A classic example of why some reporters get really, really annoyed at us PR people, courtesy of Business Insider. Of course when I say “us” PR people, I really mean all the other PR people who ask reporters to honor ridiculous embargoes.
We never do that…
Every summer, my long-time friend and colleague, Darryl Ohrt takes a carload of young men on a trip across some randomly selected portion of our country.
“Um – how’s that?”, you say.
No, Darryl is not the head of some weird cult or a despondent kidnapper/sniper. He runs a branding and design firm called “Humongo” and social media plays a big role in the campaigns they develop for some of the world’s biggest and most important companies. This road trip gives them a chance to showcase the power and importance of social media, not to mention a good quality underarm deodorant.
This year they are going from Portland, Maine, to Miami. Yes, I know. I had the same thought: “All this just to be able to stream porn on their laptops and iPhones without the worry of getting caught by wives and girlfriends?”
Think what you will, but there really is some sort of business purpose. You can follow the whole thing, in real time, over on the Humongo Nation web site and see for yourself.
Darryl and the guys understand that not everyone can follow along for the entire trip, so they created a sort of Cliffs Notes version of the conversation that generally takes place in the car whilst they drive hither and yon, from place to place:
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Phil (not his real name): “Are we there yet?
Darryl: “Where?”
Phil: “Wherever it is we are going next.”
Darryl: “Does it look like we are there? If we were there, we would be there and we wouldn’t still be in the car. Tell me – why did I hire you again?”
Doug (not HIS real name): “I have to pee.”
Darryl: “Dude – maybe skip the 64 oz Mountain Dew Slushee at the next 7-11. You’re killin’ us.”
Doug: “Fine – but I have to pee – NOW!”
Stan: “If he pees in the car, I am likely to puke.”
Doug: “If he pukes, we’ll all puke.”
Phil: “That will make for some killer live video! Make sure you tweet it!”
Darryl: “Social media ROCKS!”
—
You get the gist: these guys are not coming up with a fix for the BP oil spill or developing a new variant on string theory that will finally reconcile quantum mechanics with general relativity. But, they are nice fellows, who know their craft (but God-forbid they get a flat tire.)
What is my stake in all of this? Despite having an entire off-site storage facility filled with useless t-shirts from my past, I can not resist the siren call of one more free shirt for the collection. Hence, this blog post. Plus, I like Darryl and am hoping that he will one day adopt me.
Sometimes, we make life so complex, we forget how simple it can actually be.
At Baker Communications, we’re in the business of helping our clients introduce themselves to the world: journalists, analysts, business partners, bloggers, investors and customers. Occasionally, we hear from clients things like “Why is that reporter so in love with [insert name of competitor here]? We need to send more press releases!”
Our answer is usually something to the effect that more is not better. It’s about quality – of your products and of your communication about those products.
This was driven home by desktop virtualization analyst, blogger and all-around expert Brian Madden. Brian and I have had numerous conversations over the years about various virtualization clients. Most recently, he sent me the following email, which is positively brilliant in its simplicity (not to mention a chapter out of PR 101):
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“What we ask of you (and every vendor) is to keep us up to date with what you’re doing. Send us news, announcements, thoughts, new features, press releases, etc. (As a favor, I ask that you actually put the text of what you’re sending in the body of an email or as an attachment since I spend some much time on airplanes with no Internet connection and I spend a lot of time reading stuff from my Blackberry.)
But beyond that, I’ll be totally blunt with you (with the hopes that this can help you provide the info that we want and to connect in the way that we want):
We get a lot of email from vendors and PR folks wanting to “connect” or “update” us. Seriously – at least ten of these types of emails per day. If we actually took all those meetings were would spend 100% of our time talking to vendors. So we have to prioritize and pick-and-choose.
So what you can do to help us is to send us the information that you want to discuss in the email itself. Send us the Powerpoints that you’d like to go through. Send us a few bullet points in the body of an email that can convince me on my Blackberry that I need to talk to you. Because what happens usually is we take the call from the vendor and it’s about 90% worthless. Either them going through a deck that I could have skimmed in 5 minutes or it’s them asking me for advice about their product. So instead of sending emails that say “we should catch up, when do you have time?”, send us an email that says, “Here is x, y, and z that is cool about us, here’s our briefing deck, we would like to talk to you specifically about a and b.”
So I think that’s a quick snapshot. I guess the final thing is to share this info with all your PR friends. I’m sure they’re pitching busy folks too, and man, if I had a nickel for every “we should talk when you get a chance email,” then I wouldn’t have to blog anymore.
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For the record: at BakerCG, we endeavor to go to people like Brian with useful, timely information that is germane to their area of interest. That said, every reporter, blogger and analyst has his or her own preferences of what they want and need from PR people. The fact that Brian was able to voice it so succinctly will only benefit all parties concerned: him, the PR agency and the client. We just need to listen.
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves
back to the garden.
- Joni Mitchell
Is AOL still in business? Does anyone still use it?
Once upon a time in the early but heady, halcyon dot.com bubble days, AOL was taking over the online world with its “walled garden” approach. That was where you logged onto AOL and all the content you needed was right there – news, instant message, chat rooms – everything. You would never have to venture out onto the big, bad, wild and unruly World Wide Web.
That lasted ten minutes. It was fairly obvious that people wanted access to all that evil content and so AOL was forced to provide a browser as a possible way for its customers to tiptoe juuuust outside the walls (but not too far, please.)
They went out and never came back. The “walled garden” concept died.
Or did it?
It seems that Facebook is doing exactly the opposite by slowly building a walled garden for its nine zillion users. People can play games, watch videos, get news, buy stuff – all without leaving the comfortably tepid bathwater that is Facebook. Each day, more people spend (waste?) more time doing more things while on Facebook.
Is this good or bad? Will Facebook attempt to close off its users somehow? Could it? Does it matter? Do we care?
And do you think that Steve Case and Gerald Levin are thinking “Damn. DAMN!”?
When I was a kid, we had milk delivered to our front door. With a few scattered exceptions here and there, those days are long gone in the United States. The cost, for the most part, is prohibitive (i.e. customers will not pay the premium for home delivery.)
An announcement today from one of our clients, however, made me think that the milk delivery model is exactly the right model for companies doing business on the Internet.
How so?
Our WorkLight client announced that it built a widget for a Best Western hotel in Berlin that delivers information, schedules and discounts to people who use it. (For those of you not familiar – a widget is a “mini” application that runs on your desktop or smartphone or wherever.)
This particular widget can run on your desktop, within Facebook, iGoogle and My Yahoo!, to name a few. That means that this Best Western is coming to where its customers are, as opposed to making those customers come to their web site.
The World Wide Web is so 10 years ago. Today, people want information and the ability to conduct business where they are now. That means social media sites, on their iPhones and Android phones and soon, on their iPad.
WorkLight’s technology makes it possible for companies to quickly and securely reach customers on the customers’ terms. We think it’s pretty exciting stuff. So much so that I am going to toast today’s announcement with a tall, cold glass of milk (because I am just that crazy.)
I received the latest copy of BusinessWeek in the mail today. (Yes, I continue to cling to print like grim death.)
When I first pulled it out of the mailbox, I thought “Wow! That’s quite the cover story for Avaya.” About a second later, I realized it was a “cover wrap” advertisement. (You can click on the image to open in a new window, then click again, to see how BusinessWeek covers itself, circled by me in green.)
These types of ads are not new. They have been around for years on trade publications. But this one was a bit startling in how misleading it was, if only for a second. I guess that’s the point.
Bloomberg bought BusinessWeek from McGraw-Hill a few months ago. I am glad that it is still in print. But is this what it takes for print to survive in these troubled times for traditional media?
Maybe I am just old fashioned, to wit:
A.) Get over it. This type of advertising is no biggie.
or
B.) Get over it. Print is dead.
Do we need to get over the old ways of journalism? What do you think?
Read about my experience with our broken health care system over on CBSNews.com
What happened to those days of spending time opening the newspaper to read? Or, those Fridays when the print edition of Business Week magazine arrived and that meant spending time soon thereafter going through the current issue?
I was reminiscing over those days with my colleague, Joe Eckert (much, much older than me), which got us talking about how our business reading habits have changed.
First, something called the Internet happened, which was soon followed by Yahoo and Google search (in that order, I believe), then RSS feeds and most recently, Twitter. Now, business reading is a “search and destroy” mission based on keywords
I still get a bunch of print magazines like Business Week and Fortune because they cost next-to-nothing. (I guess so the publishers can maintain a subscriber list to show advertisers.)
And, I get electronic weekly editions of trade publications like eWeek and Network World that look just like the print versions but conveniently get delivered to my computer. I confess it’s hit or miss whether I read through those or not.
But, I am zealous about keeping up with reading all the material fetched by search terms and keywords I have set up in a bunch of places.
It works for me keeping up with the news I need, but I miss perusing the daily newspaper along with the business and trade magazines — and the accidental discoveries along the way that I couldn’t resist reading.
How about you?
This post originally appeared on Sean Ellis’s “Startup Marketing Blog”.
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Because we specialize in communications for high tech start-ups, we’re often asked “when should I start a PR program?”
It’s a simple question. The simple answer (often given) is: “No time like the present.”
The real answer is bit more complex. We always ask prospective clients about their strategic company goals, as well as near- and long-term product plans so that we can help the management team determine whether a PR program can be helpful – and sustainable.
Once all parties agree that the time is, in fact, “now”, we go about the work of creating and executing the strategies and tactics that will help support the corporate vision. One of the first things we look at is helping a client generate a fairly steady stream of “content”.
Content is King
A good PR firm will help guide you and “tease out” the information that will help communicate your value and credibility to customers and partners. Part of your commitment to the PR process is to make sure the company is ready to handle the increased attention that comes with an effective and successful PR program. PR places additional demands on executives and managers who are designated as spokespeople or who otherwise have a stake in the PR process.
Content can begin – and often should begin – with company/product strategy communicated in the form of industry analyst discussions. This foundation work often precedes a more “public” PR campaign, It can also be combined with social media activity and/or “wire press releases” – two examples of content distribution tools. Knowing who is watching you and who you should be watching can often dictate the type, style and frequency of the content. But the key is that a lot of PR deliverables are no longer just media stories. They ARE company-created content that adds value and context to the more traditional media channels.
The Good (Bad?) Old Days
Not so long ago, PR lived in a relatively simple world of communication to the traditional press, who then processed, fact-checked and distilled that information before sending it out to the world. Today’s PR landscape is quite a bit more complex.
Before embarking 10 years ago into the land of the start-up, I and most of our team here spent time at large companies (IBM, Compaq, HP) where the simple rule was don’t communicate unless you get coverage in the press. Today, we’re seeing a disaggregation of traditional media “centers”, however, and now direct forms of communication are supplementing (not supplanting) the role of media. Take blogs, for example. They have become a significant supplement to traditional media and, in fact, many reporters also do double duty as bloggers. And, of course, companies and organizations have their own blogs, which add to the content volume. The influence of Twitter is well documented (ironically, in the traditional media). Even CUSTOMERS are publicly influencing the buying decisions of other customers. So, today, the press release, the company blog, the analyst deck all take on significance in addition to, and beyond the role of media in delivering content.
While scary (for some), companies must be willing to communicate with their customers and potential customers in an almost 1:1 fashion, or at least to appear that way. You might be thinking “that’s marketing.” And, in a way, it is, but it’s marketing using the tools, language and credibility of public relations/media. And, of course, it’s also using the traditional PR tools FOR press articles and analyst reports.
PR is not a magic bullet. Just as with building a sales and marketing organization – indeed an entire company – an effective PR program builds up over time with activities strategically dictated by what stage the company is at and where it wants to go.
So, when PR?
Ask a simple question…
Okay, I’m drinking the client Kool Aid here admittedly. But, I can add and 1+1 and that still = 2.
#1 – Not a lot of computing seems to go on at the endpoint (PC, notebook, even smartphone). Everything we do seems tied to something that is on a network or the Internet. (Think about it, how useful is your computer or phone without a connection?)
Next #1 – It’s wicked complicated to upgrade your endpoint with all the data, specific settings, configurations, passwords, applications, downloads, music, etc. I will bet you it takes a day, at least.
And so, that equals 2, which is there has to be a better way.
The better way emerging is a form of desktop virtualization. Take a look at some examples from beta users cited on the Wanova blog.
And, have a look at this Forbes article, “The Death of the PC”.
Both point to the better way ahead, which amounts to the same computing experience for the user without all the hassles and baggage that come with the user maintaining their endpoint – and dealing with it when something goes wrong.
Wanova beta users report big problems are fixed in minutes as opposed to days that it took before. I’ll take that!
