Wondering what my favorite eBooks are? Here are a few you can download to your iPad or smartphone tonight to read as time allows. Not all of theme are recent, but I found each one of them to be valuable.
Registration is required for many of them, but don’t let that stop you. After all, who doesn’t want to grow their knowledge using freebies, right?!
Did you know reading makes you learn great things almost via osmosis? Become an avid reader and you magically become an avid LEARNER almost effortlessly. It fills up your brain with juicy little pieces of information that seem to pop out front-and-center right when you need them.
If you don’t read, you probably aren’t learning – a big mistake in today’s environment.
Glance these over and let me know if you find one particularly useful.
Five Free eBooks (or Presentations) To Download Now
- Strengthen Your LinkedIn Skills: The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to LinkedIn by…. um….. LinkedIn! Can’t get any closer to the source than that, right? It includes some very useful details.
- Learn to Podcast: This new SlideShare deck from Jay called How to Produce a Podcast in 15 Steps is youtility at its best, including tips AND specific tools Sir Baer uses to fuel some of his success! And I LOVE his idea of sending guests an audio headset! It is a useful gift that also ensures the podcast is successful. If you haven’t tried them yet, podcasts are a fantastic way to create effective content. Just remember to make them educational, not just promotional! Word on the street is that audio is (re)emerging as one of the fastest growing content platforms for 2015.
- Freshen up your skills with metrics: CyberAlert created a wonderful resource called The 2014 Measurement Handbook for PR, Marketing and Social Media. It has three parts, but if time is short, start with Part Three: Marketing Measurement: Implementing Metrics That Matter. Good stuff, Cyberalert!
- Polish up your media relations smarts: BusinessWire’s 2014 Media Survey Results are very enlightening. I’ve blogged about them before, but if you haven’t checked it out yet – go take a look.
- Help your clients avoid blogging mistakes: Who doesn’t love eBooks from Hubspot -they are all fantastic! This one is called 15 Business Blogging Mistakes and your first mistake would be NOT to download it if you blog, or are even thinking about it.
- Boost readership and reach with great headlines: Jon Morrow’s 52 Headline Hacks is a great source of inspiration! ( Don’t forget to brainstorm over that glass of wine.)
- Help clients transform earned media into owned media: Ramping up your email marketing skills is made far easier with Marketo’s The Definitive Guide to Engaging Email Marketing. It’s awesome! No registration required for this beauty of an eBook. Even if marketing owns email, not the PR department, it can’t hurt to use it to promote awareness of when a client is in the news, right? And new content?
Roses Are Red
Violets Are Blue
Spin Really Sucks
But Our PR Knowledge is True(Spin Sucks Scavengers, in case you missed it – KNOWLEDGE is the word you are looking for today! Good luck!!
And to anyone who hasn’t purchased Gini Dietrich’s book, Spin Sucks – buy a copy before March 8, 2015 and send a copy of your receipt to iboughtspinsucks@armentdietrich.com for some free goodies from Gini.)
- Transform your content fails into content marketing successes: Using a defined content strategy considerably boosts your odds of success, when it comes to content marketing. If you haven’t documented your 2015 strategy yet, impress your c-suite by using these free Content Marketing Management Toolkit templates that evolved from a Smart Insights – Hubspot collaboration. The end result will look like you slaved for WEEKS over it.
- Understand how to create a solid content marketing strategy: And who knows more about building a strategy than the Content Marketing Institute? Nobody! Download The Essentials of a Documented Content Marketing Strategy: 36 Questions to Answer here. It’s a keeper.
Are you a PR pro? I want to hear about your favorite PR wins and lessons!! Check out my PR Pro Showcase and submit a story or two. It’s fun and you deserve the spotlight. It also gives you a nice, juicy backlink to your own website or linked in page.
- Last one! And it happens to be one of my favorites that all PR pros should absorb – Google’s SEO Starter Guide. How much value does it add to your services when you can not only help your client be more visible through editorial and online content, but YOU KNOW HOW TO OPTIMIZE it?! Most don’t know how, so it’s a powerful differentiator.
Time to go – I have an unruly teenager to deal with this evening. Oh, goody.