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

I won this book on a radio trivia quiz

It finally arrived in the snail mail this afternoon, on Buy Nothing Day of all occasions:

ronniewood.jpg

Ronnie: The Autobiography.

It’s a rock’n’roll story as told by the Rolling Stones’ second fiddle guitarist, Ronnie Wood. Or, as the book jacket describes it:

For the first time, a member of the world’s most famous rock ‘n’ roll band tells his — and their — story. Raw, unsanitized, nasty and fascinating. An incredible journey. …

A fascinating portrait not just of the Stones, but of the greatest rockers of the 1960’s and beyond — from Eric Clapton to Rod Stewart, Jimmy Page to Keith Moon, Jimi Hendrix to Pete Townshend — RONNIE is a rich, revelatory book. Readers have never had a view of the rock world like this before.

Ronnie: The Autobiography isn’t the kind of book I would purchase. But one Sunday a few weeks ago, while making the 30-minute drive home from my in-laws, I tuned in to a local classic rock station, more to help stay awake than to enjoy the oldies. During one of the breaks, the DJ announced a contest: the first caller to name three Rolling Stones albums featuring Ronnie Wood wins the book.

Easy peasy. I phoned the station, rattled off three albums, and claimed my winnings.

Now, here’s the sick thing. I actually had the station’s contest line programmed into my cell phone. The reason: I used to try to win this “connect the classics” contest the station would hold over lunch. But I never could get my call in in time, and I kept forgetting the number. So I programmed it, hoping to improve my chances. Still, I never won a connect the classics. The best I can do is an autobiography from the Stones’ second-fiddle guitarist. A decent, workmanlike guitarist, but no Keith Richards. Good thing I like rock ‘n’roll, and the Stones. I know. It’s only rock and roll. But I like it.

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Now playing: The Rolling Stones – Some Girls
via FoxyTunes