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 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!