Holtz Communications + Technology

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The Thank You Economy, by Gary Vaynerchuk.

FIR book review editor Bob LeDrew reviews Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book, “The Thank You Economy.” Vaynerchuk earlier hit the bestseller charts with “Crush It.” He oversaw spectacular growth of Wine Library through the use of social media. He was also a guest on FIR Live #15.

Here’s the Amazon product description of the book: “The Thank You Economy…

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Welcome to the Fifth Estate, by Geoff Livingston.

FIR co-host Shel Holtz reviews Geoff Livingston’s “Welcome to the Fifth Estate.” co-founded Zoetica, a social enterprise that provides superior communication consulting, training, and strategy to help mindful organizations affect social change.

Here’s the Amazon product description of the book: “Grounded in years of award-winning campaign experience, Welcome to the Fifth Estate delivers the…

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Social Location Marketing, by Simon Salt.

FIR Book Review editor Bob LeDrew reviews Simon Salt’s “Social Location Marketing: Outshining Your Competitors on Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp & Other Location Sharing Sites.” Salt works with large brands and international PR companies through his own marketing communications firm, whose client list includes Fortune® 500 companies. Before starting his firm, he participated in three successful…

Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans, by Wendell Potter.

FIR book editor Bob LeDrew reviews “Deadly Spin” by former CIGNA PR executive Wednell Potter. According to Publisher’s Weekly, Potter “exposes the PR pros’ propaganda tricks—fake grass-roots organizations, bogus scientific studies—and recounts his shame-faced repentance. But he also trenchantly critiques the failure of America’s for-profit…

A tweet directed me to a TechCrunch guest post titled, “Dear Authors, Your Next Book Should be an App, not an iBook.”

While the post’s author, 21-year-old startup exec Cody Brown, doesn’t exactly make the case that books are dead, he does suggest that authors eyeing the iPad as a platform for their books are “missing the point:”

What do you think would have happened if George Orwell had…

There has been a flurry of activity in the PR corners of a variety of social channels today. These messages have been filled with angst and vile and anger. There has been finger-pointing, name-calling and threats.

What could motivate such an outpouring of emotion? A particularly egregious case of astroturfing? The revelation that a PR agency is behind a front organization…