger, too. But I also know that fast-food burgers have a negative impact on public heath. How much information does the client owe the public? And what price will society eventually pay for this gluttony?

Community relations. Imagine opening a new store that offers low prices (always) and a range of choices to serve low-income shoppers. Great economic news? Perhaps. But you know the impact Big Wally’s will have on the smaller merchants in the community. They can’t compete. You also know how a “low prices always” philosophy drives manufacturing jobs off shore. Does having another Big Wally’s down the street really serve the public interest? I’m not so sure, and I wonder if Wally’s PR firms ever raise such questions.

Public affairs. Tomorrow is Election Day, and I’m betting Ohioans approve casino gambling. PR and marketing types working for Issue #3 say it’s all about jobs. And since our rustbelt economy is in the crapper, voters are listening. The body of evidence showing the negative impact of casinos on families and communities has been cast aside this time around. I couldn’t work on behalf of Issue #3, as the long-term negatives outweigh the positives. But then again, I have a job.

Considering consequences of our work. Ethics wasn’t part of our discussions in Dr. Stone’s “Theories of Social Change” class. I brought that baggage with me. In public relations, our work sometimes has real and lasting impact on society. But I wonder how many of us think about those consequences when we collect our fees. Or do we simply shrug our shoulders and do the client’s bidding? How about you?

If you’re among those who insist that PR is a “profession,” then you’re obligated to consider the impact of your work on the public interest. We won’t all agree that a Boffo Burger is a threat to society or that a casino in Cleveland is the devil’s work. But we all know that both will have plenty of negative impact down the line. Does it matter?

I’ve been intrigued by the social media news release since Todd Defren posted his first template in 2006. SMRs are versatile tools, especially for reaching consumer audiences. They incorporate audio, video and still photo components along with story information. And they allow for comments and bookmarking, making them truly interactive.

But there’s a downside to SMRs. Those audio, video and photo components — done professionally — don’t come cheap. And with budget cutting all the rage these days, who can afford such a labor-intensive news vehicle? There’s also the question of “How much is too much?” when it comes to communicating a story.

But what if you already have the audio and video in your archives? And what if you have really sharp interns already researching the story for an internal campaign?

Goodyear's SMR for "111 Innovations"

That’s how Kent State seniors Justin Metz and Amanda Hayes came to post their first professional SMR earlier this semester. Interns for Goodyear Global Communications, Justin and Amanda were assigned to an internal communication project called “Celebrating 111 Years of Innovation.” It was a campaign to boost employee pride in a company that, along with the auto industry, has seen tough times of late.

“The story has zero news value on its own,” Justin said. “Without the old photos and videos from the archive, no one would have cared.” And what an archive. Stored in the vaults at Goodyear are old TV commercials, training films, and all sorts of photos and artifacts, some dating back a century or more. A veritable mother lode of content, but not a great story hook. I mean, who celebrates a 111th birthday?

Justin Metz

Justin had learned his way around the PitchEngine SMR platform last summer in my Media Relations & Publicity class. He tutored, Amanda, who needed about 45 minutes to get up to speed.

Amanda Hayes

“We rolled out the internal project in August,” Amanda said. “But we didn’t have much hope for traditional news coverage because we produced so much information,” Amanda said. “But we found so many cool photos, videos and information, and we wanted to share that part of Goodyear’s history in an interactive way.”

The pair produced a traditional news release (featuring just 11 of the 111 innovations), but it was hardly a man-bites-dog story. But maybe the greatest accomplishment by these interns was selling the idea to Goodyear’s PR brass.

“The company had never produced an interactive release,” Amanda said, “Our supervisors told us they’d rather us try it with a soft news story than a major event. The 111 Innovations story was perfect because it could be accompanied by lots of photos, videos and links.”

While the SMR added one more experience to Goodyear’s growing social-media activities, the metrics are soft to nonexistant. The release earned 2,000+ visits in its first week, but a server problem triggered a reset the counter, so a good bit of the data were lost.

So did the SMR increase tire sales? “Probably not,” Justin said. “But it did remind a lot of people that Goodyear has a rich history, and any company that’s been around for 111 years must be doing something right.” And that was an extension of what Goodyear was trying to achieve internally. In the end, all were happy campers.

Like so many tools in social media, the SMR offers real promise in reaching and engaging wider audiences, and in using a news tool to extend beyond news media. PR professionals know how to do this whereas the marketing types often do not.

While I’m proud of our students’ performance on the project, part of the lesson well all must learn is the need for more precise measures in our communication tools. And we’ll have to do that work if we hope to turn the SMR into a mainstream tool for PR. But here in my corner of higher education, we’re having a great time with the experiment. We learn from what works, and we learn from what doesn’t.

But you know, as an old tire and automotive PR guy who launched his career in Akron, then Detroit, the SMR is like a walk down memory lane.

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Special thanks to Jason Kintzler for allowing out classes to use PitchEngine. The system is easy to use and easy on PR budgets. A simple 30-day SMR posting is free.

Susan Getgood

Online pal Judy Gombita sent me a link to this post by popular blogger Susan Getgood. I’m not a regular at “Marketing Roadmaps,” but I am interested in issues of PR ethics, so I’m happy Judy passed it along.

In her post yesterday, Getgood tells us about a PR pitch that appears to have been plagiarized from another blogger’s post  — almost word-for-word.  That’s more than bad PR practice — that’s theft of intellectual property.

Getgood deleted the name of the pitch firm, and I don’t blame her. We’re just bloggers, after all, and we don’t need an army of high-priced New York lawyers beating down our doors and forcing us to defend ourselves. It’s costly, even when we’re right.

Anyway, I did a quick Google search with some key words from the pitch letter, and I turned up this post over at a blog called “All Because Two People Fell In Love.”

The post is a verbatim pick up of the plagiarized PR pitch. Since it was posted by blogger Stacy Moore, one might infer that it’s her work. But clearly it is not.

In my days as a pitchman, I was always pleased when a writer ran my content verbatim. But this case is different. And this case shows what can happen when we grab whatever comes through the digital pipeline and post it to our blogs. Ugh.

As we used to say back home, “Sumpun’ ain’t right here.”

____________________

To my students in Ethics & Issues who missed class yesterday because of my illness: This is required reading.

I’m not a religious person, but I am spiritual. I have a sense that someone or something is watching over me. I just don’t know what it is.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been so lucky in this life. I married the perfect woman, I have my dream job, and I win lots of stuff in raffles.

I also believe things happen for a reason. And one of those things just happened.

Not 3 hours after I told colleagues I would NOT renew my membership in PRSA for 2010, I got an email from Diane Gomez, PR manager for the Society. She asked if I’d be interested in “covering” this year’s national conference — you know, like a legitimate reporter.

Say what? Media credentials for a blogger? Sure, it happens all the time in high-tech and consumer/mommy products. But not to me. Not to a guy who averages barely 5,000 visits a month.

But I got to thinking. Maybe this is happening for a reason.

For more than 2 decades, PRSA was my professional lifeline. The Society connected me to some of the brightest folks in the business, and those folks changed the way I practice PR. I’ve twice served as a chapter president and once as a national committee chair. Here at Kent State, PRSA is the mother ship for the all-important Public Relations Student Society of America.

Somewhere in the late 90s, PRSA lost its attraction for me. I attended national conferences and learned little. That happens to senior practitioners who keep up with their reading. At some point professional development sessions don’t hold much allure. And at some point, we stop showing up for those monthly luncheons at the chapter level.

If you stop here regularly, you know that I’ve criticized PRSA now and again (here, here, here, here, here and here). So I understand if you see PRSA’s invitation as an olive branch. But isn’t that just good public relations?

Let’s also be realistic. I ain’t exactly the most influential voice in PR 2.0. I doubt anything I write about the conference or the Society will have much impact in the end.

As I enter the last decade of my career, I remain skeptical about PRSA’s ability to lead this profession in a digital world. But as I head to San Diego,  I can’t ignore my history with this organization,the many friends who came my way because of it, and all that I learned as a result.

To steal a line from Sloan Wilson’s The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit: “Here goes nothing. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.”

_________________________

Disclosure: PRSA is providing a media pass that gives me access to the conference. I will cover all costs associated with the trip using my university travel budget and my own dwindling bankroll.

I cross posted this item at my new Posterous site — my latest 2.0 addiction. The event is significant enough to warrant broader coverage in the Sledzik Social Media Network. And I really need to get a life.

WalMarting Across America: Jim & Laura's Blog

Ah, the good old days.

It was Oct., 12, 2006, and my first month as a blogger when I came across this story in Business Week. It involved Jim and Laura and the fake blog called “Wal-Marting Across America.” The story became instant folklore in the 2.0 digital world of PR and marketing. I wrote about it here – three years ago yesterday.

The story caused quite blow-up in the blogosphere, not to mention great embarrassment to the blog’s creators, Edelman Public Relations. Prior to “Wal-Marting,” Edelman had been the leading proponent of social media in PR practice. And thanks to a swift response to this crisis, the firm has maintained that leadership position.

The “Wal-Marting” case is now in the ethics textbooks, and we all have a chance to learn from it. My students read about it just today.

But speaking objectively, was the case really all that high-profile? Ask anyone outside the 2.0 echo chamber about Wal-Mart’s fake blog and you’ll likely get a blank stare. Sometimes what happens here isn’t nearly as important as we think it is.

Regardless, it’s been a great case from which my students can learn the value and the importance of transparency and authenticity — two things I fear the 2.0 world will never achieve.

You’ll find 14 new links on my Kent State “Student Bloggers ‘09″ box today (right column) — bright young minds discussing niche topics in public relations.

The assignment: Find an area of PR that excites you, explore it, write about it, then work to engage others in the discussion.

Is the exercise effective? We think so. I see passion in the posts, and I hear some online voices stretching beyond the shallowness of tweets and Facebook updates. Blogs require critical thinking and clear writing. Most other social-media tools do not.

Engagement on the student blogs is minimal so far, but we’re only two posts into the exercise. I’m hoping this message will drive a bit of traffic their way.

We’re clinging to the blog assignment, even though weblogs haven’t become the mainstay of PR initiatives many anticipated in ‘05, when we designed the course. Blogs are a useful learning tool, since they require students to explore topics and to write intelligently about them. We require that our student bloggers focus on PR in some way, since the blogs eventually become part of a digital portfolio.

The exercise isn’t perfect. A small number of students tell us they don’t enjoy it at all. And fewer than 10% continue blogging beyond the class requirements. Maybe we should be serving more SM Kool-Aid in the computer lab.

When asked why they don’t blog on after the class ends, most students say they don’t have the time or they lack the passion. Blogging is work, even when you enjoy it.

My Top 5

At the risk of offending 2/3rds of the class, here are my “Top 5″ bloggers so far this semeseter, listed in no particular order. Students are under the direction of Professor Stefanie Moore.

Beltway PeRspective. Aaron Kaufman, a senior from the D.C. area, offers balanced and insightful analysis about PR in the political arena.

SM PRactice. Kim Rodia, a senior from Stow, Ohio, uses her blog to explore social-media applications in PR. Like the rest of us, she’s wrestling with what it all means. Great insights for PR students and young professionals.

An Appetite for PR. Marissa Mendel, a senior from Columbus, explores the uses of PR in food marketing. Her first post, about a campaign for the Potato Board, appealed to my Polish and Irish heritage!

The Wild Side of PR. Michelle Wilson, a graduate student from Hudson, Ohio, writes about PR for zoos and aquariums. The daughter of a former zoo director, her lifelong passion for animals and conservation comes through in the blog.

K.I.S.S. Mary Jo Spletzer, a senior from Newton Falls, Ohio, reminds PR students to “keep it simple.” Her first two posts highlight the importance of time management and good writing for young PR professionals.

Two more blogs of note

A Ton of Bricks. I didn’t put Ralph Divila on the “Top 5″ list, even though he’s in the same class. The guy  has a great blog, but an unfair advantage. Ralph completed his undergrad at PRKent in 2002 and has worked in the business for 7 years. He returned to Kent last year to earn his master’s. Ralph’s experience is evident.

Amanda and Chris

Budding Heads PR. Amanda Hayes and Chris Sledzik, who took the PR Online Tactics class last semester, are now rivals on a blog featuring point-counterpoint discussions.

We’re looking for lots of humor and attitude from these two, and some insight as well.

Disclosure: Chris and I have known each other for 24 years, having met in the delivery room at Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, NY. He’s one or the few students who continues to blog even though it’s not required — hereditary madness, I suppose. Chris’ brother Todd designed the blog’s header.

Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission decreed that bloggers will tell the truth — or else! Secret blogola will not be tolerated.

In a nutshell, if you receive free products or other compensation in exchange for writing posts, you must disclose that compensation or face the consequences. Fines run as high as $11,000, reports say.

From the New York Times:

For bloggers who review products, this means that the days of an unimpeded flow of giveaways may be over. More broadly, the move suggests that the government is intent on bringing to bear on the Internet the same sorts of regulations that have governed other forms of media, like television or print.

“It crushes the idea that the Internet is separate from the kinds of concerns that have been attached to previous media,” said Clay Shirky, a professor at New York University.

I’ve not had time to read the FTC guidelines (available here), and you know what they say about the devil being in the details. But the concept of holding “endorsers” to a higher standard of transparency is one we should all embrace. Sure, not every blogger actually endorses products sent his/her way, but readers have a right to know if money or goods change hands. And now they will.

If you’re a  blogger who discloses potential conflicts of interest, this ruling won’t affect you. But if you’re one who hides such information from readers, here’s one blogger who hopes the FTC nails your sorry ass.

How did it come to this? It’s simple. The self-regulating world of social-media isn’t self-regulating. While many in the 2.0 space act responsibly and disclose their alliances, many others do not. Social media have become a haven for stealth marketing and conversational deception. The average consumer doesn’t know what to believe or whom to trust, and it’s getting worse.

Some thought leaders are none too happy about the news. Buzz Machine blogger Jeff Jarvis sees the FTC regs as a violation of free speech. Jay Yarow at Silicon Alley Insider calls them “ludicrous” and characterizes the move as paternalistic. Still others say the FTC guidelines could silence an entrepreneurial group of “Mommy Bloggers” who depend heavily on the largesse of consumer product companies.

What about mainstream media? Many critics are upset that the regs don’t apply to MSM, and they have a point. In my 16-odd years as a PR practitioner, I engineered at least a dozen expense-paid media junkets to exotic places, and never once do I recall a journalist disclosing my clients’ generosity — or the influence it may have had on their stories.

Did our gifts affect the coverage that emerged. Of course. And in the process, the readers were deceived.

Rant if you must about intrusive government, or about the unfair nature of these new FTC guidelines. But since the ever-transparent, ever-authentic world of 2.0 can’t police itself, Uncle Sam will now do it for us.

That’s the price we pay for collective bad behavior.

Update: Kami Huyse (Communication Overtones) has read the FTC guidelines and offers a nice summary of issues in her post today. She also includes a great example of online deception the FTC is targeting.

Darth Blogger

I almost let this milestone pass. Three years, 300 posts, and still flogging the blog. If that isn’t addiction, I don’t know what is.

I spent half the summer plotting the death of ToughSledding — as I’ve done several times before. This time I came oh-so close to ending it after those 2 blissful weeks offline. But you know what they say: Sh#@ happens. And it did.

Here’s why ToughSledding blogs on:

• It helps our students. Like it or not, I’m the go-to social-media guy at PRKent — a damn role model. That’s the burden of teaching in a professional program. Students expect you to walk the talk. I’m a frequent critic of social media, its conventions and its affectations. But because I teach it, I gotta do it.

• It helps our program, and my colleagues insist that I press on. Even the new guy, who doesn’t arrive until January, told me I couldn’t quit. ToughSledding is part of the PRKent brand, he said. I still don’t understand that word “brand,” but to the extent I am part of it, this blog is, too.

• It’s an investment, and I’m still hoping for some tangible ROI. In my first post (9/11/06) I talked about the need for payback. Blogging is time consuming, and often burdensome. Sure, I’ve met some nice folks and made some useful contacts. Can’t argue that. But measuring the bottom-line of social media is still a dicey business. Not sure blogging is worth the fuss, but I’m in too deep to sell short now.

• It’s only the beginning. Or so I’m told. The authors of Naked Conversations (a book that inspired this blog) insist that blogging is a long-term commitment. Stick with it for 3 to 5 years and you’ll reap benefits. I’ll check back with you in 2 more years let you know if they were right. You gotta give it time.

I’m encouraged as more folks join the fight to develop a truly strategic and measurable role for social media. Like me, they aren’t satisfied with simple conversations or link counts. We want strategic direction, not just cool tactics. But public relations has fought this measurement battle since the 1980s with only limited success. Let’s hope the data miners can help us figure it out.

As more practitioners hold social media to hard business standards, we may find more execs in in the C-suites will “get it” and “get us.”

But there is a magic to this space I still don’t understand. Example: Earlier this week, thanks to my appearance on this list of “100 PR People Worth Following,” I picked up nearly 300 new Twitter followers. Weird, huh?

That number isn’t surprising, or even significant, when you consider that following someone on Twitter requires no thought or investment. Like so much in social media, a “follow” happens with a click of the mouse. The relationship, if you want to call it that, is casual and often fleeting.

But then a funny thing happened. Friends, colleagues and students who helped spread this link love began congratulating me for making this important list. Say what??? It’s not as though my work was recognized by a panel of credentialed experts or my writings published in some prestigious journal. I made one blogger’s list of favorite tweeters. Flattering? Sure. But I’d rather you congratulate me when I actually accomplish something.

Perspective is rare in this PR/marketing blogosphere — almost as rare as folks who know the difference between PR and marketing. But you’ve heard that rant before. Yes, lots of information is exchanged in this space, and that’s useful for all of us. Sometimes it’s even fun. But social media’s impact in PR/marketing is more about popularity than expertise. Let’s be honest about it.

Assessing the real value of the information we receive has never been more difficult. Sure, it helps marketers sell stuff, but the impact of social media on trust and credibility awaits documentation. I’m not yet convinced there is “wisdom in crowds,” and I’m not sure I can trust the “trust agents” I meet online.

I’ve been called a curmudgeon in this space, but it’s not my job to lead the cheers for social media. We have a jillion “social media experts” on Twitter who will do that for us. But I don’t care for any more “media snacks,” thank you. They lack substance and utility, and like most unhealthy morsels, they make you fat and lazy. Twitter — for all of its advantages as a networking tool — is a classic example.

So bear with me as I start writing my next 300 posts. I’m feeling a little edgy.

I didn’t pay close attention to David Meerman Scott’s “New Rules of PR and Marketing” until he published the 2nd edition sometime last year. In 2006, when the book came out, I was still getting a grip on social media, and I spent way more time writing than reading in those days. Blame it on new-blogger’s ego.

By 2009, when the 2nd edition of New Rules arrived, I was knee deep in SM books, and more than a little jaded over their marginal content. But this one I like, enough to require my students in the “Media Relations” class to read it.

While “New Rules” isn’t really about media relations, it offers practical advice for redesigning traditional media-relations efforts to reach consumers directly. It suggests that marketers and PR professionals adopt a new perspective that reaches beyond media gatekeepers, so it’s similar to a mantra I’ve been preaching for 25 years: Go directly to the audience whenever possible.

What I don’t like about the book is the singular emphasis on “consumer” publics. “New Rules” is a book about marketing that touches PR only as it relates to publicity. “New Rules” gets into symmetrical relationships, as all SM books do, but Scott frames those relationships in terms of how they support sales.

If you’re a marketer, or a PR person working in the marketing realm, this book is useful. It won’t help you much in areas such as internal communication, investor relations, or public affairs, where marketing has little sway.

Seasoned marketers and PR professionals may find “New Rules” a bit elementary. But that happens with books that present nuts-and-bolts tactics. This isn’t the Cluetrain Manifesto.

Some stuff I like:

The relationship of quality content to web traffic and SEO is a lesson we all must learn. Scott takes it further, showing how to convert Web traffic to sales. Scott explains the “Long Tail” concept to readers and shows — in one chapter — how the Web and the search engines (properly fed) can drive business to small and niche companies. He shows how to apply online tactics to the Long Tail idea, and that’s useful information.

Other topics covered well in “New Rules” include participation in forums and wikis and the role of viral campaigns in marketing. Scott also presents a good discussion of writing for online audiences, most useful for students still honing their writing. But judging by what I see online each day, it will be useful to many veterans, too.

My concerns:

Scott advises PR professionals to write and publish news releases almost daily. His point: Consumer audiences are hungry for the content, and that content — along with the traffic it generates — fuels search engine optimization, which brings even more traffic to your site. Handle the traffic properly and you can boost sales.

Fair enough. But if we post content so frequently, and mainstream media subscribe to that content, we’ll wear out our welcome with journalists inside of a week. I emailed David asking him to clarify my concern, and he responded quickly. In that reply, he recommended using dual channels — one that pushes the more legitimate news story to mainstream media, another that makes available by subscription a wide range of stories that interest enthusiastic consumers.

The dual channel approach makes sense, but it presents a HUGE resource question. Who will produce all this content?  The channels of transmission cost little or nothing, but quality content requires professional writers, photographers and videographers. Most people simply can’t do it.

Scott is a marketer who says, “PR used to be exclusively about the media.” That’s a pervasive view among social-media marketers, but it’s simply not accurate. Publicity is all about the media — and it still is.  And publicity is often the one public relations tool that marketers understood prior to Web 2.0. Public relations is more than publicity.

Scott does acknowledge the importance of traditional media  and the need for PR programs to include independent 3rd-party endorsement. But the “old” model of PR espoused in this book is asymmetrical.

“New Rules” is well written, something I can’t say about many of the SM books that come across my desk. It’s easy to read, easy to comprehend. By taking the time to edit his material and to include useful examples and anecdotes, Scott shows respect for readers that’s too rare among the popular books in this field.