Guerrilla PR Wired

by Michael Levine, George Gendron (Foreword)

s/t: Waging a Successful Publicity Campaign Online, Offline and Everywhere in Between
The long-awaited sequel to the bestselling Guerrilla PR

Nearly a decade after it first hit bookstands, Michael Levine's Guerrilla PR remains one of the industry's bestselling, best-reviewed, and most valuable how-tos on garnering low- or no-cost publicity. Now Guerrilla PR Wired updates Levine's attention-getting strategies for today's globally wired environment. It revisits many of Levine's most successful devices, while introducing new tactics for conveying a message on-line­­tactics that have worked for everyone from Amazon.com to the then-unknown producers of The Blair Witch Project.

More than just a sequel, this book creates a new prototype for small business owners, individuals, and virtually anyone who needs publicity to nurture and grow a business­­and doesn't want to spend thousands of dollars to get it. It details:
*How to break through the firewalls of print and broadcast media outlets
*Pitfalls and mishaps that lie in wait for the Web PR novice
*Stories of PR success from leading website developers, Web masters, editors, and producers

Hardcover

First published February 11, 2003

Reviews

[Martti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes I borrow a random book form my employers library. This was this year's first. It's turned out to be a guide to people in the year 2002 who have never heard of Internet or the Web. It was actually the era, when people understood that the Internet and Web are different services/concepts. It was the era when Yahoo and Excite ruled the world. Google is mentioned once in this book. It was the era before Google and Facebook Ads.

This book has some reasonable basic marketing rules in the first chapter (like don't lie, be persistent, consistent, if you have a crisis don't hide), but otherwise this book is horribly outdated. It teaches people how to send an email. How to send email to many people. How to set up something called a "web site". Fortunately doesn't want to go into details about something called "Hypertext Markup Language" and recommends some tools to get started. Like Microsoft Frontpage or Macromedia something something. You remember those horrible HTML generators... The general rules still apply - have a web page, that is clear and fast to load.

It was fun to remember back. A blast from the past! Maybe next time I'll be more careful while browsing the library.

[Rachel Brune · Rating 3 out of 5]

From what I remember of my own experience during this time period, the tips in this book were spot on. Things have changed, of course, and I finished this book for the nostalgia and to add a book to my GR reading challenge. The PR principles are still sound, but this one will head back to the library with no regrets.

[Ana Naglich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some general concepts are fine, but it is seriously outdated.

[Vovka · Rating 1 out of 5]

Simply horrible. Published in 2002, this book is basically written for senior professionals who were first getting online in 2002. There's advice on how to send an email. And how to send an email to many people at once. How to pull up a website. How to host a website. How to get your website listed in search engines like Lycos. How to search the web for a term. How to search the web for two words that are related! If I've bored you to tears with this small sample of what's inside this book, just imagine how bored you'll be if you purchase it and try to read it. More powerful than a prescription sedative, less informative than the fine-print disclaimer about side effects buried deep on that sedative's website.

[Pashmina · Rating 3 out of 5]

More priceless information from the same author of Guerrilla P.R., except now the strategies are adapted for the Internet. I definitely learned a lot from the examples and stories but this book is outdated now. It’s waaayyy behind the technology curve now, and was just about to hit it when I read it back in 2002. I think the author may have tried too hard to define construction of websites, and not enough time encouraging innovation. So, a little off track, and not timeless.

[The · Rating 3 out of 5]

some decent advice, a bunch of obvious stuff.

[Lori Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A should-read book on market positioning for the knowledge worker, manager, executive, or entrepreneur.