30 academics, practitioners, students and vendors have combined forces to produce a second how-to guide to public relations tools.

The PRstack community project has created two books, consisting of 48 free how-to guides, to help public relations professionals get better at digital public relations.

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

The project is open source. Content was pitched, debated and refined. I've overseen and edited both books working with sub-editor Margaret Clow. Frederik Vincx has handled the production with him team at Prezly.

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

Contents of PRstack second book

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

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

The 124-page book is distributed free under a Creative Commons license via the PRstack community. The second book, like the first, is available as an ebook (12MB PDF download) and in print from Blurb priced £16.00.

Industry endorsement

Initiative reaction to the new publication has been encouraging.

“For almost ten years we've been talking about how technology and digital communications have radically altered the practise of public relations. Much of the discussion has been theoretical and yet one of the biggest changes is in the myriad of applications and tools that we now use every day.”

“From those we use to engage with on-line influencers to how we submit receipts for expense claims technology is the heart of our workflow and systems and processes bare new and change quickly.”

“Before PRStack no-one had thought to bring these multiple technologies together for the benefit of PR practitioners.”

Rob Brown, Founding Partner, Rule 5, President CIPR, 2016

“As a professional practice, public relations has been plagued by too many publications that mystify rather than explain practice.”

“This project, led by Stephen Waddington, one of the world's leading public relations exponents, is an antidote to that shortfall.”

Francis Ingham, Director General, PRCA, Chief Executive, ICCO

How to get the complete PRstack of 48 tools

You can download both books for free or buy print copies via Blurb..

PRstack #1 - 90 pages

• Download free e-book (4MB PDF)
• Order print version via Blurb

PRstack #2 - 124 pages

• Download free e-book (12MB PDF)
• Order print version via Blurb

The chapter-by-chapter content from the first book is also available online and we're releasing the new content over the next 30 days. All of the contributors and content for the complete project is shown on the PRstack home page.

Thank you to PRstack contributors

Thanks to Margaret Clow who worked with me to knock both PRstack books into shape. This is the seventh book that we've worked on together.

Thank you to Frederik and the team at Prezly for their commitment to the project. As well as building the PRstack app and website they’ve help create the two books. No other vendor has shown such courage or leadership.

The authors of this book have all given up their time and expertise freely to contribute.

My thanks to all those who have written a chapter in the second book: 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.