Three reasons why I wrote my book ‘Content Marketing for PR’

I’ve just published my second book. It’s called Content Marketing for PR: How to build brand visibility, influence and trust in today’s social age

(Here is the official website if you’d like to know more).

It’s a bit of a beast, much bigger and more comprehensive than my previous book, microDOMINATION. It took nearly two years to research, write, edit and get ready for publishing. Although, it would be fair to say it has actually been over 25 years in the making, taking my public relations consulting experience into consideration, and then, from 2007, my work in blogging, podcasting and social media.

There’s a school of thought that some authors only write when they have a book in them, and that has certainly been the case with me.

I could say I wrote Content Marketing for PR as part of some grand strategic plan to position my personal brand in the marketplace. While it certainly helps me in this regard, it was by no means the driving factor. I literally had a book inside of me that was screaming to be written.

Writing a book is tough going, so having that desire is not a bad thing. It’s what keeps you going when you’ve had a gutful and want to walk away from the project.

That’s why Content Marketing for PR is so important to me, and hopefully, by extension, it becomes important to others who get value from reading it. A part of me would like it to be important to the PR profession as well.

Content Marketing for PR by Trevor Young

Specifically, there were three key reasons why I wrote the book:

1. I’ve worked in public relations for most of my professional life and have evolved as the media landscape — and the profession — has changed during that time. The content side of PR has been a real game-changer for our industry and, along with the advent of social media, has allowed me to ‘hit the refresh button’ on my career. Content is so critical to the discipline of public relations but I didn’t feel it was being addressed in a meaningful way by the industry, so I wrote the book on it (as you do).
2. I’ve become increasingly frustrated at the number of so-called experts and gurus (in fields such as SEO, digital marketing, social media and content marketing) who have been writing articles and blog posts about PR when clearly they have little clue about the discipline. I knew that if I wrote a book that tackled content marketing for PR, then by default I would need to address the broader issue of public relations: what it is, and why it’s so important for companies and organisations of all sizes.
3. And finally, I was finding it increasingly tiresome that the content marketing conversation was being hijacked by inbound marketing enthusiasts and sales funnel junkies. I believe content can play a far bigger role than simply being used as a tool for inbound activities. I’m not against inbound marketing by any stretch. On the contrary, I think it’s brilliant that businesses can now help their customers through the provision of timely and relevant content online. But again, this is not the only smart use of content although, if you consumed all of the, ahem, content out there about content (and there’s a lot of it!), you’d certainly be excused from thinking this was the case. So, I had a strong desire to go deep on the topic and show the many ways content can be used, over and above for pure inbound marketing purposes.

Content Marketing for PR essentially looks at content through a PR lens.

It was written for entrepreneurs, change agents, business leaders, marketers and PR practitioners, and is designed as an essential guide to building a visible brand that’s recognized, respected and relevant in today’s noisy social world.

Still interested?

• Visit the website.
• Read some excerpts (part one, part two, part three)
• Purchase the book.

The opportunity today is to become your own media channel and tell your stories like a PR pro! Are you ready?

Originally published at www.digitalcitizen.group on September 15, 2019.