By Linda Forrest
My colleagues have been writing about the role of champions in bringing technology to market, examining the role internal and external champions play in determining the market success of your product. I’d like to examine a subset of the external group: media and analysts. What role can these influencers play in championing your burgeoning technology?
Let’s look first at a few of the ways the media can champion your product or company.
Being covered by the media
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By Linda Forrest
Like many B2B companies, we ourselves have been working hard to fill our sales pipeline in recent weeks and months. I was encouraged to see some statistics reported on eMarketer that validated not only our approach to seeking prospects for ourselves (one tactic being this very blog), but also the content marketing approach that we follow for our clients – whether we’re conducting media relations, analyst relations or community management for them.
The tie that binds those offerings together is content. We develop appropriate content that is then pushed out to the audience over a variety of channels, matching content to the audience through the audience’s preferred delivery channel. It’s the goal of our marketing PR agency to help our clients sell more of their stuff; to see content marketing validated as an effective means of doing just that bolsters the business case for our services.
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By Linda Forrest
Steve Jobs. Mark Zuckerberg. Bill Gates. Jeff Bezos. Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie. Larry Ellison.
I probably don’t need to tell you with what companies these executives are affiliated because they’re such well recognized ambassadors for their respective brands.
Some of these execs, as you likely also know, have had their share of bad press thanks to their behaviour either on or off the record. The media’s fascination with the online indiscretions of an unfortunately named U.S. congressman has reminded all public figures that their activities in the age of social media are never truly private. Leaders’ personas and personalities, good or bad, are tied to their organizations’ reputations in the marketplace.
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By Linda Forrest
Since my blog post last week, I’ve seen a lot of coverage regarding the issue of women in technology.
A Rabble.ca article shared the following:
During a town Hall meeting this April attended by President Obama, it was announced that women make up only 25 per cent of the technology workforce, and only 18 per cent of those taking computer science courses.
The numbers are even smaller when it comes to startups. Women head up only 10 per cent of startups in the U.S., despite the fact that 40 per cent of all businesses are 50 per cent or more owned by women.
The good news is that there are a number of accelerators working to boost those numbers.
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By Linda Forrest
Earlier this week, I traveled over to Canada’s newly-crowned Silicon Valley North with our Francis Moran. To say that the energy and dynamism of that tech community is inspiring and exciting would be a profound understatement. The place is positively electric, and everyone we encountered was friendly, welcoming and eager to interact, share and connect.
The timing of our jaunt was based largely around the Communitech Techworking Breakfast with the Boss, the guest of honour for which was Kunal Gupta, CEO and founder of Polar Mobile. While still in university, this impressive young man was responsible for starting the Impact Entrepreneurship Group, whose goal is to create the next generation of entrepreneurs and help young entrepreneurs realize their true potential. This group, as well as Kunal’s knack for networking, has rendered him a well-known professional within Canada’s Technology Triangle and well beyond. In fact, he’s quite the frequent flyer, jetting between Polar’s head office in Toronto, other Polar outposts in the U.S., and customers in New York, London, Dubai and elsewhere.
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