Rethinking Reputation: How PR Trumps Marketing and Advertising in the New Media World

by Fraser P. Seitel, John Doorley

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 new 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 * 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!

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

248 pages, Hardcover

First published August 21, 2012

Reviews

[Anne Donohoe Wexler · Rating 1 out of 5]

Any book with "new media" in the title should not be a book.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heavy in case studies and celebrity anecdotes, too light in advice or instruction. Was missing the "how" I was expecting from the title.

[Dave Irwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I didn't agree with every aspect of this book I still found it informative and useful. The author's politics seem to come through in certain chapters but that is alright because it gives the author more personality, rather than it being a purely fact-based book, which makes it more interesting. I did not really align with the politics but that actually stuck out to me since it caused me to question what was being said for the lesson's merits.

This book does one thing that I love, and that is chapter summary and key takeaways. I LOVE when a book does this because it means you don't have to go back through the entire book to review it and it gives you a quick primer on the chapter without the fluff.

Good book.

[Matt Bucklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books is full of incredible stories and examples of how to manage, and mismanage public relations. All of the advice is relevant and to the point. Public relations is the most effective strategy for managing a message, building a profile, and spreading the word about a cause or business, and it is increasingly becoming more so. Really good to understand and use appropriately.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this for class but I actually found myself enjoying it. I believe that in the wide arrangement of case studies, everyone can find something that they are particularly interested in. This doesn't read to you like a text book, and the text is interspersed with bits of humor that make reading this book an easy task. There are also quite a few lessons that I took away from this book that I have found to be quite helpful in my undergraduate career, and will certainly help in the future.

[Kurt Fredrickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good condensed look at a wide range of PR situations that are both interesting and informative. The section on BP's handling of the gulf spill is just deep enough to give a sense of where their PR went wrong. The end of chapter "lesson" lists are a nice recap of the chapters' main points.

[Charlie Pownall · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and valuable addition to the PR canon, notably the Merck and Exxon case studies.

[Danny Guzmán · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detesto las RRPP pero los ejemplos de este libro son buenísimos.

[Vera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting explanation about what PR is and does. There are many examples in this book. It gives specific guides and rules about PR and in which situations they should be used.