Sticks and Stones: How Digital Business Reputations Are Created Over Time and Lost in a Click

The new rules of online reputation building-from PR guru Larry Weber

In today's wired world, business reputations are built-and destroyed-online. Social networking, citizen journalism, and instant information have made the consequences of a bad reputation even more devastating than ever. Today, a good reputation online is a company's most valuable corporate asset. Sticks and Stones shows business leaders how to build and maintain reputation equity in the new online environment. Reputation equity is the sum total of the positive impressions that a company or product makes on customers, communities, and stakeholders. In Sticks and Stones, online marketing and PR guru Larry Weber explains how to build reputation equity through online publicity, organizational moral purpose, and strong business relationships. The stronger a company's reputation equity, the easier it will be for that company to overcome negative impressions online-whether they come from news sources, bloggers, or anyone else online.

Larry Weber (Boston, MA) is the founder of WeberShandwick, the world's largest PR agency, with 75 offices around the world. He is cofounder and Chairman of the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange, the world's largest online advocacy organization. He is also the author of Marketing to the Social Web (978-0-470-12417-8), from Wiley.