PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences

The new media world of Web 2.0 offers many opportunities and also many dangers for public relations professionals and their clients. This world can seem confusing and counter-intuitive to the newcomer, and a lot of what has worked in traditional media will only cause problems in this space. Finding solid information to get yourself up to speed has been very difficult.

As the founder of Wikipedia, I have been forced to deal many times with clumsy attempts to use new media (Wikipedia in particular), attempts which have often backfired as the client and PR professional end up embarrassed and looking bad. Most of the time, these efforts were well-meaning but misguided. The practitioners just did not understand what to do.

Deirde Breakenridge's PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences is an excellent antidote to these problems. She covers the gamut of new technologies from social networking, blogs, RSS, podcasts, wikis, and more. And she helps the reader to understand the right way to use these tools in an appropriate fashion.

Whether you are a young PR professional just starting out, or an old timer just getting involved in the new media landscape, you will find Breakenridge's book to be a must read.

--Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia