The New Rules of Marketing & PR Review

A colleague gave me this book to read and having done so, I wish I had read it 2 years ago (had it been out then that is). 

"The New Rules of Marketing & PR" by David Meerman Scott is a bit like a business self help book for marketing managers. When I first saw the cover, I cringed a bit, as it looked like just another piece of granstanding fluff.  But as they say, never judge a book by its cover. 

Althought the book delves into plenty of "Web 2.0" concepts that are in themselves difficult to convey, it takes a different tack to most.  You won't find any confusing Internet industry jargon, just a personal approach which is accessible to any business professional, making it a great intro to emerging technologies.  Although there is plenty of ego and personal anecdotes in this book, it is designed to read like a blog, which just adds to the excitement, promise and addictive nature of its content.  Personally, I really enjoy both reading and commenting on blogs, but sometimes books can be a refreshing change from reading screens, especially in offices drowned by flourescent light.  As a result, this book kept me from start to finish, and is able to be read within a couple of sittings.

For me, a lot of the stuff in the book I already knew, but the difference is that for the most part I had found out the hard way over about 2 years of experimentation and long hours.  The stuff it covers is everything that I have been preaching to clients for the past couple of years, with the primary difference for me being that this book sums it up really well, allowing me to reflect and focus.  I think I will find it much easier to explain the concepts more succinctly to customers by drawing upon some of the stories from it.  Obviously the book takes a little licence with its title, as I couldn't really find any concrete "rules" as such.  The author even takes great effort to reinforce the ever changing technology and the constant stream of new opportunities which it presents.  Instead contains a lot of advice, principles, guidelines and best practice in laymans terms, which is great.  Nevertheless, in a way, the boldness, catchiness and effectiveness of this style is what the book is all about - using bold new marketing strategies to generate business.

Best of all, the book contains a list of really useful resources, and a lot of hyperlinks and footnotes to some really interesting stuff, making it an excellent reference.

I'd recommend "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" to any marketing, public relations manager or digital media consultant who is looking to get into blogs, podcasting, streaming video, viral marketing and other online media or who needs to build a business case for doing so.