The New Rules of Marketing and PR

I selected this book because of two reasons. First, the title “The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly,” is attractive to me. I have heard people talked lots about online marketing and e-commerce, but I never found an easy but valuable book to start to understand what people actually do online. And I am curious about the “new” rule and how to implement marketing strategy through blog and podcasting. Online marketing area is what I am not familiar with, although it’s the hottest topic in marketing. After the interesting title caught my attention, I went through some book reviews and found 76% of reviewers gave it five-star rate and most people said it provides an easy to understand yet comprehensive view of the new online marketplace. An easy-understanding book for novice in online marketing is the second reason.

To me, the book's greatest value is its comprehensive and practical analysis of new media tactics and channels, such as blogs, podcasts, videos, search engines, online media rooms, and more. “The internet is not so much about technology as it is about people.” David goes beyond technology and explores the ramifications of the web as it pertains to people. This is the most valuable part of this book for people without IT background, like me but also want to harness the power and take advantages of the internet-driven world. The book is structured like a blog, and divided into three sections: 1) How the Web Has Changed the Rules of Marketing and PR, 2) Web-Based Communications to Reach Buyers Directly, and 3) Action Plan for Harnessing the Power of the New Rules. In the early chapters, David takes a high altitude look at online marketing options, showing us how they developed, why they're important, how they work, and why they work. In later "Action Plan" chapters, he jumps into the trenches and shows us how to actually use the tools and implement programs. Throughout, he uses detailed case studies to illustrate not only the programs but the amazing results they can achieve.

Although I must admit that I found Parts I and II of the book a bit dry to read, they do an excellent job of providing insight into the ideas behind marketing, delves into the differences between the old and new rules, and providing a general understanding of each of the marketing avenues listed above. But for Part III, "Action Plan for Harnessing the Power of the New Rules," is where the book comes alive for me. It's there that we transition from the passiveness of discussing philosophy into actually putting the New Rules to work for you. At first we learn how to build a marketing plan, and then we transition into creating the content for our marketing materials, the kind of content that will distinguish you from the rest and earn your potential buyers' respect and loyalty. From there we move on to each of the avenues previously mentioned, giving each a chapter of its own so that we learn how to utilize each of them to great effect, always keeping the customer's needs and wants at the forefront of our thinking. I believe this book is also useful for Mr. Biggs. What we are doing is what is talking in the book!

The only downfall to this book will be the passing of time. Because of the very nature of the media that he writes about, the book's shelf life is going to be short. This book provides a great foundation and I am sure David's own blog will keep us in the know as it and other things progress. I genuinely recommend this book to all those who hope to understand how the e-commerce world works, what kind of weapons you can get online and how to make good use of them to earn profit.