Posted: August 17th, 2010 | Author: aly | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Linda VandeVrede, the esteemed PR Pro and author, once said that “we’re the ones who have to tell the client the baby is ugly.” I can’t recall where she said that but it sent me into a fit of laughter, and I recall it every time I have to tell a client that a particular writer is rejecting their briefing request.
Like in junior high, rejection is a part of being a start up. Right now I have two unopened emails in my inbox, from writers with Forbes and NY Times respectively. I’m a little hesitant to open them. These are two writers I’ve been conversing with for sometime now, for two different clients. They’re both reporters I’ve worked with in the past. But even though I have established relationships with them, and I know they were interested enough in my clients to at least hear me out, these emails still might contain a “thanks, but not right now” message.
There are a lot of reasons why writers don’t write about your company or product “right now.” Most of the time it comes down to timing. What’s breaking news in your space, and how does your business play into it? Sometimes writers are just swamped. Sometimes your product sucks, or just hasn’t found it special sauce yet. Sometimes you don’t have a compelling enough customer story, or enough customers, or funding, or any other metric that lends enough credibility to your business to let the reporter know that you’re worth paying attention to. Sometimes it’s a combination of all these things.
And that’s okay. If your business is worth its salt, then your growth metrics, and customers, will eventually do the speaking for you. Combine that with a really good PR firm (ahem) and your great story will get noticed by the right people.
Even then, they may not write “right now.” If you’re truly relevant to their readership, they will write eventually, and in many cases, continue to follow your company. Your job as a start up, right now, is to be a good resource to these writers, stay on their radar (without spamming them) and have a little patience.
Understand that for the foreseeable future you will not get to command attention from press the way the Apples, Googles and Microsofts of the world do. I’m sorry. That’s why you hire a PR firm, so they can undertake the consistent, smart outreach necessary to get you into the heads of the writers who matter most to your business, and get them eventually telling the right stories, at the right time.
Looks like two Ubiquity clients will be in Forbes and the NY Times.
Posted: August 10th, 2010 | Author: aly | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
There seems to be a long-standing misconception that Sales and Marketing are one and the same. I don’t know where this came from. I suppose there are a fair number of marketing pros out there who think they can sell a cooler to an eskimo, and an equal number of sales people who think they know how to write a press release because they wrote a copy for a borchure once in the 90s.
The sales and marketing functions of a company are the lifeline, truly. They bring the bacon in the door, and therefore, need to be in lockstep (as Julia would say) with each other. A harmonious relationship these two should have. But they should never, ever cohabitate. Here are five reasons why:
1) Sales is the hare, marketing is the tortiose. For the sales team it’s all about how much they can get in the door, convert, and close in a set period of time. Sales is fast, negotiating, “here’s what I can do to make this work” behavior. Marketing is about reputation and brand management over time. Anything quick that happens in marketing is a fleeting “result” and is rarely sustainable.
2) Sales is persistence, marketing is persuasion. If we dig deeper and bring PR specifically into this, the “beat ‘em over the head with it” mentality is not well received by press and should be reserved for sales calls to qualified buyers.
3) Sales is the direct liason to the customer, marketing is the man behind the curtain. Sales people are in the greatest position when it comes to market research, they get to hear first hand what the customer wants and needs. They know precisely WHY a customer is thinking about switching to a new product or service. Marketing has ways to solicit this information, but there is nothing that compares to hearing the war stories right from the customer’s mouth.
4) It’s not always a numbers game. Marketing knows that sometimes the brand reputation has to take prececence over revenue. Try telling that to a sales exec who’s paycheck is dependent on new business wins. It ain’t pretty.
5) We’re all special. Every function of a business requires unique skill sets. You wouldn’t ask your lawyer to do your accounting, even though they’re both speaking a language we don’t understand. If you want the best team, then find people who are the best at what they do, whatever that is, and have them stick to that role. Nothing causes a car wreck faster than people driving into other people’s lanes.
Note: if you’re a small startup and hiring two separate execs to oversee each of these functions is out of budget, consider hiring consultants to oversee each respectively. It’s cost effective, they will usually know how to work together so you don’t have to quarterback, and they will ensure both strategies are being carried out seamlessly.
Posted: August 4th, 2010 | Author: aly | Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off
There’s a term often thrown around the marketing world. Grassroots. What does this really mean? According to Wikipedia (my fav) “The term implies that the creation of a movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures.”
We in the marketing world know that grassroots events are often very much orchestrated. In a day and age where just about every person in the developed world is sharing their opinions, beliefs, likes and dislikes in several different ways publicly at any given moment, starting a movement through viral, totally organic means is not as likely to occur on its own as it gets lost in the noise. Marketers know that grassroots campaigns sometimes needs to be seeded.
This isn’t a necessarily a bad thing. Greatness by individuals makes its way into the market very often through the traditional organizations because they provide the platform for the voice to be heard. When that great event, or movement, has the ability to cause change in the world, it’s a very positive thing.
Sometimes there’s confusion as to what grassroots really means, and how a company can go about engaging in this kind of campaign. To really understand this, here’s what grassroots is not:
- A media stunt. When Ikea placed furniture out on a busy sidewalk for people to take because “Ikea furniture is a steal” that was a publicity stunt.
- A Facebook campaign — yeah, yeah, we all do this now. It’s nothing new so stop thinking you’re being novel and authentic.
- A giveaway of your product
Let’s put this into context using Map the Spill as an example.
- Traditional PR is sending out a press release on the newswire announcing Map the Spill. Grassroots is getting the Society of Professional Journalists to use Map the Spill for their own reporting efforts.
- Traditional is sponsoring a non profit wildlife conservancy. Grassroots is putting the app in the hands of the Alabama Coastal Foundation, and giving them another platform to share their mission with thousands more people.
- Traditional is creating Map the Spill Facebook and Twitter accounts. Grassroots is giving Joe Louisiana the ability to share on his Facebook page, automatically from the app, all of the damage the oil has caused to his fishing business so volunteer groups will know where to mobilize clean up efforts.
Both traditional and grassroots strategies have their place. And when used together, it can lead to a movement.
Posted: July 19th, 2010 | Author: aly | Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off
Imagine how the recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina would have been different, if people who lived in the area were able to use their phones to share real-time images, videos and other content that was instantly reported on a map? The government, non-profits and NGOs involved in the cleanup would have had a much clearer picture of the whole story — with the help of the people it affected directly – and planned recovery efforts accordingly.
Our client Trimble Outdoors (part of Trimble Navigation) this week launched a free app that’s allowing people who live and work in the Gulf Coast be a part of aiding in the BP oil spill clean up. Map The Spill, a free app for Android, Blackberry and iPhone, is barely out the gate and already thousands of journalists, volunteers, government workers and everyday people have downloaded this app and are using the website, www.mapthespill.org. Map the Spill brings new meaning to the term “citizen journalist,” and may possibly change the way in which disasters are responded to.
And here’s a little PR lesson (because this is a PR blog). When we sat around the table with Trimble Outdoors to decide how to promote this we didn’t get stars in our eyes and focus on how to get The Today Show to cover launch. No, we thought about the people who are really going to use this – the journalists and volunteers in the Gulf Coast. Trimble Outdoors tackled the latter and got the Nature Conservancy on board. We tackled the former and have a smattering of journalists and bloggers all along the coast using Map the Spill to aide in their reporting. The result has been an abundance of informative and really powerful content that is being shared on mapthespill.org with millions of people. Talk about freedom of information.
Posted: May 14th, 2010 | Author: aly | Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off
I need to take a moment and give a little golf clap to our awesome clients. These guys have no idea we’re coming out of a recession, they couldn’t care less that they’re competing in crowded spaces, going up against bigger companies with bigger wallets. They are like a frat of super heroes doing incredible things with no fear of the challenges. And they best part is they are winning. I’d like to give some snaps to a few of our clients. Consider this part 1 of a “snaps” series.
FireHost — Chris Drake, arguably one of the most passionate and hyper-focused entrepreneurs we’ve met has taken this idea of secure web hosting and catapulted it like a rocket. He can’t get on the phone with a blogger, analyst, business owner, hell, grandmother, and NOT convince them that security on the web is the foremost issue of our day. In the last four months FireHost closed a Series A round, launched a new, virtualized manged hosting service, and has already hit their Q2 goals. They are becoming the go-to web host that secures the security companies and high-target sites like Kevin Mitnick. And today Chris launched his own blog. Check out the love they’re getting from the industry.
GreenNurture — If your company could root out a needle in a haystack, knowing that needle could mean millions saved in cost, energy, waste and other consumption, would you buy a metal detector? GreenNurture IS that metal detector. Derrick Mains, GreenNurture’s CEO is a booming, captivating voice in the sustainability community. It’s impossible to be in a room with him and not walk out wanting to pick up trash and give up meat. Today he’s at the NASDAQ discussing green initiatives with the Global Reporting Initiative at a round table of the brightest minds in corporate sustainability. This week Park & Co’s CEO Park Howell starting using GreeNurture and is blogging about how they’re using it to be more sustainable. The company also has a powerhouse board of advisors, including well known blogger Jay Baer. Expect to see some huge announcements from this company in the coming months. Oh, and Derrick can belt karaoke like nothing we’ve ever seen.
Arkayne — It’s all about the content these days, right? But what is it going to take to make that content go to work for you? Arkayne has the answer, actually a few answers. The brainchild of Paul Kenjora, an up and coming software entrepreneur, Arkayne started quiet but is ready to make some noise. It doesn’t hurt that the company’s CEO is Sillicon Valley vet Nicholas Aretakis. Last night at Vator Splash in San Francisco, Arkayne wowed the crowed, and investors, with their platform and took Top 10 in the competition. And word is they also had a really good time. Julia may be paying for it today. They’re also seeing some early buzz in the interactive marketing world.
You all make me tired just watching you do your thing.
Posted: April 23rd, 2010 | Author: aly | Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off
I couldn’t have said this any better. So I won’t, just read it.
http://bit.ly/9MpgEs
Posted: March 22nd, 2010 | Author: aly | Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off
It’s my fifth year attending the DEMO conference. I’ve seen it change locations, change executive directors, change some format, and most of all I’ve seen a lot of great companies launch here. I obviously am a big believer in this show. So today I was scratching my head a little when I saw this post from one of my all time favorite bloggers, Robert Scoble.
He says that launch events, like DEMO, have killed the great tech start up launch. He makes a compelling argument of what gets good coverage by key influences (such as himself, and TechCrunch). Sit down one-on-one with influencers, tell a good story, give them some customers to talk to, and Ta-Da! You get better coverage than any advertising can buy. I agree. We’ve always said to our clients “focus on the why and who” and take the time to tell that story to the right person. I have seen first hand what happens for a company when a key influencer in their space writes about them, and it’s arguably more powerful than than any big ad buy they could sink their marketing budget into. Scoble is right.
But I’m still a fan of the launch event, for two reasons. Scoble, I’d love to know if you agree or disagree with these.
1) Companies don’t come to events like DEMO just for the press coverage. At least they shouldn’t. Shows like DEMO are a great place to meet customers, potential partners, and investors. I’ve seen companies get funded as a result of DEMO, nail a game-changing licensing partnership from CES, and secure enough customers at the Digital Signage Show to more than double their total revenue in just one month. Garnering press coverage is some nice icing on the cake, but shouldn’t be the only driver of attending a show. If that is the only reason your company is thinking about launching at a show, I’d recommend rethinking that strategy.
2) Not every company has access to the top influencers in their space. Robert, getting your attention is hard. Getting TechCrunch’s attention is hard. And it’s tricky even reaching out to TechCrunch since you never know if they’re going to break an embargo. I’ve had the pleasure of connecting you and TechCrunch with a handful of clients over the years. And there is no doubt the resulting coverage was a nice boost of attention for the clients. And the coverage was good, thoughtful writing to boot, it wasn’t a simple recap of the press release. But getting to that point took a lot of work and a lot of time, and didn’t occur even close to when the company launched. Arguably, you, TechCrunch, and blogs of that influnce get hundreds of pitches a day. Without getting into what makes a good pitch, let’s be honest here Robert, you guys simply won’t see every pitch. And you can’t meet with every compelling company that does get through, because of variables like travel, location of the company (read: not in Silicon Valley), timing, etc.
So what’s a company to do? Put all of their launch eggs in the basket of one or two key industry bloggers? I hear what you’re saying Robert. I agree with it, and I think it’s an important strategy that every start up should have in their go-to-market plan. But it can’t be the whole launch enchilada. And when having a few days of dedicated face-to-face time with potential users and investors is an option as part of the launch, it’s one that’s well worth consideration.
Posted: February 5th, 2010 | Author: aly | Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off
Since I gave a little smack down to TC last week I thought I’d give them some props today for taking the high road and apologizing to readers for an interns’ indiscretions. Seems an opportunistic intern was attempting to exchange their scoops for Macbooks. He has rightfully been called out, terminated, and put in the shame tent for his actions.
He’ll probably reappear on TC’s radar in five years as the entrepreneur of one of the start ups they cover.
Posted: January 26th, 2010 | Author: aly | Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off
AOL — you’ve been a bad monkey. Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch was mighty peeved to learn he reported inaccurate information last week, when writing about AOL’s CTO, Ted Cahall, leaving the company. The short version is this: Erick heard a rumor about Cahall leaving and asked the Executive VP of Communications, Tricia Primerose Wallace to confirm or deny the accuracy of this rumor. She denied. Ten days later she sent an email to Erick stating that per their earlier conversation, she found out that Cahall was in fact leaving and wanted to tell Erick “immediately” so he could correct his story (or write a new one as it were).
Erick was miffed enough by this to write a post on TechCrunch calling out Tricia as a liar. Gives me the ickies all over.
Here are the truths of this situation, that we know of:
- Someone at AOL lied to TechCrunch.
- It’s never okay to lie to the press.
- Tricia Primerose Wallce has been humiliated and her career has undoubtedly been damaged profoundly.
Maybe she did lie. But always being one to give people the benefit of the doubt (stop laughing Julia) I would like to believe it’s a possibility that Tricia was originally given false information that she did correct as soon as she knew otherwise. Having dealt with probably every embarrassing PR situation in the book, I’ve experienced more than one time an executive or business owner giving the PR team false information that was then called out by the reporter who it was given too. Businesses large and small hear this: you are doing no one any favors by not giving your communication representative the whole story. PR is not about “spin” (have I mentioned how much I hate that word?) it’s about providing information that is meant to educate, inform, and in many cases, promote. But in all cases, it SHOULD BE honest. And yes, I’ve seen this happen at public companies by well meaning executives who actually thought they were doing the company a favor. Ick, ick, ick.
Now, Tricia had the option not to respond to Erick when he initially asked her to confirm or deny. But if she really was under the impression that the rumor of Cahall leaving was in fact, a false rumor, then it was her obligation as a communication executive to correct that. In which case, she took the right action. I have to believe that a woman in her level of position didn’t get there without knowing how to do her job (as women generally don’t get to those kinds of positions unless they prove themselves 100 times over).
It’s a shame TechCrunch was lied to, by a major public company no less. It’s a shame this woman’s career is probably in the toilet. It would be a bigger shame if none of us learned something from this.
Posted: December 7th, 2009 | Author: aly | Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off
A round of applause for the company that makes Zhu Zhu pets for handling what could have been an extremely damaging situation both quickly and correctly. This is a great example of how companies should manage their crisis comm. Here’s the synopsis:
A consumer site, www.goodguide.com, that tests the health and environmental impact of kids toys, ran a test on one of the Zhu Zhu pets (this year’s hottest “must-have” for kids) and determined that it had high levels of antimony. Antimony is used as a fire retardant in textiles and plastics, and chronic exposure can allegedly cause heart and lung problems and other health effects. Within hours of this announcement, the manufacturer of Zhu Zhu pets released not just a statement, but their entire test results of antimony in their toys. The tests, performed by a well-known independent laboratory, confirmed that the levels were in line with federal standards of safety.
Shortly after, it came to be known that Good Guide used an inexpensive X-ray device to test the toy, instead of performing more extensive solubility tests required by the federal government, as the Zhu Zhu manufacturer has done.
The company did two things right today that probably ensured they will continue to be a runaway hit this holiday season:
1) They communicated with the public swiftly. By not waiting on this important action, they effectively took control of the story.
2) They were totally transparent. Instead of coming up with a trite statement, they were totally transparent and share with millions of consumers the information that most companies keep hidden away.
This post is not meant to endorse the safety of Zhu Zhu pets. This PR pro thinks a dose of healthy critical thinking is always important. But Cepia LLC, the manufacturer of Zhu Zhu Pets, deserves a round of applause for the way they handled this situation and every company can learn from this.
