In a deft follow-up to its ballyhooed Social Media press release template, SHIFT Communications has issued a free .pdf, PR 2.0 Essentials. (naturally, the press release announcing it uses the Social Media format.)

Public relations as a professional endeavor is largely tangential to DemocracyInAction's thrust, but this is a valuable resource for anyone involved in online messaging.  There's nothing truly new in this guide -- and for those that have inflicted upon themselves the copious volumes of nonprofit-focused "web 2.0" literature (such as this), a great deal will sound very familiar, translated from one profession's cant into another.

But in addition to the nice how-to companion for SHIFT's press release template, it's a trove of handy links and a neatly-organized introduction to scads of buzzwordy tech trends like Social Bookmarking and Podcasting. Good for helping skeptical organizations figure out which arenas are most worth their time, and how to play in them.

As SHIFT's blog observes, the audience for your press releases is now anyone. As lines blur between content producers and consumers, and between professionals and amateurs, "anyone" is the audience for PR practitioners' guides, too.