Keeping Shtum and Other Communication Strategies: A disruptive look at public relations, reputation and crisis management...

What’s your point of view? What’s your story? When do you need to communicate it? To whom? How? And when is it better to keep shtum? Anyone in the public eye (institutions, businesses, individuals) needs a communication strategy that helps achieve their objectives. Without a communication strategy, you risk everything spinning out of control. Without a communication strategy, you can’t put your strategy into effect. Without a communication strategy, you don’t know when, to whom, or how to tell your story. There are thousands of books on public communication but: • Most of them are about tactics, not strategy. They tell you how to publicize a new product or run a campaign. They don’t tell you where communication fits into your strategy. • Most of them are idealistic, preaching openness and transparency. • Most of them assume that publicity is a Good Thing. One of the secrets of top professionals is that it’s often better to say less. This book is the product of lessons learned over more than 30 years in the business of communication and a study of communication strategy. Instead of telling you what you ought to do (or telling you the author’s life story), this book tells you what works. Drawing on the literature about public relations, communication theory, strategic management, politics and other relevant fields, as well as making extensive use of cases, it proposes a new synthesis of communication strategy.