In a world in which every­one seems to be a chicken lit­tle speak­ing of the end of tra­di­tional jour­nal­ism, PR and adver­tis­ing, there are very few peo­ple who are work­ing toward guid­ing the indus­try toward suc­cess in new new media. Some inter­est­ing books about “what’s next” that I am read­ing are The Chaos Sce­nario by Bob Garfield and Free: The Future of a Rad­i­cal Price by Chris Ander­son. Add to this list David Henderson’s new book, Mak­ing News in the Dig­i­tal Era, a book that is part analy­sis, part brief­ing, and part pathfinder, explic­itly guid­ing read­ers through the very con­fus­ing social media landscape.

In the 170 pages of Mak­ing News in the Dig­i­tal Era, David E. Hen­der­son per­son­ally walks his read­ers safely through the mine field that is new com­mu­ni­ca­tions, dig­i­tal PR, and social media marketing. Essential reading.

Mak­ing News in the Dig­i­tal Era explic­itly answers some very impor­tant ques­tions: how to make your orga­ni­za­tion heard above com­peti­tors’ noise, how to cap­ture new media’s atten­tion when then time is right, how to increase the “Googleabil­ity” of your orga­ni­za­tion, and how to have a more mean­ing­ful con­ver­sa­tion with key stake­hold­ers and audi­ences.  These ques­tions are essen­tial in the con­text of the near-future:

“For many agen­cies and PR depart­ments, change is either too slow in com­ing or is not hap­pen­ing. There’s a com­mu­ni­ca­tions tsunami rolling our way, and many of us are not sure what to do. Sure, we see the tide going out fast and far. It’s fas­ci­nat­ing and scary at the same time. Stand­ing on the beach and wait­ing for it to roar back in is not an option.”

To give you a real taste of the answers these ques­tions, here’s some of Henderson’s sage advice: Advo­cate change in your agency — cham­pion change, embrace sto­ry­telling — hon­estly and with­out hyper­bole, use plain lan­guage — acces­si­ble to every­one, reach out to a few to achieve more — influ­ence the influ­encers, start mar­ket­ing and pro­mot­ing — start lis­ten­ing, and become the cred­i­ble voice and face of your orga­ni­za­tion and indus­try — become the online influencer.

Part of Henderson’s research into Mak­ing News in the Dig­i­tal Era included reach­ing out to sundry experts in the field, ask­ing them ques­tions such as what works and what is no longer effec­tive; how to com­mu­ni­cate with reporters, blog­gers, and key audi­ence; what is the def­i­n­i­tion of jour­nal­ist in a world of online cit­i­zen reporters; how ben­e­fi­cial is online strat­egy for strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tions; and how will new media effect the effec­tive­ness of tra­di­tional media kits, new con­fer­ences, and news releases.

The unique thing about Mak­ing News in the Dig­i­tal Era is that is it not writ­ten to much to the neo­phyte or two the small busi­ness expert but rather to the dyed-in-the-wool com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­fes­sional — be it jour­nal­ist, PR or adver­tis­ing exec, com­mu­ni­ca­tion direc­tor, or busi­ness con­sul­tant who wants help tran­si­tion­ing from “tra­di­tional” mar­ket­ing and mass media strate­gies to what’s next.  This book speaks “our” lan­guage as com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­fes­sion­als and is illus­tra­tive using case stud­ies and best prac­tices exam­ples from the world of brand pro­mo­tion and rep­u­ta­tion man­age­ment and not just the gen­eral pie-in-the-sky spit­balling that tends to come from vision­ar­ies and futurists.

OK, I don’t want to tran­scribe the entire book — that would not serve David Hen­der­son very well — but I will boil it down as best I can to one pithy sound bite that explains how com­pa­nies, brands, ser­vices, and orga­ni­za­tions need to evolve into the next gen­er­a­tion: brands need to become as charm­ing, engag­ing, and respon­sive as humanly pos­si­ble — to offer a story that is cap­ti­vat­ing and appeal­ing enough that your con­sumers feel com­pelled to come to you. Or, do quote the king of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, Mike Deaver (who I got to meet dur­ing me short stint at Edel­man Pub­lic Affairs), “know who you are, be open and trans­par­ent, and be ready for change.”

One of the most valu­able parts of the book that I found, and some­thing you will surely con­sider invalu­able if you’re shop­ping for a PR shop, is a list of new PR-savvy ques­tions one must ask poten­tial firms to make sure they’re set up to han­dle a new media and a social media world of com­mu­ni­ca­tions.  I can’t tell you how many clients and prospects I have spo­ken to who are just wing­ing it when they becom­ing big enough to start think­ing about retain­ing a com­mu­ni­ca­tions con­sul­tant — this ques­tion­naire should be de rigueur when shopping.

From chap­ter six through 10, Hen­der­son explores the tools of the social media mar­ket­ing and dig­i­tal PR trade, point­ing out one needs to offer much more than lip ser­vice to trans­parency and authenticity. “To have a mean­ing­ful con­ver­sa­tions online, a com­pany needs to do the fol­low­ing: artic­u­late clear points of view on the things that it cares about the most, iden­tify its own experts and cham­pi­ons to tell com­pelling sto­ries to advance its case and strengthen its mar­ket posi­tion, cre­ate ever-evolving pub­lic plat­forms and forums where it con con­sis­tently and fre­quently shaw­case its views, along with other respected indus­try experts and thought lead­ers, and cre­ate a forum for shar­ing com­ments, gen­er­at­ing a con­ver­sa­tion and listening.”

I am not even on page 57 yet and I could keep on quot­ing and shar­ing, so I will suf­fice it say that there’s amaz­ingly prac­ti­cal advice on every page, most of which are unspo­ken rules and intu­itions that most peo­ple in the space have learned through intu­ition and expe­ri­ence — things that need to be said explic­itly and clearly, some­thing that David Hen­der­son does with aplomb.  Not only does the book offer advice on how to bullshit-check your PR firm but also do the same sort of check on your social media guru and your blog­ger and your Twit­ter expert as well.  The book spends a lot of its col­umn inches on not get­ting sad­dled with some lame “experts,” some­thing that is essen­tial when every­one, includ­ing yours truly, pro­fesses him­self to be a social media expert (SME).

Some other impor­tant issues Hen­der­son addresses is whether you actu­ally need, or are ready for, a CEO or cor­po­rate blog. What do do with Twit­ter once you have become obsessed with becom­ing a res­i­dent of twit­ter­ville, how best to wade into web 2.0 and how to develop an online dig­i­tal com­mu­ni­ca­tions strat­egy — essen­tially “every­thing you ever wanted to know about new media com­mu­ni­ca­tions but were afraid to ask.”

Chap­ter 13 is titled “Cri­sis Never Takes a Day Off” and addresses the 800-pound gorilla in the room: online rep­u­ta­tion man­age­ment and online cri­sis response in the “new era of openned, time­li­ness, respon­sive­ness, and truth­ful­ness” that “had truly become 24/7.” This, in a world where it is still pos­si­ble to assas­si­nate someone’s brand as long as you attack it on a Fri­day after­noon because said brand most likely won’t even notice it until 10 on Mon­day morning.

When it all is said and done, David Hen­der­son tells the truth, even though it’s a bit­ter pill to accept, “no one cares about you.” In Mak­ing News in the Dig­i­tal Era, David Hen­der­son works real hard to try to knock it all into our stub­born heads. If you want to remain in denial about the cur­rent state of the Inter­net, new media, dig­i­tal PR, and the post-PR and post-advertising world, then don’t buy Henderson’s book; how­ever, if you want to sort our your own per­sonal brand story and develop some nar­ra­tive game, then you really had bet­ter grab a copy and read it through and then share it around the office.Chris Abra­ham is co-founder and prin­ci­pal of Abra­ham Har­ri­son LLC, an inter­na­tional con­sult­ing group with spe­cial­ties in online word-of-mouth/conversation mar­ket­ing and online busi­ness & tech­nol­ogy strat­egy advis­ing. See his pro­file, con­tact Chris via email, Twit­ter, or leave a com­ment below.