Friday Five, post-Thanksgiving edition, a day late: reading for tech-savvy PR and a request for input

The Thanksgiving holiday and an over-indulgence of turkey, football and college basketball has thrown off my circadian rhythms. So I’m a day late with this week’s Friday Five. Technically, I should’ve taken the week off, but this particular topic is timely, as it relates to the Advanced PR Institute I’ll be helping out with on Dec. 3-4. (“Developing a Technology-Savvy Communications Approach” is the theme for this institute, and if you would like to attend, there’s still time to register if you hurry.) Anyway, my co-faculty and I discussed some pre-reading for the conference participants to help bring them up to speed on the impact of new technology on PR, and we came up with this list of materials:

1. Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing, by Lois Kelly. (Executive summary available online. So is my review of the book.)

2. The Cluetrain Manifesto, by Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls and David Weinberger. The whole book is now available online.

3. Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. (I also reviewed this book.)

4. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, by Don Tapscott. The introduction and chapter 1 are available online (PDF).

5. Now it’s your turn. What other book about technology, social networking, the web 2.0 world, etc., would be on your list of recommended reading for higher ed PR folks? Leave your recommendations in the comments below and I’ll be sure to share these recommendations with the folks in Austin on Dec. 3-4.

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Now playing: The National – Apartment Story
via FoxyTunes

Friday Five: four useful tips from other bloggers, plus one other thing

I like it when blog posts use lists. (Not everyone agrees with me on this, as you’ll see if you keep reading.) I’m a sucker for “Three ways to…” and “Seven new ideas for…” headlines. I’ll read just about any list — or at least scan it. Sometimes, the information is even useful, like the stuff I’ve listed here.

Four tips to keep online marketers from tricking users.

The seven deadly sins of instant messaging, from 43 Folders.

10 ways to be more than a blip in the blogosphere, from the Washington Post, via Micro Persuasion.

10 truths of marketing in a web 2.0 world.

One dissenting view: Enough with the lists. “I’ve grown to hate the list-ification of information,” writes Basement.org. Via 43 Folders again.

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Now playing: Bloc Party – Little Thoughts
via FoxyTunes