Why PR is more important than advertising or marketing - and how to harness its power to get new customers and protect your reputation in today's media-saturated world.

Good public relations is no longer just icing—it's a strategic imperative more important to your competitive success than even advertising or marketing. This is true whether you're a century-old multibillion-dollar corporation or a penniless startup. In Rethinking Reputation, public relations guru Fraser Seitel and John Doorley, founder of the Academy for Communication Excellence and Leadership at Johnson & Johnson, examine a fascinating set of case studies—including the BP oil spill and the launch of CitySlips—to glean the PR dos and don'ts for the new media world, covering both standard reputation maintenance and crisis management. They also show start-up companies and entrenched organizations how to use the power of word-of-mouth to jump-start business like never before. This is a wake-up call from two industry legends-for public relations professionals as well as entrepreneurs, CEOs, and anyone else tasked with representing their organization to the world.
These new media lessons include:
* Remember that research is cheaper, and more critical, than ever.
* Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good—launch your idea before someone else does.
* Don't get so excited about social media that you forget about traditional media.
* In a crisis, you are never offstage.
* Never lie, never whine, and never try to predict the future!