“Social media has become an invaluable tool in my PR armoury by giving me a direct voice to speak directly to members of the media and the general public,” says Lord Sugar. “This book is a useful guide to using social media effectively.”

Gaining such a glowing endorsement for a business book from one of the UK’s most influential business leaders, media personalities and political advisers is no mean feat. It sets the focus well for Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals from the CIPR.

Described as “a practical handbook to the biggest changes taking place in the media and its professions by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ Social Media Panel,” Share This was conceived and written by more than 20 public relations practitioners representing a cross-section of public, private and voluntary sector expertise using many of the social tools and techniques that it addresses.

In this FIR Interview, co-host Neville Hobson discusses the book with Philip Sheldrake and Stephen Waddington, two of the central figures behind it and much of the CIPR’s proactive work in recent years to get social media on the agenda of CIPR members.

The wide-ranging conversation starts with both men’s perspectives on what the book is and who it’s aimed at. The discussion covers how the contributors were identified and brought in to the project, and looks at its editorial process focused on ‘the cloud,’ the challenges in managing such crowd-sourced content and how it all fitted with established traditional book-publishing processes at the publisher Wiley.

The two also offered their thoughts on the work of the CIPR’s Social Media Panel and what the future may hold.

Share This is published in the UK in July 2012 (in August 2012 in the US), in hardcopy and digital editions, and is available from Amazon and other booksellers.

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About our Conversation Partners

Philip Sheldrake is a Chartered Engineer, technology consultant, author and public relations professional. He wrote The Business of Influence in 2011. He is a founding partner of Meanwhile, a main board director of Intellect and director of 6UK.

He is a founding member of the CIPR’s Social Media Panel and leads its policy group on campaign measurement and evaluation.

Philip’s expertise spans business strategy, IT and web strategy, product engineering and technology, management consultancy, public relations and social web analytics.

Connect with Philip on Twitter: @sheldrake.

Stephen Waddington is a PR moderniser that has worked in the media and corporate communications since the rise of the internet and the dawn of digital media. He has helped brands such as the Associated Press, Cisco, The Economist, IBM, Tesco and Virgin Media Business to manage their reputations.

He is co-author of Brand Anarchy published in March 2012, and is editor of and contributor to Share This.

He is managing director of the award-winning Speed Communications launched in 2009, which has rapidly become one of the UK’s most prominent public relations agencies, working with clients across conventional, digital and owned media.

Stephen understands how the media landscape works online and offline and champions good practice as a writer, conference speaker and award winning-blogger. He is a CIPR Accredited Practitioner and member of the UK’s PRCA Council, CIPR Council and the CIPR Social Media Panel.

Stephen is also chairman of Admiral PR & Marketing, the regional agency based in Manchester and Newcastle. He is married with three children and splits his time between London and home on a small holding in rural Northumberland.

Connect with Stephen on Twitter: @wadds.

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This FIR Interview is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.

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(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)