Spin Sucks Review: It’s a force field for your business

This morning’s headline: General Motors executives to face Congress over car recall scandal.

Whenever you read about a crisis or scandal at a company, what is your first thought? Mine is always a brief moment of gratitude. I’m grateful for the information. (In the case of GM, this could be lifesaving information.)  I’m grateful I don’t work there. I’m grateful I don’t have to clean up the mess. I’m grateful that it wasn’t something I did.

GM undoubtedly has an in-house team, as well as contracted agencies, helping the company with the public relations.  But what happens to companies that don’t have that infrastructure?  Even if we fix the problem and change our business processes, our business can be shut down because of bad reviews on the internet. We’ve all seen it happen.

Spin Sucks Book Review

At myMarketing Café, our goal is to identify and share resources with you that we believe will help you with your small business.  This week, I am sharing about a book titled Spin Sucks by Gini Dietrich. Last fall, I purchased Gini’s first book (co-written with Geoff Livingston).  It’s called Marketing in the Round.  I found the book to be so incredibly helpful that this year, I applied to become a brand ambassador for her second book. As a brand ambassador, I was asked to read the book and prepare an honest review. I have a short review and a long review, so take your pick.

Short review:

This book is one of the best I’ve ever read. It’s a force field for my business. It’s one of those valuable tools where when you receive it, you immediately think, “this has just saved my business.”

Long Review:

Spin Sucks teaches us how to build a solid business brand. You will learn:

  • How to create and tell your business story in a compelling manner that engages your audience and builds trust.
  • How to build a community, that in turn, becomes your brand advocates.
  • Proven tactics for dealing with painful, brand damaging, online criticism. Learn how to find out what information is out there about your company, and specifically how to fix it.
  • A detailed SEO checklist to get your valuable content directly in front of your audience.

Gini reminds us that no amount of PR can counteract one person’s bad experience with our company. We, as business owners, have to repair our image with the person who created the crisis for us, and ensure we have a plan in place to build and protect our image going forward.

This book is a must read for anyone who owns a business. As a PR practitioner, one of my greatest challenges throughout my career has been demonstrating the value and importance of PR to company leaders. Gini is a masterful storyteller, and in Spin Sucks, she uses her talent to convince and convert even the biggest skeptic. She offers clear and convincing examples for every strategy recommended in the book.

This book is also a must read for PR practitioners. Use it to build your case with leadership. Gini has done all the hard work for you.

Purchase Spin Sucks at Amazon or Barnes and Noble (not affiliate links).