By Hailley Griffis
In this week’s roundup, we explore how PR agencies are in fact not dead, and why digital marketing is more than just social media (and other misconceptions.) In addition, we focus on startups, with reads that look at the top ways startups screw up and a few red flags when pitching to investors. This week’s articles come from Spin Sucks, Fourth Source, Wamda and Forbes.
Don’t die PR agencies, what the recent Google changes really mean
Gini Dietrich replies with a resounding “no” to the idea that Google has just killed PR agencies, or news releases, with its new update. If you consider PR to be purely news releases then you need to get back to the media relations that were actually supposed to be happening, where you build a relationship with journalists and reporters, call them and then pitch an idea after that.
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By Hailley Griffis
In this week’s roundup we rail against misconception, with articles from PandoDaily, Venture Beat, Business to Community and Washington Business Journal. The authors are clearly fed up with people thinking demo days are a good idea, becoming a venture capitalist is easy, content marketing is free and doing public relations for startups is simple.
Let’s kill the demo day and replace it with a one-year reunion
Erin Griffith makes a good point in stating that a three-month program with a demo day at the end may not be the best for startups or their investors. Rather, she proposes something closer to a reunion where startups are forced to provide value and truly demonstrate their periodic growth. This eliminates all of the hype that demo days create, as well as a few other things.
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By Hailley Griffis 
Happy Friday everyone. This week, as usual, we have our favourite articles of the week lined up for you. Since we’ve been talking about startups and entrepreneurship in Ottawa in a few posts on the blog this week (look to Leo and Francis’ duelling posts), our first article talks about why startups should opt for digital marketing. Next we take a look at the latest change to Facebook and what that means for B2B marketers. Finally, the last two articles we’ve rounded up talk about how to combine your customer service and marketing efforts by making your marketing useful and avoiding silly mistakes on social media. We pulled this week’s content from Nashville Business Journal, Convince and Convert, Social Media B2B and Memeburn. Let us know what you think!
4 reasons startups should invest in digital marketing
Samantha Owns Pyle, Owner of Green Apple Strategy, looks into some excellent reasons why entrepreneurs should consider beginning their marketing efforts with digital marketing, as opposed to jumping into traditional mass marketing. Cost effectiveness is a big one for startups, as is setting up early-stage personal branding.
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By Hailley Griffis
Last month’s lineup featured great posts that shattered common myths about how your brain functionality affects sales and marketing and whether or not your software demo may be killing your sales. We looked at worst practices in the world of social media marketing (and how to avoid them), as well as how to pitch an investor slide by slide. Most notably, our website was redesigned and we are happy to present to you the new and improved layout. Let us know what you think!
In case you missed any of it, here is a handy recap of our posts, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
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By Hailley Griffis
We’ve rounded up some of the best posts we came across this week. Today we’re looking at the justification for online marketing and some tips for implementing a real-time marketing strategy. One of our favourite topics is customer service, and we’ll take a look at four excellent examples of using Twitter for that purpose. Finally, we’re finishing up today by looking at Gmail’s new Promotions tabs and how that affects e-mail marketing. We grabbed this week’s articles from Bdaily, 1to1Media, SocialMediaExaminer and Time Business.
Is online marketing just a waste of time?
There are many things that a business should consider before jumping into online marketing. Vicki Stone outlines some of the questions that should be asked beforehand. The most sound advice requires a business to look at their customers’ current habits to figure out whether or not online marketing raises the right kind of awareness they are seeking. Though most of the time, when it’s done correctly and there are clear goals for your online marketing efforts, it’s absolutely worth the effort.
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By Hailley Griffis
