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Fiction: It’s all about relationships – Take 2

• Posted by Francis Moran
• December 17, 2007
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By Francis Moran

Francis’s Favourite PR Fictions started out as a presentation I used to give to technology company executives who always reacted strongly, and, surprisingly, usually positively, to the subtitle of the presentation, “Everything I know that’s wrong about PR I learned from technology company executives.” This fiction, that successful public relations relies mainly on the existing relationships I might have with the media and analysts my client needs to reach, has always been top of the list because, as I wrote in a previous post, it continues to persist despite ample everyday evidence to the contrary.

I am moved to come back to it today because belief in this fiction leads to the extraordinary comment I heard a few months ago from a highly paid marketing consultant and author who said she had to hire a new PR agency every 90 days because that’s how long it took each agency to exhaust its contacts. She was openly skeptical of my contention that a good PR agency was worth much more than just its contacts, and should be able to pitch her story anywhere it deserved to be covered. She couldn’t see how her own approach to agency selection was guaranteeing the lousy results she had come to expect. However, I wrote it off at the time as just a more extreme outcome of this favourite fiction of mine.

Then I was gobsmacked to read more recently that this idea that PR agencies must be replaced every three months or so enjoyed a wider currency, and even more astonished to read it in a blog post by respected social media commentator and publisher, Jeff Pulver. While I can easily endorse much of what Pulver wrote about his interactions with public relations agencies, especially his demand that they state up front what they are going to achieve in return for a client’s investment, I am in profound disagreement with his comment, “Most PR firms are good for one time thru (sic) their rolodex which translates into a 60-90 day shelf life.”

Now, Pulver is a success, and I assume he got there because, among other evident talents, he is a professional. I state this caveat not to brown nose but because I’m about to hoist him on his own petard and I’m hoping he’s professional enough that it doesn’t come back to bite me.

Here’s what I mean.

A little over a year ago, we were retained by a new client whose voice application technology meant that Pulver’s VON Magazine and VON trade shows were critical targets for our efforts. This was new space for us, however, and, as with many new clients, we did not have existing relationships with the journalists we would be targeting, including those at VON. While we work very hard to establish effective working relationships with our key media targets, having them is not a prerequisite, and that’s what makes this “It’s all about relationships” such a fiction for us. This new client was no different.

Starting with our very first pitch and continuing over the past 14 months, we have engaged successfully with four or five people within VON, from the editor in chief to the keeper of the briefing schedule for VON reporters attending the organization’s trade shows. Armed with no rolodex entry, just our client’s good and deserving story, our own thorough and hardworking approach and, of course, VON’s interest in what we were pitching, we have generated articles in the magazine, news briefs and other coverage on the web site and briefings at trade shows.

And the results continue, long past the three-month mark.

All in all, it has been an excellent, mutually beneficial interaction, exactly how things should be between flacks and hacks.

Bottom line, Jeff, is that even within your own organization your belief that PR agencies are only as good as their rolodexes, and then only for a few scant months, is being proven a fiction. I do hope this doesn’t mean we can’t continue to work together…

Francis Moran

Posted in:

• Francis's Favourite Fictions
• Public and media relations

What are trade magazines and why do they matter?

• Posted by Jill Pyle
• December 13, 2007
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By Jill Pyle

Every business has a story to tell and every story has some level of news value. Some stories are of interest to a large number of media, while others appeal only to a limited group. Determining which set of media should be interested in your story is a job best handled by an experienced public relations practitioner. Above and beyond developing a media list, any practitioner worthy of your business should be able to identify the set of media that have the potential to move your market and push forward business objectives.

With the launch of each new client and product, there are several types of media outlets a public relations agency might consider targeting. There are trade magazines, consumer magazines, local newspapers, national newspapers, web sites and blogs, to name a few. And for each type of media outlet, there is a wealth of publications and a plethora of writers and editors.

Specializing in public relations for high tech B2B companies, we usually rank trade magazines at the top of our media lists. So what exactly are trade magazines? Well, they’re the exact opposite of consumer magazines. They are magazines that often are an authoritative resource for business managers and employees who work in a specific field. They cover industry trends, include case studies, profile new products and highlight industry leaders.

There are two kinds of trade magazines, vertical and horizontal. An example of a vertical trade publication is the National Locksmith, which exclusively covers issues that are relevant to locksmiths and professionals concerned with physical security. Unlike vertical trade magazines that focus on a specific topic, horizontal trade magazines cover a broader topic area, usually attracting a larger audience. eWeek is a horizontal trade publication, appealing to the large audience of IT professionals, corporate managers and technology enthusiasts.

With the audience for many vertical trade magazines numbering 10,000 or fewer, keep in mind that it’s the quality of the audience that matters. Findings from a recent Forrester study noted that 40%-45% of purchasing decision makers rely on traditional industry-specific media to validate their purchase decisions, which is why trade magazines often rank as top tier targets for many of our clients public relations programs.

Jill Pyle

Posted in:

• Public and media relations

Time for an SR&ED tune up

• Posted by Peter Kemball
• December 12, 2007
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By Peter Kemball

For a quarter of a century, the Canadian government has operated a popular program that puts cash in the pockets of innovative firms and reduces taxes for others, the Scientific Research and Experimental Development program, popularly called “SHRED.” It’s now time for a tune-up and recently the feds invited submissions from any and all interested parties on how to improve the program.

For this they deserve praise, do they not? Well, yes and no.

Yes, if they are fortunate enough to receive thoughtful commentary and perhaps even innovative suggestions to make the product of greater value to customers, small innovative firms. No, if their follow though is inept. Expectations have been raised that suggestions will come to the attention of open minds. Now that we’re past the submission deadline of November 30, how are officials and politicians going to demonstrate respect for the time and effort invested by those submitting commentary? One step they can take is to post to a web site the submissions for which they received permission to do so. Here speed is of great value and a week or two after receipt, the postings should be up for all to review. Better yet, the comments of those officials reading the submissions should be publicly posted to seek further feedback.

We at Acorn Partners submitted our thoughts to the review process and in subsequent posts, I’ll share some of our thinking with you.

Peter Kemball is CEO and founder at Acorn Partners, an innovative firm that helps B2B SMEs finance their success.

Peter Kemball

Posted in:

• Random thoughts
• Startups
• Technology marketing

Social networking for business

• Posted by Linda Forrest
• December 11, 2007
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By Linda Forrest

A recent study shows that more than one in four Canadians have a Facebook profile. Though I haven’t managed to find any Canadian statistics, in the U.S., as popular as it is, Facebook is not the fastest growing social network. Instead, it’s LinkedIn, the professional networking site that enables you to connect with prospects through people that are already in your network, that boasts the largest growth. Nielsen ratings shows that LinkedIn experienced 189% growth rate over the past year and its membership is at 17 million and climbing.

With Facebook gaining momentum in Canada, and with the huge growth of LinkedIn, it’s clear that social networks are becoming more pervasive in people’s lives – both personal and professional. From a business perspective, there is tremendous potential to form introductions to recruits or employers, partners or prospective customers, not to mention keeping in touch with your existing network of contacts, colleagues, classmates and the like.

In terms of prospecting, because users are encouraged to contact others only through contacts that they have already established, there is an implied endorsement from an existing contact of yours and therefore level of trust that wouldn’t exist with a cold call, virtual or otherwise. Recommendations and other features – the site just updated with a slew of new features yesterday – make the site a more experiential destination than it was in its earlier incarnation.

The membership of LinkedIn is quite different from that of Facebook, though the demographics are shifting as more young people enter the business world and expect to integrate their existing online lives with their careers. “A quarter of [young] consumers believe career advancement and jobs-related networking is an important function of social networks.”

“Founded in 2003, LinkedIn is targeting a lucrative market: 225 million white-collar workers worldwide. Its demographic is in the same elite class as the readership of the Wall Street Journal. The average member’s annual income is $106,000 and the average age is 41, [LinkedIn CEO, Dan] Nye said.”

If you’re not already using social networks for business purposes, it’s perhaps time to sign up and add this popular tool to your networking routine.

Linda Forrest

Posted in:

• Social media

VoIP ideal for homeworkers

• Posted by Danny Sullivan
• December 10, 2007
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By Danny Sullivan

I just read an article about the growing demand for VoIP in Canada, and thought I’d pitch in on the topic.

As a technology flack working out of a home office in the UK, I have been a customer of one of the VoIP industry’s market leaders for over two years now. There are several good reasons why a VoIP phone system suits me:

1. Cheap international and free long distance calls. Sure, there are all kinds of plans out there from the incumbent telephony providers, but I have yet to see the kind of rates applied across the board that I get as standard using VoIP. As probably over 50% of my contact with media and clients is international, this is a compelling benefit.

2. The ability to have virtual numbers in any location. inmedia is headquartered in Canada, so there is obviously a significant amount of regular contact with my colleagues and clients over there. At a nominal fixed cost per month, I am able to have a local number in Ottawa that rings here in the UK. There is no limit on the amount of numbers and it would take a matter of moments to establish a local number in any region, say for a new client in another country. Even if the overall benefit to a client is relatively small, it’s still an inexpensive way to provide a good customer service component.

3. Online access. The Internet dashboard that comes with my VoIP system is invaluable. When I’m on the road I can access all my phone details via the web, allowing me to check call logs, listen to voicemail, set up call forwarding and all kinds of other features.

Now, although my experience with the technology has been overwhelmingly positive, I probably shouldn’t mention VoIP without making it clear that it’s not perfect.

“Danny, you’ve gone all robotic on us,” was the concerned response from one of my colleagues on a recent conference call.

VoIP, as an internet-based service, is dependent on a certain level bandwidth for it to operate effectively. It doesn’t need much, but it can mean that you occasionally experience degradation of voice quality, either inbound or outbound. Hence my sudden transformation into a Dalek last week.

But to be honest, these issues, while a bit unnerving for those on the other end of the line, are few and far between, and the benefits of VoIP by far outweigh them. For people who work from home, VoIP is definitely worth a look.

Danny Sullivan

Posted in:

• Random thoughts
• Technology marketing