It was the greatest feeling to neatly pack up all of my chapters in a zip file and ship them off to my executive editor.  It took about three months to write the introduction and 10 chapters for my book, “Social Media and Public Relations: Eight New Practices for the PR Professional.” By far, the quickest writing process for me yet. About a week ago, I publicly thanked my husband on Facebook for “putting up with me” during the writing process homestretch. And, now it’s time to give thanks to the note taking software that kept me organized from draft outline through to final chapter edits – the software that enabled me to be more efficient, remembering everything, and capturing snippets of information, which most certainly would have been lost otherwise.

Thank you Evernote for helping me to remember, save and then access information later.  I used Evernote everyday and everywhere (on my laptop, Kindle Fire, iPad and Droid to add so many interesting quotes, facts, case studies, technology tools, and pieces of research into my book.  If you’re not familiar with Evernote, you certainly don’t have to be an author to use it.  I recommend Evernote to those who love to write lists and check them off completed tasks.  I also think Evernote is perfect for busy professionals who uncover interesting information all the time, but because they’re on the go want to save the information to review later.  Evernote is also terrific for recipe keeping, accounting of your monthly expenses, and a place to document progress on any project.

For me, Evernote was the first step in my book. As soon as I received my contract from Pearson Education, I started my chapter outline and also set up notes for the many experts I wanted to reach out to for interviews.  I used Evernote as a step-by-step “To Do” list as I contacted, interviewed, and wrote expert passages. I’ve written four other books in the past, and working with a number of people, it’s very easy to let deadlines slip through the cracks.  With Evernote, I reached every deadline with ease. I also used Evernote as a way to capture the footnotes for each chapter. I’ve learned to add the footnotes in at the end, after using one single note to keep track and to neatly organize every citation by chapter.

Here’s a screenshot of several different notes I used during my book writing process:

Evernote was an everyday, almost every hour, tool and I would not have finished my manuscript in such an organized and expeditious manner if it wasn’t for this note taking software. Just for the record, I have no affiliation with Evernote other than I’m a huge brand champion!

I hope you will check out Evernote and let me know some of the creative ways you are using it to help with your projects or your daily tasks.

On February 9, 2012, I’ll be joining my colleagues in Amsterdam to deliver a keynote on Eight New Strategic Practices for the PR Champion.  As a part of the preparation for the event, The Social Conference 2012, I was asked to discuss a few topics.  My video focuses on several of the “hot” topics in PR and how professionals today are taking on new roles and responsibilities. These topics include: the differences between the old and the new PR mindset, the impact of social media on the relationship between journalists and PR pros, how social media requires a unique and powerful new communication approach, why social networking changes the approach of crisis management, and what’s going on with corporate messages and the good “old” press release.

I’ll be touching on these topics in my presentation, which is also the subject matter of my new book with FT Press. I’m also very excited to announce that my book, “Social Media and Public Relations: Eight New Practices for the PR Professional” is available for pre-order on Amazon.  You can learn more about my book here.

If you’re in the Amsterdam on the 9^th of February, I hope you will visit me at The Social Conference 2012!

Happy New Year! I wanted to kick off the year with my book review of the End of Business as Usual by Brian Solis.  The video review is almost 10 minutes long so grab a drink and a snack   If you’re looking for a book to read in 2012 that challenges your thinking and makes you want to learn more about the consumer and information revolution, then watch this review.  Hope the information presented is helpful. Enjoy!

On November 16, 2011, at 8:30 p.m. ET, the #PRStudChat community will discuss social media in the organization and how PR, along with other key areas, work together to create a good social customer experience.  Our special guest that night, sharing his thoughts on the topic, will be Michael Brito (@britopian), vice president at Edelman Digital and the author of Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in Your Organization.

Here’s a little more background info on our special guest:

Michael considers himself a student of the social business, community building and customer advocacy. Over the past 13 years, he has been fortunate enough to work for major brands in Silicon Valley to include Sony Electronics, Hewlett Packard, Yahoo! and Intel.  Edelman Digital hired Michael in 2009 as a Vice President of Social Media, where he is responsible for providing strategic counsel to many of their tech clients in the Bay Area.

Michael believes that marketing can be evil at times; but if done right, it can drive customer loyalty and brand advocacy. He thinks that marketers and communication professionals need to spend more time listening and taking action – less time talking.

He also believes that consumers are real people and relate to other people, not corporate entities and logos. They hate to be referred to as customer segments and/or target audiences.  Michael is confident that if brands treat them like humans with kindness and respect — and essentially show them a little love — their customers will love them back and tell others about it too.

We’re really excited about Author Michael Brio joining us for the November 16^th #PRStudChat session.  We look forward to a dynamic discussion on the best ways to create a better social customer experience. If you have any questions for our special guest, please feel free to post them on our LinkedIn Discussion Group.  Hope to “see” you on the 16^th!

A Little More About PRStudChat:

It began with a simple question asked by Angela Hernandez, then President of PRSSA at Central Michigan University (CMU). “Is PR Right for me?” A follow up blog post by PR 2.0 expert Deirdre Breakenridge inspired a series of direct messages on Twitter between Breakenridge and fellow PR industry pro, Valerie Simon. This was an important question and one that should be explored beyond one student or one blog post. Why not build a community to help students across the country, and even the globe, learn from the experience and perspective of industry professionals… A community where everyone can learn and grow together. Read more

I’ve been working on a special writing project for several months and now it’s official … I’m thrilled to share with you the launch of my new book,”Social Media and Public Relations: Eight New Practices for the PR Professional.”  The book will be published by FT Press, a Pearson Company, with an anticipated publishing date of February 2012.  Here’s my video with more details about the book and a link to a Social Media Release (SMR), if you want more information.  Thank you and I look forward to sharing my new manuscript with you!

Social Media Release About the Book

This year at BlogWorld East in New York City, I had the pleasure of listening to Jay Baer discuss the topics in his book, The Now Revolution, which he co-authored with Amber Naslund.  I thought Jay did a wonderful job keeping the audience engaged in the discussion, with all of us wanting to learn more. When it was time for the session participants to check underneath their chairs for a complimentary copy of The Now Revolution, I knew that whether there was a copy there for me or not, I had to read this book!  Well, it turned out, even though there was no free copy taped underneath my seat, a gentleman in my row looked around and said, “I already have a copy, who would like mine?”  I spoke up very quickly!

So, yes, I did receive a free copy of the book, from Jay, in a sense, but other than being in the room that day to hear his presentation, that was the first time we had ever met.  And, although BlogWorld was in May, and I’m only writing about The Now Revolution in this post, I actually finished the book in June, in three quick sittings.  Yes, not only did the book keep my attention, but it also had me tagging pages with small blue Post It Notes, so that I could go back and reference the material.  See picture below.

The Now Revolution is a really good book. And, it’s not just another “social media book.” It’s about your business in a real time world. The book focuses on the necessary “Shifts” (there are 7 of them) to make your business faster, smarter and more social. These “Shifts” represents chapters or sections and through each one, readers learn about the changes that need to take place within their organizations.  Whether it’s process, policy, older structure, or culture, The Now Revolution addresses how we have to account for what real time customers require, in order for the business to survive.  It’s very clear that the Shifts are written with the customer in mind; consumers will not wait for a business to catch up with the way they need their communication and quick access to a company’s information, products and/or services.

A few of my favorite Shifts in The Now Revolution include:

Shift 2:  Find Talent You Can Trust – Because it’s not only about the people on the outside (your constituents) you’re trying to engage, but it’s also about your own employees and finding the talent to build your business.  I remember reading Jim Collin’s book, “Good to Great” and it always stuck in my mind how you have to have the “right people on the bus.”  This Shift is also rich with helpful recruiting information, so you can find the right people in order to connect them with your customers to find mutual value.

Shift 3: Organize your Armies – This Shift makes it clear that you have an army of champions within your organization, but it’s important to organize them and provide clear roles.  The Shift has a great chart on Page 66 that includes the “Roles of Today” as well as the “Revolution Roles” and the responsibilities of different job functions.  I also really liked this section of the book because it discusses employee guidelines and mentions a helpful list of documents (provided by social media consultant Jason Falls) that are necessary for any organization that participates in social media.

Shift 6: Build a Fire Extinguisher – Every company needs to build a fire extinguisher in the event of social media crisis.  We all know that crisis is no longer excluded to those companies in the travel, hotel or pharmaceutical industries.  In this Shift, there’s a helpful chart on the levels of crisis escalation and who should participate, as a situation moves toward crisis status.  I also found the “Eight Steps to Crisis Recovery” to be very useful information.  The entire section educates and prepares companies for what a crisis may look like today.

Overall, I found all of the Shifts in the book filled with insight and because the information flowed logically, it was an extremely easy read.  I also liked the QR codes where you’re able to find out more information about the many case studies mentioned in the book.  The Now Revolution is a must read and a book that will stay on my shelf, always close by. Thank you Jay and Amber for your hard work on this book…it really shows!

My book review of Social Marketing to the Business Customer is long overdue. I read the book in preparation for the #PRStudChat April session when we asked the authors, Eric Schwartzman and Paul Gillin, to be our special guests.  This book is really good and deserves a review.  Of course, I have to disclose that I consider both Eric and Paul social media friends, yet other than the #PRStudChat session, I have no other work or business affiliations with them.

Social Marketing to the Business Customer is a valuable guide to strategic social marketing.  I also appreciate a focused book, which stays on course from start to finish. I know how difficult it is to remain on track and to strategically thread your message throughout the chapters, so the reader does not get lost in a sea of information.  This book guides you through a purposeful course; one that introduces social marketing to organization, provides the ways to listen to the market, discusses how to generate leads and how to build stronger B2B relationships.

Although many of the chapters provide excellent insight, a few of my favorite chapters include:

• Chapter 5: Creating and Supporting Social Media Policies – It’s no surprise that this is one of my favorite chapters! When you set the table for social marketing, it’s critical to make sure that policies are set in place and supported within the organization.  The authors do a great job illustrating how different areas of the organization have risk and opportunity through social media and how it’s imperative to have a policy in place.  The chart on page 60 of the book reveals the agendas of different departments within the company.

• Chapter 12: Lead Generation – Lead generation takes on an important function through social media, where generating the lead comes from getting involved in conversations and being helpful.  Chapter 12 discusses the key success factors that are common through the stages of the social funnel.  The authors focus on: content to make connections, leaving the sales speak behind, how to share your expertise and spanning the buying cycle (as they put it, “building a library of content that matches buyer interests at each phase”).  The bonus in this chapter is a chart with the nine stages of the buying process and the differences between the traditional media tools vs. the social media tools.

• Chapter 14: Return on Investment – ROI is always a tough subject to tackle especially in 14 pages.  However, the authors take a complex topic and break it down for the reader.  They realize that ROI is still a huge concern for executives and don’t use the term loosely.  They clearly point out that outputs in social media have to be measured financially.  And, they also teach the reader how many of the intangibles can be translated into financial terms. Other bonuses in this chapter include the section on metrics, which is very informative and illustrates how to focus on the more relevant metrics beyond traffic and unique visitors.  The other section that helps the reader to apply ROI is “Putting it All Together” which gives a solid example of comparing the ROI of webcasts vs. whitepapers; seeing the example and breaking it down with an ROI calculation, so you can apply the formula to your own ROI scenarios.

Overall, Social Marketing to the Business Customer is an informative B2B guide, with relevant examples. There is a tremendous amount of information presented in the book.  Good organization of focused content transitions the reader smoothly from setting the stage for a social media organization to taking a strategic social media program to market.

Years ago, the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) brands were in the lead when it came to the use of social media communications to connect directly with their customers.  However, today, the Business-to-Business (B2B) brands are finding opportunity and value by interacting with customers and other constituents in their social communities.  As an emerging subject of interest, we thought that a discussion regarding the growth of B2B social marketing would make a great topic for our April 20^th #PRStudChat session at 8:30 p.m.

What’s even more exciting is that we have the two authors who wrote the book on this subject.  We’re excited to announce that Eric Schwartzman and Paul Gillin, the authors of “Social Marketing to the Business Customer” will be joining us for the April #PRStudChat session to chat about several of the hot topics in their book, as well as many of the questions asked by our community.  A few of the topics that we will discuss that evening will include:

• The difference between B2B and B2C social marketing
• The best ways for B2B brands to use social media
• Determining the right platforms for B2B social marketing
• How B2B is profiting from social marketing
• What is next for B2B social media

For those of you who don’t know Eric and Paul, here is some background information on our special guests:

Eric Schwartzman:

@EricSchwartzman is coauthor of Social Marketing to the Business Customer, the first book devoted exclusively to B2B social media communications. He has been conducting monthly social media training programs for PRSA since 2006 and works as an independent online communications consultant to businesses, the US Military, government agencies and nonprofits. Eric specializes in online communications strategy, social media policy development and accelerating social media literacy within organizations. He is a frequenter speaker at professional conferences and has been producing the award-winning podcast “On the Record…Online” (@ontherecord), which focuses on how technology is changing the way organizations communicate, since April 2005.

Paul Gillin:

@PGillin is a veteran technology journalist and a thought leader in new media. Since 2005, he has advised marketers and business executives on strategies to optimize their use of social media and online channels to reach buyers cost-effectively. He is a popular speaker who is known for his ability to simplify complex concepts using plain talk, anecdotes and humor.

His award-winning 2007 book, The New Influencers, chronicles the changes in markets being driven by the new breed of bloggers and podcasters. It earned more than 100 favorable reviews from outlets that include The Wall Street Journal, the San Jose Mercury News and the BBC. His second book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing, has also earned wide critical acclaim.  His third book is Social Marketing to the Business Customer published by Wiley in 2011.

We hope that you will join us for a dynamic discussion on B2B social marketing and how brands are fully taking advantage of social communities to enhance business and increase customer loyalty.  If you have any questions that you would like to ask our special guests that evening, please post them on the #PRStudChat LinkedIn group.  We look forward to “seeing” you on April 20^th!

A Little More About PRStudChat:

It began with a simple question asked by Angela Hernandez, then President of PRSSA at Central Michigan University (CMU). “Is PR Right for me?” A follow up blog post by PR 2.0 expert Deirdre Breakenridge inspired a series of direct messages on Twitter between Breakenridge and fellow PR industry pro, Valerie Simon. This was an important question and one that should be explored beyond one student or one blog post. Why not build a community to help students across the country, and even the globe, learn from the experience and perspective of industry professionals… A community where everyone could learn and grow together. Read more