By Leo Valiquette
“This is the most manic depressive way you could possibly live life. You’re never having a good day. You’re either having the best day ever, or you are thinking you are about to die.”
So begins the trailer for The Startup Kids, a documentary about young web entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Europe. At a time when “anybody now with a laptop and a wi-fi connection can build anything,” the possibilities are near endless. Nonetheless, entrepreneurship is, as it has always been, a risky leap of faith coupled with levels of commitment and persistence that border on the obsessive.
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By Leo Valiquette
The Ottawa-Gatineau economy, according to the Conference Board of Canada’s Mario Lefebvre, is one that cannot be counted down and out.
That was the sentiment he delivered last week at Forecasting Ottawa’s Economic Future, an inaugural event that featured his outlook for the local economy and a panel discussion with frank perspectives from several of Ottawa’s business leaders.
Lefebvre reviewed Ottawa’s performance through the worst of the economic downturn in 2009 and 2010, a period during which it suffered losses in employment and GDP that were often marginal compared to other major urban centres across Canada. In fact, in the darkest days of 2009, disposable income continued to rise, thanks in part to continued job growth in the federal public sector; job growth that, at this point in time, outstrips the program spending cuts since announced by the Harper government. Despite that belt tightening, Lefebvre remains bullish on the local economy’s outlook beyond 2013 thanks largely to the presence of the public service.
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By Leo Valiquette
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about walking the fine line between being persistent and becoming a nuisance when it comes to pitching a story to the media, but there’s another consideration that goes into that – making certain that you are barking up the right tree.
One of the rules of thumb that guides the efforts of our affiliated PR agency inmedia Public Relations is, you can’t put much faith in online directories, which are notorious for being out of date. As I said in my previous post, there is simply no substitute for primary research of publications and their websites, looking up editors and journalists and qualifying that they do indeed cover the kind of story you are looking to fire at them.
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By Leo Valiquette
Public relations, or, to be more exact, media relations for the purpose of getting a story told through some manner of media outlet, is a process that takes its cue from a basic tenet of marketing – understand who your potential customers are, what they want, and what they need.
Journalists want a good story that they believe is timely and relevant for their readers. But articulating your story to them isn’t always enough for reasons that may have to do with the nature of the medium in question, the constraints of newsroom resources and what else is needed to create a well-rounded and complete piece of coverage.
In my post last week, I mentioned that a strong media launch must always begin with two key activities: The development of the media materials and the development of the media list. As I wrote then, creating that media list is a tedious but altogether necessary grind to ensure that you have identified not only those media who would have an interest in your story, but who also have potential to move your market by virtue of their audience size and makeup.
Assuming that you have done your proper due diligence and caught the harried attention of a journalist or editor who has some interest in your story, circumstances can still conspire against you.
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By Leo Valiquette
One of the guiding principles at our affiliated PR agency inmedia Public Relations is that real work has only just begun when you hit the “Send” button on a news release blast. But this of course raises the next obvious question – how much “work” is warranted once that button has been clicked?
Let me back this up a bit. There are two key activities that must first be carried out before your itchy cursor should drift anywhere near the Send button: The development of the media materials and the development of the media list.
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By Leo Valiquette
