By Linda Forrest
This week, as usual, we’ve been doing myriad media and analyst relations activities on our clients’ behalf. I’ve been reminded time and again how important it is to adhere to best practices and how if you do, both your agency and your clients will be well served.
Let me provide some examples, and link back to previous posts on this blog that reveal what we feel are best practices in each area.
Sciemetric Instruments, a quality management systems technology vendor and one-time inmedia client that recently returned to the fold, is in the midst of a series of briefings with the most influential analysts in their field, both at boutique firms and the biggest firms. We counseled the company on how best to present its story to analysts, both those it has spoken with in the past and those with whom it is speaking for the first time. The briefings are going very well and we’re not only increasing awareness for the company but also gathering actionable insight into how the company might engage each of these firms to best effect. Our Danny Sullivan, @inmedian, has written about how best to engage with analysts here, here and here.
As we’re still in the early months of our engagement with Agresso, we’ve been working to set measurable objectives for our work, something @FrancisMoran wrote about in his series on PR measurement here, here and here. Agresso told us they selected us as their PR agency of record against some of the stiffest international competition we have ever faced at least in part because our methodology would give them clear, unambiguous objectives against which they could readily evaluate our performance and their PR ROI.
I’ve been doing considerable pro bono work for Help Lesotho, a charitable organization working to support at-risk youth in a tiny African nation that’s been ravaged by HIV and AIDS. There is a big event coming up and we’re working to create a groundswell of media coverage across Canada by profiling local supporters who have been invited to Ottawa to meet the King of Lesotho, who is coming here to express his gratitude. The process of gathering the information is the same whether our client is a charity or a technology company; it’s important to get the whole story and so we’ve been updating the media kit for Help Lesotho, speaking with internal knowledge-keepers at HL, gathering information from the supporters themselves and developing the right media list.
Singletouch, a vendor of a data-capture platform for contractors, is about to launch into the U.K. and simultaneously make an announcement in North America, which means that it’s time to refresh the media list. This task, though grueling, is vitally important to make sure that our list is up to date so we’re pushing against the right levers on our client’s behalf. @LeoValiquette wrote about the importance of a media list refresh here.
NetCentric Technologies, developer and marketer of document-compliance software, is in the process of submitting bylined articles to its key publications. Contributed articles written by subject-matter experts can be a high-value component of an integrated PR program. They can shed light on issues in the marketplace that are under-reported or misunderstood, provide a solid business case for a technology offering, provide a step by step how to, and on and on. @LindaForrest – that’s me! – wrote about bylined articles here.
I’d list more of what we’re working on but perhaps my time is best spent doing the work rather than writing about the methodology behind it.
As you can see, we’re quite busy these days! Luckily, we’ve got a clear set of best practices in each of our practice areas to abide by, which makes the tasks a whole lot easier.
