Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction 1 Part I TELL YOUR STORY WITHOUT SEX OR EXTORTION 5 1 Sex Sells 7 How Communication Has Changed 10 Your Customers Control Your Brand and Your Messaging 10 Tell Your Story Without Spin 12 Use the Formula of Fiction Writing to Tell Company Stories 15 Take Your Story from Idea to Concept 16 Develop Company Characters 17 2 The Google Drama 27 Along Came Panda 28 And Then Came Penguin 29 Marathon Mentality 32 When Duplicate Content Gets You in Trouble 33 What Constitutes High-Quality Content? 35 3 Shareable and Valuable Content Creation 37 Paid Media 39 Earned Media 40 Shared Media 43 Owned Media 44 Create Calls-to-Action 46 Shareable and Valuable Content 50 The News Release 54 Part II SCAMMERS, LIARS, AND BEGGARS 57 4 Whisper Campaigns and Anonymous Attackers 59 Trolls and Anonymous Attackers 64 Public Attackers 66 The Trolls, Critics, and Attackers 69 Seven Steps to Dealing with Criticism 71 5 Media Manipulation 75 Build Relationships and Let the Rest Fall into Place 77 DIY Media Relations 80 6 The Dark Side of Content 83 Content Farms and Robots That Write 86 The People Who Steal Your Content 87 Manage the Content Scrapers 89 Plain Old Plagiarism 91 Safely Syndicating Your Content 92 Part III YOUR BRAND; YOUR CUSTOMERS 95 7 Your Customers Control the Brand 97 Understand What Your Customers Think About You 99 Communications Done Well 100 Your Customers Are Active and Passionate 102 Your Brand Is How Customers Feel About You 104 Part IV SPIN SUCKS 107 8 The Convergence of Media 109 The Convergence of Media 110 On-Page SEO for Your Content 112 What Is On-Page SEO? 113 How Does On-Page SEO Work? 114 Content of the Page 114 The Title Tag 115 The URL 115 The Images' Alt Texts 116 Tools to Use 116 Shared Media Through Community 116 9 Crisis Communications: Trolls, Critics, and Detractors 119 Tips for Managing an Issue 125 Begin to Repair Your Online Reputation 128 10 The Future of Communications 137 Real-Time Marketing 139 PR Becomes More Tangible 141 Content Marketing Evolves 142 Index 147

"Most PR books tell you how to spin your message. People are sick of that! Spin Sucks will teach you how to communicate honestly, responsibly, openly, and authentically and truly earn the trust of your customers, stakeholders, investors, and communities. Top PR thought leader and blogger Gini Dietrich runs the number one PR blog in the world, spinsucks.com, where she shares cutting-edge tips and tools for effective, ethical communications. Now, she's integrated all she's learned into a complete, actionable guide for every business leader who understands there are new rules to communications, but don't know what to do. No matter what your organization does, Dietrich will help you".