In celebration of the release of their first iPhone application, Dale Carnegie Training is giving away 200 hardback copies of “How To Win Friends & Influence People.” This classic book has sold over 15 million copies to date, and incorporates human relations principles which have helped generations of people worldwide enjoy personal and professional success.

The books will be distributed via contests to the readers at 20 blogs – including Bubblicious. To enter, our readers simply need to follow bubblicious on Twitter, and retweet this post (see the “Tweet this” button below). Winners will be notified via DM. Here are the overall Contest Rules on the Dale Carnegie blog.

The application is a an adaptation of Dale Carnegie courses aimed to help you enhance your relationships with others, gain cooperation, and be a leader. The skills gained can be directly applied to improving public speaking, mastering workplace culture, presentation effectiveness, team member engagement, leadership development, sales effectiveness, customer service and lots more.

For more information about the Secrets of Success app, visit the iTunes store.

With the successful sales of Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, Brian Solis is at it again!

Brian will be visiting Atlanta for a brief 24 hours on February 23, 2010 and will be bringing his marketing expertise with him!

Since his newest book Engage does not hit the shelves until March 15, 2010, he will be offering a special treat to those who visit him in Atlanta on February 23, 2010.

For a limited time, you can purchase Engage and pick it up in person by purchasing a ticket at the EventBrite page and joining him at 7 p.m. EST at the 5 Seasons Brewing Westside in the upstairs Sky Bar.

There, you can pick up your book, have it signed by Brian himself and enjoy a great night of fun filled laughter and entertainment.

These copies will be coming straight from the printers and will be the first available printed set. Engage will not be available for purchase at the event. So to ensure that you get a copy of the book, you must pre-purchase your ticket by Monday, February 15!

Where: 5 Seasons Brewing Westside – upstairs Sky Bar
Time: 7 p.m. EST.
Ticket: EventBrite
Hashtag: #engageATL
Can’t make it to Atlanta? Pre-order Engage from Amazon now!

A book may not be the first thing that comes to mind when discussing innovation but as technology has progressed, the way we consume the information presented in books has made a steady evolution. From the audio book to the Kindle, technology has jumped in to make books easier to consume in a variety of formats creating a debatably richer experience.

New to the market is Vook. It is the latest innovation in reading that brings together books, video and the Internet. Vooks are available on the web and to download on a mobile phone. It’s an interesting idea with the goal of supplementing books with video and social content that aren’t available in the static format.

The web-based version allow for the reader to view the text of the book in a similar format to an e-Reader. Video is incorporated on the side of the screen so you can easily view complementary material without flipping between screens or from book to computer. It also includes social media capabilities by integrating with Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. The mobile format has similar features but due to the size of the screen, readers are directed to video rather than it being incorporated in the screen. Although I have yet to try it, I imagine this is incredibly useful for cookbooks and fitness materials more so than novels.

The book selection is on the smaller side and focused on fitness and cooking texts but the site is new and I expect their library to grow. I do wonder if they will attempt to turn some of the classics into Vooks, which could be very interesting to see.

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Shel Israel’s Twitterville as the Twitterati convened to celebrate the release of his new book, Twitterville.

I took a break from writing my next book and promoting my current book to congratulate Shel personally and also say hello to the peers, friends, and mentors who have and continue to serve as my inspiration.

Tatyana Kanzaveli organized an incredible event at the Hiller Aviation Museum in Redwood City and she deserves recognition for bringing a fantastic set of people together in an exceptional setting. Well done Tatyana!

Congratulations Shel!

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Tatyana Kanzaveli

Robert Scoble

Josh McHugh

Scott Beale, Laughing Squid

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Brewer-Hay

Lionel Menchaca

KC Chan-Herur and Jeremiah Owyang

Michael Brito, Intel

Steve Rubel

Beth Kanter, Erica O’Grady, KD Paine, Heidi Groshelle, Amita Paul

Shel Holtz

Shashi Bellamkonda, Network Solutions

Jennifer Leggio, Ken Burbary, Richard Binhammer

Kenneth Yeung

Gary Bolles

Kristie Wells and Chris Heuer (Happy 40th Birthday Chris!)

For more pictures from the event, please visit my set on Flickr.

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Sourced from PR 2.0

I’ve long promised to start shooting and publishing interviews with those whom inspire me. While this isn’t the official debut of this imminent series, it is a representation of what’s possible. In fact, once I complete the writing for the next book, I will place the video series on an accelerated path to production.

Nonetheless, Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibraryTV has written a new book, Crush It, which will hit the market in mid October. While I was in New York recently, Gary and I met up to discuss his new book as well as “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations,” my new book with Deirdre Breakenridge.

It’s always wonderful catching up with Gary and I look forward to doing so again soon.

Gary signed a copy of my book and once his new book is released, we’ll have him sign and send a copy over so that we can create a contest of sorts to give both away to one lucky contestant.

Stay tuned…

For more on Gary, please read my post from 2008.

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This week, I was invited to speak at the Girls in Tech event in San Francisco as part of its evening discussing and exploring the nuances and opportunities defining and fueling Journalism 2.0.  I’ve supported GIT founder Adriana Gascoigne since the beginning and will always help the chapters that now exist around the world. It’s an important organization.

The evening was hosted at the San Francisco HQ of MySpace in the city’s South Beach district, which prior to their arrival, served as the early offices for the Social Media Club as it was forming.

To open the GIT New Journalism event, I was interviewed by my hero, and razor sharp witted Kara Swisher of The Wall Street Journal and All Things Digital. We discussed my new book “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations“  c0-authored with Dierdrre Breakenridge as well as the state of PR and social media marketing. Her questions were riveting and ensured that all guests stayed at the edge of their seats, including me, as we shared our honest and blunt assessments, predictions and solutions for an industry on the brink of either collapse or renaissance or both.

I think the audience would agree, the discussion begged for more time than we could possibly fit into the schedule. I’ll try to organize part two in the near future…

Shortly before our discussion, Kara shot one of her famous Flipcam interviews, which she shared in her recounting of the evening’s event and the discussions that defined it as well as in the Wall Street Journal Digital Network.

Thank you Kara!

I’ve included the video below…

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by Brian Solis via PR 2.0

I almost can’t believe that this day is finally here…

Deirdre Breakenridge and I proudly announce the availability of our new book, “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR.”

The book is in stock at Amazon, the Amazon Kindle store, Barnes & Noble, Safari, and bookstores everywhere.

Deirdre and I spent a good part of the last year pouring our heart, soul, and real world successes and failures into this book, and we only hope that it will help you excel in whatever role you choose to pursue.

This book is written for the those facing the new intersection of all that is Public Relations including PR, media and analyst relations, customer service, product development, social media, brand and community managers, executive management, HR, journalists, bloggers, marketing, advertising, students, teachers, content publishers, and everyone in between.

Book Summary:

PR, as we know it, is a dying practice having evolved away from the public and instead concentrating its energy on broadcasting disconnected messages to “media and analysts.”

What we’ve learned and what we know are quickly fading into irrelevance and obscurity. Reporters and analysts are now sharing the stage with a new generation of influencers. In addition to a still relevant process of media relations, we now need to expand our scope of participation and outreach by also identifying, understanding, and engaging the everyday people who have plugged-in to a powerful and democratized online platform for creating and distributing information, insight, and opinions – effectively gaining authority in the process.

The very people we had always wished to reach through traditional channels are now the very people we need to convince and inspire directly in order to remain part of industry-defining and market making conversations. This is a new era of influence and in order to participate, we have to rewire our DNA to stop marketing “at” audiences in order to genuinely and intelligently humanize our story to connect with real people and the online communities they inhabit.

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations is a critical and mandatory process to shine in today’s social economy. It will help businesses forge meaningful relationships with those who will bridge specific benefits to distinct groups of consumers in order to cultivate a loyal, vocal, and hyper-connected community of customers and influencers.

I sincerely hope that this book helps you…

Looking forward to hearing your feedback.

Bonus: If you happen to live near San Mateo or Palo Alto, please visit Barnes & Noble or Borders for a pleasant surprise.

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by Brian Solis

I was invited to speak at the recent Columbus PRSA event to discuss the new landscape of PR and the emerging new roles and responsibilities which we must embrace in order to successfully and genuinely evolve and ensure our place in the future communications economy.

Following the event, we hosted a signing for the new book I wrote with Deirdre Breakenridge, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations. It was the first time I got to see the new book as its not technically available until early March. The response was humbling. I was privileged to meet so many passionate communications pros, marketers, and entrepreneurs.

The night before the event, I joined @knowinsky @KPfefferle @NickSeguin @Canterucci @AngelaSiefer @wyliemac @JamieTimm for dinner. During this rich and invigorating discusion, I learned that Columbus is indeed a developing social media and new tech hub and is ripe for the next wave of events that spotlight the local social economy.

Following dinner, I ventured out in the cold night to capture the beauty of downtown Columbus.

I’m already looking forward to the next time.

Thank you Kelli Nowinsky for organizing everything!

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Capitol Square, Ohio Statehouse

To see more pictures from my visit to Ohio, please jump over to my album on flickr.

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