Straight Talk about Public Relations: What You Think You Know Is Wrong

Robert Wynne uses wit, humor, and, yes, straight talk to help readers learn the art of public relations.

• A compelling, easy-to-read introduction to public relations
• First book to show which social media strategies for PR really work
• Reporters reveal where they get their story ideas and share secrets about how they can be reached and influenced
• Author a Forbes contributor on public relations from 2009 to 2018

The media landscape is constantly changing. The 24-hour online news cycle for magazines, newspapers, TV, and other outlets, along with social media, offers news challenges – and opportunities – to inform and persuade.

Most books on public relations are useless. They’re boring academic textbooks written by group consensus filled with outdated scholarly theories or fantasies about social media tricks “guaranteeing” that you’ll go viral and instantly obtain fame and fortune.

Straight Talk About Public Relations presents realistic, powerful insights about how to tell a story, make an impact, and increase influence – it explains how the game of communications is played today.

Persuading people to buy products or services, change their opinions, or support causes is difficult. But there are tactics that work – and you'll find them in this revised edition.

Creating great content, and presenting your story, words, and images to the media and influencers, is critically important to performing public relations. The two biggest trends in public relations are social media and content marketing, and this revised and updated edition features new insights into:

• finding and engaging your audience
• successfully pitching the media
• writing an editorial that wows
• creating a persuasive social media campaign
• dealing with fake news
• measuring PR success

This witty, no-holds-barred introduction to the art of public relations is perfect for entrepreneurs, small business owners, students, those working in the PR business who want to update their skills, and any consumer of media who wants to understand the secrets of persuasion. The foreword by Emmy Award-winning writer Dave Boone sets the stage for the book, where you’ll learn to master the skills of public relations and strategies to write well and deliver your messages in the right way, at the right time, to the right audience.

Robert Wynne is president of the PR and events agency Wynne Communications and a contributor on public relations to Forbes magazine. He was formerly Director of Communications at USC's Marshall School of Business, Director of Marketing at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, and a reporter for Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times. He's provided PR counsel to MIT, Raytheon, Ferrari-Maserati, USC, Tennis Industry Association, UCLA, and many others. He also hosts yearly PR events for business, medical, and engineering PR professionals. He holds an MA in Communications from the University of Texas at Austin.