Over the past eight months, I’ve had many PR students contact me to ask for help or advice with their PR dissertation.

The majority of them seem to struggle to find a good topic for their dissertations, but quite a few also find it difficult to identify good resources to start with their research.

That’s why I thought it would be useful to share with you a list of books, blogs and resource banks I recommend for your research, topic brainstorm, literature review and, in general, to help you grow your knowledge in the field.

Some of these I’ve used for my own research – first on social media for PR, then on social media for sustainability. I've had some comments that some of these books might be a little outdated since the industry moves so fast, but I have purposefully included them because current graduates probably don't know how the industry used to be a few years back and it is essential that while doing their research they understand how exactly things have changed since then. 

I hope you find the list useful!

33 Resources for Your PR Dissertation:

A few weeks ago, Stephen Waddington asked his community for their favourite 50 PR media – 10 blogs, 10 books, 10 communities, 10 newsletters and 10 podcasts – to crowdsource a summer list blog post (awesome idea, right?).

Of course, I jumped in too and mentioned Trust Me, PR is Dead as my favourite PR book this summer. (My blog actually ended up making his list!)

The one thing that stuck in my mind the most while reading the book was the super strong link that Robert Phillips makes between PR and sustainability. Honestly, I haven’t seen a PR professional advocating conscious business so passionately before. This makes the book more a business book, rather than a PR read.

I myself had researched social media for sustainability, but never really focused that much on the PR practice for sustainability, although it makes perfect sense. It comes natural to me – first because of my passion for sustainability, and second because I am a digital native and I understand or better yet live by the seismic changes that are happening in our society and the economy as a result. But I guess that’s not the case for many others.

The March of Conscious Business

PR as we once knew it might be dead, but conscious business is not. Or shouldn’t be. And it should guide the PR practice of the future.

I’m sure you’ve heard about PR, but how about inbound? Do you know what it is?

Don’t worry if you don’t because after reading this post you will, and you will also know how inbound and PR fit together quite nicely.

Let’s start with PR.  

As per definition, public relations is the communications process concerned with building relationships between an organisation and its publics.

Going back to a few decades ago, PR was mainly concerned with media relations, events, reputation and crisis management, and investor relations. In fact, for a very long time public relations and media relations were considered synonymous (some still think so).  

PR is not just media relations

But PR now is not and shouldn’t be just media relations. Because today, the arsenal of PR activities has increased enormously. Media relations can simply be one of those activities.

Decline in mass media, significant loss in importance for advertising and media sponsorship, steady rise in strategic partnership and co-operations with media as well as co-produced content and joint services are some of the key findings of this year’s European Communication Monitor.

The results of the research were revealed the other day so I just couldn’t wait to check them out this weekend.

It’s a massive research that surveyed over 2,200 comms professionals from 41 countries and after reading through the deck, my biggest learning is that:

Communication departments and professionals are failing to use modern technology and software to keep up, stay relevant, be innovative and prove the economic results of their activities.

Don’t get me wrong – many good things are happening too, but I still don’t understand why comms people are still staying behind the curve? There are so many tools out there, many even free, to help with day-to-day activities, monitor conversations, do research, make informed decisions, measure results and prove ROI.

Check out this key finding: Comms pros have no issues with spreading the word, however monitoring and listening to what the audience has to say is still a huge challenge.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been meaning to write this piece. I’ve seen it with friends from both my universities how hard it is to get your first job, I often hear it from students who reach out to me after reading my blog pieces. So, I knew I wanted to share some actionable advice to help recent PR grads with their job hunt, but I didn’t really know what the best way was to present it – should I share my experiences and my advice, should I add in some research, should I interview someone...

And then I thought, what better way to give you some actionable tips than asking the people who have made a name for themselves in the industry?

So I decided to reach out to the experts in my social community and ask them a simple question on Twitter:

In 140 characters, what is your top tip for PR grads to get their first job?

I was again amazed at how willing people are to help and share advice! In the Slideshare below you can see that I have managed to curate the expert tips from CEOs, agency owners, educators and some very notable influencers in the PR industry, all thanks to Twitter in a matter of just hours. This is just one more example how social media breaks all barriers (use it – that’s one advice).