We’ve all heard the advice to keep up with recent trends in the industry. So, we all subscribed to the advertising and PR newsletters, or read our favorite blog. Whatever the method, we have our own way of staying updated.
However, one method that many people, especially students short on time, tend to ignore is picking up a book. Yes, a printed book. There are many books discussing the communication world that take a deeper dive into industry news.
Bob Pearson, president of W2O Group, published his newest novel in early 2016 entitled Storytizing: What’s Next After Advertising. One of the speakers at a PRSSA event recommended this book. I decided to give it a read and see what it had to offer. Storytizing sounded engaging to me.
The overall premise of the book is detailing strategies that will engage your audiences. It discusses how to build these audiences, identifies the influencers of new advertising strategies and current trends in the advertising world. It’s all great information for an emerging PR professional.
However, I began reading and quickly understood that this book is not for the college student. It is full of extremely useful information, but I felt that the reader required an in-depth understanding of how to use tracking and analytics tools. It’s almost as if you needed to be working with the information as you were reading it. Reading it alone made it more difficult to digest.
I’m not sure how much I exactly took away from reading it. I can say there were good snippets of information throughout that made it worth the time for reading. There was a great chapter about Snapchat and another on utilizing employees. My advice is to give it a read. Even if you don’t understand it now, you’ll be priming your brain for when you enter the industry. Then, come back and read it again.
Take some time and scope out other books in the industry. They require a little more time and energy, but are more detailed. Some other ones include Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation, The Art of Perception, and For Immediate Release. Our fellow PRSSA scholars at Syracuse University also created a list of books us PR and advertising students should read.
Even picking up a book for pleasure, one that has nothing to do with the industry, makes you more understanding of different viewpoints. Go on some adventures and see the improvements to your knowledge of audience targeted messaging.
Austin Ambrose is a senior Journalism major. He is also the CEO of our other half, ImPRessions! Follow him on Twitter @Tex_Ambrose7.