By Rachel Forsyth
PR on a Budget by Leonard Saffir is a very interesting and entertaining how-to guide; a must read for all public relations professionals. The book is structured as an informal guide for ‘free, cheap, and worth the money strategies for getting noticed.’ This book seemed like an interesting choice based on the premise of ethics in public relations because conducting public relations in a cheap or free way, should always be ethical.
The strategy the book discusses that I found most interesting is the effective use of media and media lists. Saffir states the importance of forming a media list as the crucial “blood line of public relations.” The book explains to the reader about how to find media contacts that are important to each specific market.“There’s more out there than the New York Times,” the book preaches. Local television, radio and newspapers can be the most beneficial when used effectively.
The book also discusses the importance of social media, or “internet PR.” The Internet makes it possible for the “small practitioner [to have] the same opportunities for success in public relations as the giant companies.” As I near graduation, I too have found that social media is a major element to every public relations arena, big or small. Doing research for an organization seems to most frequently be done online. ‘Wikis’ such as Wikipedia, are “web applications that allow users to add content." Although research is efficient online, there are no ethics police or accuracy police online. It is important to be weary of any and all information retrieved online on behalf of a client. The Internet is a never-ending portal to all businesses, people and networks; therefore ,when using it, the golden rule is important.
PR on a Budget by Leonard Saffir is a very interesting and entertaining how-to guide; a must read for all public relations professionals. The book is structured as an informal guide for ‘free, cheap, and worth the money strategies for getting noticed.’ This book seemed like an interesting choice based on the premise of ethics in public relations because conducting public relations in a cheap or free way, should always be ethical.
The strategy the book discusses that I found most interesting is the effective use of media and media lists. Saffir states the importance of forming a media list as the crucial “blood line of public relations.” The book explains to the reader about how to find media contacts that are important to each specific market.“There’s more out there than the New York Times,” the book preaches. Local television, radio and newspapers can be the most beneficial when used effectively.
The book also discusses the importance of social media, or “internet PR.” The Internet makes it possible for the “small practitioner [to have] the same opportunities for success in public relations as the giant companies.” As I near graduation, I too have found that social media is a major element to every public relations arena, big or small. Doing research for an organization seems to most frequently be done online. ‘Wikis’ such as Wikipedia, are “web applications that allow users to add content." Although research is efficient online, there are no ethics police or accuracy police online. It is important to be weary of any and all information retrieved online on behalf of a client. The Internet is a never-ending portal to all businesses, people and networks; therefore ,when using it, the golden rule is important.
PR on a Budget was an excellent book for anyone interested in entering either non profit or for profit public relations. The book offers lots of real-life success stories about businesses that have used public relations effectively ‘on a budget.’
8 comments:
What a great book for today's economy! I know that going on job searches many organizations have gotten rid of their communication/pr department in an attempt to save money. This book would be a great way to show them that PR doesn't have to be costly to be effective! I think it's also a good book for practitioners to read so they can learn how to become "cheaper".
I agree! With the economy in a slump, it is important to hold on to public relations practitioners. I think it is a cost efficient means to building business and communications.
As the book points out, media lists are imperative to the success of your message(s). As long as you have a gateway to people that will place your message, then the rest of the campaign should be easy. I think people forget about the importance of media lists/contacts too often.
Sounds like a good book! I will have to check it out!
Wow!!! could you have found a better book to read up on while looking for a job? I Agree with the others that this book is great for these hard times but much moreimportantly is when looking for a job the tips form this book would be great for the interview process. By having this knowledge on hand, it could be very beneficial to the outcome of the all-to-important interview!
I think that with the current state that our economy is in, this idea of "free, cheap and worth the money," are all words that play music to my ears. I think for many of us that are near graduation, we always aim for the most competitive and popular forms of social media, however, starting out with smaller businesses can be just as effective, and in a sense more ethical. Regardless, I have always been taught if you want something bad enough you will work as hard as you need to to get what you want. I want to purchase this book!
I think it is interesting that you also included the golden rule. The author of my ethics book, "Press Releases are not a PR Strategy", also mentioned the golden rule as safe ethics practice. It is interesting that the same guideline we were taught as children is the same guideline that we are instructed to use in our future career.
This sounds like a really interesting book! I agree with the other posts, this would be a great book for all PR practitioners to read during this recession. I had never heard somebody say that media lists were the most important thing when doing PR on a budget. I also agree that social media is a way to even the playing field between small non-profits and large corporations.
This sounds like a great book. Social media really is the new frontier. I'm amazed at the amount of information that I get from Facebook and Twitter. I've almost stopped reading regular news sources and almost exclusively get my information from Twitter feeds and Facebook status updates. This really is a tool we all need to be utilizing.
This is a great post! It's nice to know that someone is thinking about how useful PR is, and can be, in this economy. I think some companies are forgetting the value of effective PR and see it as an extra expense. I hope that those CEOs are reading this book!
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