30 people are writing a second how-to guide to marketing and public relations tools as part of the PRstack project.

I've always been mildly envious of the cooperative spirit that exists in coding and SEO. Open source communities tackle issues that the industries are facing and aid learning and development.

They're typically focussed on a single goal and operate outside existing industry structures. This enables them to move quickly.

It turns out that the public relations industry can also put aside competitive issues and open source. It’s how PRstack was created.

Making sense of the marketing and tool market

At the end of last year I bitched and moaned in a blog post about the confusion in the third-party tool market.

The market is characterised by vendors pushing products packed with features towards practitioners who don’t properly understand what they’re buying.

The debate around Klout as a metric and tool for measuring influence is a good example. The tool polarises the social media community.

Klout measures social media output. Real life influence isn't that simple. It requires scrutiny on context, relationships and resonance.

Blog-to-database-to-app-to-book

PRstack’s purpose is to help make sense of the tools market and create modern workflow for a communication team or public relations agency.

I invited people to help characterise the tool market in a Google Document. Prezly showed leadership and offered to get involved and develop a web app to interrogate the database.

18 members of the community wrote how-to articles about different tools. We compiled these into a book.

You can access the chapters online or download the complete book for free. It's also available in print from Blurb.

About the second PRstack book

The second PRstack book is more ambitious than the first but the principles remain the same.

Academics, practitioners and vendors; students and senior professionals; and men and women have all once again contributed and now we've a second book underway.

The project, like its predecessor, is completely open source. Content was pitched, debated and refined.

In each chapter there's an explanation of a tool, what it does and how you use it in practice.

Those involved share practical advice on different areas of public relations workflow including planning, content, engagement, and monitoring and measurement.

We've also included guidance from experts on implementing change within an agency or communication team, and some simple hacks to get you started.

You can check up on the topics we're covering and progress in this Google document.

The text has just been handed it over for design and production.

Along the way we've invited comments via Facebook and Twitter. Each chapter has been reviewed and edited by myself and Margaret Clow.

When the second version of the PRstack book is published in October we'll have shared how-to guides for 80 of the most popular tools.

Adding even further value, Prezly has published a guide to incorporating new technology in public relations workflow as part of the project. I'd urge you to check it out.

If you want to get involved in PRstack there's an active #PRstack hashtag on Twitter and informal Facebook community.

We're aiming to publish in the first week of October. Please watch this space.

Thank-you to PRstack contributors

My thanks to all those who have written a chapter: Matt Anderson; Matt Appleby; Stella Bayles; Michael Blowers; Liz Bridgen; Stuart Bruce; Gini Dietrich; Erica Eliasson; Helen Laurence; Rich Leigh; Hannah Lennox; Tim Lloyd; Kevin Lorch; Maria Loupa; Rachel Miller; Lauren Old; Adam Parker; Laura Petrolino; Andy Ross; David Sawyer; Aly Saxe; Laura Sutherland; Max Tatton-Brown; Frederik Tautz; Abha Thakor; Frederik Vincx; Angharad Welsh; Livi Wilkes; Arianne Williams; and Michael White.

Thanks also to those that contributed to the first book: Matt Anderson; Stella Bayles; Michael Blowers; Stuart Bruce; Scott Guthrie; Sarah Hall; Rich Leigh; Adam Parker; Gary Preston; Andrew Ross; Andrew Smith; David Sawyer; Kalli Soteriou; Dan Tyte; Max Tatton-Brown; Ben Verinder; Angharad Welsh; and Ross Wigham.