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“When should we start doing public relations?” is a question that we hear often at Ignite. The answer is not so easy — and even the suggestions we give below are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to figuring out when to go public with your tech startup, when to start looking for media attention and when to promote your company’s story to the world. Having worked with a multitude of high tech company and product launches, we can say that even though each company should figure out the perfect time to start marketing efforts on a case-by-case basis, there are a few things you can look at to see if you’re ready for PR.

1. BUILD A COMPELLING PRODUCT We cannot emphasize this enough! It’s not sufficient to just have a great idea, a couple of lines of code, and a few dollars to throw at public relations. You might be burning to spread your great news to the world, but not even close to being ready for media scrutiny. First, build a viable product that truly solves a problem for an identified customer segment. Get feedback from those beta users. Break something and fix it. Be wrong a few times and make a few mistakes, but continue to refine the product so your users love it. That product needs to be battle-tested on the back-end before you consider investing in Marketing or PR.

2. MAKE SURE TO HAVE CUSTOMER REFERENCES This advice may be more geared for a B2B or enterprise product, but can also apply to consumer facing startups. In either case, it’s best to have a minimum of two customer references. That means at least two legitimate businesses that are using your product and are willing and able to speak to press about their experience with your product. Note we say that the customer needs to be both willing and able, since some customers’ internal policies — whether they be PR or legal — may not allow them to speak to the media. So if you have great security software and one of your customers is the CIA… you get the point. Most good reporters will ask for customer references, and if you don’t have any, they’ll pass on the story. A better story and one that has meat on its bones is one where customers are willing to dish on what you’ve done for them.

3. BUILDING A BRAND TAKES MONEY Good public relations is not a light switch that you can turn on and off.  PR should be looked at as an investment in building market visibility and brand awareness over an extended period of time. Some new companies think, “Oh, if I get into TechCrunch, I’m set.” But public relations is not buying a Super Bowl ad once a year, hoping that the one-off ad is the answer. Good public relations requires an ongoing effort from a company communicating its progress, validation, and milestones on a continuous basis – like a drumbeat. Building market awareness and earning mindshare takes time and evidence. Repetition is important — people need to hear from others they know (WOM) and see your company name in various sources talked about in many different ways. That kind of repetition and visibility requires strategy, execution and tangible proof points (customer wins, traction with developers, downloads, funding, partners, awards, etc.). Building strong market awareness is going to require an investment … aka money.

4. KNOW YOUR MESSAGE  Do you know how your product fits into the competitive landscape? We understand that with a startup, messaging can evolve as the company grows and matures, but we still believe that prior to attempting any kind of concerted PR effort, you need to know what makes the company and your product special, compelling, better than what’s out there. Most startups aren’t first movers — in fact, it’s better not to be first — so if you’re second or third, what is so interesting about your product that gives your startup a strong competitive edge? Why should the press care that you’re throwing something into the ring? Why should anyone care? It’s important to figure out the core messages that set the company and its product apart from the others.

5. HAVE A STASH OF AMMUNITION Have some proof that your product/startup is as essential as you say it is. This goes beyond customer references because this tip is more about having something to talk about after you launch the company/product. Because, you launched….now what? If you’re like most startups, reporters are probably not banging down your door. So save something for later — feature enhancements, newsy items such as funding or new exec appointments, customer wins, partnerships, etc. — all these goodies can become part of the evidence that your company is what you say it is, that you’re legitimate and not just a one-time-press-release wonder. If you have these kinds of tangible items in your cupboards, then it might be a good time to ignite your public relations.

Earlier this month, Connie Loizos of peHUB wrote a post about her recent conversation with Michael Buckley, a partner at the Brunswick Group, a corporate communications firm employed by Groupon. It started when Buckley contacted Loizos about her recent piece on Groupon, claiming it was “inaccurate” and “silly.” He disputed quotes by third-party sources and asserted she would find more favorable information about Groupon had she done better research. Buckley tipped her to a “leaked memo” by Groupon’s CEO, a big no-no as Groupon is in its pre-IPO quiet period, and ended it by asking Loizos to please call him the next time she plans to write “another nastigram” about his client.

It’s not uncommon for companies to feel frustration toward the media, if they believe inaccuracies or half-truths were published.  However, this type of hasty response in light of unfavorable press coverage surely doesn’t make the article go away – and as it happened in this case, bad PR incited a follow-up article that painted Groupon in a far worse light than the original.

Reporters are only human and they sometimes make mistakes. It’s perfectly legitimate for a company to contact a reporter in order to correct a glaring inaccuracy, but there’s no benefit to insulting the person or questioning their journalistic integrity.  Here are some tips on how to – and how not to – deal with unfavorable press coverage.

• PR should serve as a resource for the media, providing information they need to get the facts straight or steering them to outside resources that could be of use.

• Instead of blasting reporters for purportedly misquoting sources, work directly with third-party sources to clarify the company’s position.

• PR agencies with clients that are pre-IPO should be familiar and able to advise clients on how to remain in compliance.

In the “Groupon nastigram” case, inaccurately referencing what the reporter had written, and worse, misquoting his own client’s memo, PR failed to get the facts straight.  This not only impedes the company’s ability to convey their message but it undermines the PR rep’s credibility.

• Think long term and strive to maintain and build a cordial relationship, particularly if the writer is someone that tracks the company or its sector.  It’s better to invest in an ongoing relationship with a reporter than to burn bridges because of one negative article.  If PR manages the relationship successfully, the reporter may write favorably about the company in the future.

• And if all else fails and the company is really truly convinced the reporter is ignorant, lazy, or biased, seek to cultivate relationships with other contacts at the publication, news site or blog.

Tips on Dealing with Unfavorable Press Coverage: ignitepr.com/blog/?p=288 #pr #badpr #press

— Ignite PR (@IgnitePR) December 14, 2011

Traditionally and in the simplest terms, public relations was defined as getting positive news coverage for a company, product or service in business or trade press, radio or TV.  It’s clear the times have changed drastically. No longer can traditional public relations tactics cut it alone, but rather now must be blended with a range of tailored social media activities.  And no longer are feature articles in key trade press and interviews on the front page of the business section daily newspaper the only place companies want to be highlighted.  Today, brand activity and engagement needs to happen across a broad range of blogs, social networks and social media channels.

It may be surprising that Facebook is one channel businesses can no longer afford to overlook.  A late 2009 study by Razorfish found that 40% of users become fans of brands on Facebook.  Facebook counts more than 500 million active users worldwide; those numbers and audience are hard to ignore, nor should they be!

Establishing and maintaining an active Facebook Fan page gives companies and brands a broad palette of ways on how they can engage and communicate with their customers, prospects and market in general. For example: consumer brands can push promotions and deals.  Musicians can share tour schedules, enable their fans to purchase chotchkies and schwag and encourage fans to post comments and pictures from concerts.  Celebrities can  champion non-profits and charities to help fundraise amongst fans, etc.  The list of possibilities is unbounded.

Let’s consider a few ways companies, whether startups or big brands, can leverage a Facebook Page.  Any company wants to maximize how they use the open real estate on their company homepage; they don’t want to clutter the important company and product information.  With a Page, this opens up how and what you can share. In addition to some of the basic things a business might include such as blog posts, relevant market reports and white papers, product details, etc., businesses can add tabs and applications to post and share YouTube and Vimeo videos, presentations, Flickr photos, upcoming events, and so on.  Essentially you can turn your Facebook Page into a one-stop shop and display case for all of your business’ online content.

Check out one of Cisco’s most excellent Facebook pages. They use it to raise employee donations, promote the CEO’s blog post and show demos, among many of the other activities they are doing to engage their fans and constituents.  On Booz Allen Facebook’s page, users are guided on where to find the company on Twitter, YouTube, etc., but can also view their latest videos and upcoming forums, employee-focused or industry events, for example, without having to leave the fan page.

To underscore the importance and value of having a Facebook Page to expand your company’s brand engagement, consider this: Google recently started crawling Facebook Pages made public in efforts to expand its real-time search results.  This means now people can more easily find streamlined results for businesses’ media assets that are strewn across the social media universe, such as Booz Allen’s Facebook page and Twitter handle coming up on page 3 of a random Google search.  It’s never to late to set or spruce up your company’s presence and extend its social media footprint starting with a corporate Facebook identity, so jump in and start engaging with your customers and prospects where they are present.

A recent McKinsey & Company survey found that 55% of marketing executives planned to cut spending on traditional media.  In lockstep, Marketing and Public Relations departments at companies are moving their dollars online.  Startups and large companies are increasing spending for email campaigns, online advertising and social media, as well as online search analytics.  Mashable recently reported that even while some are slashing budgets, dollars are still being thrown at social media. 

Despite the economic woes, it’s still essential for companies to find ways to create and maintain brand awareness and mindshare.  This blog post points out that Marketing and PR efforts during a down economy extends awareness with customers and drives sales, and suggests this can be done by using a small, lean and mean outside agency.  One key point from a recent survey by Aberdeen Group notes that in previous downturns, the firms that learned to market smarter fared better than those that decreased their marketing budgets. Further, after the economy bounced back, those firms that marketed during the downturn also yielded better profits.

Here’s a relevant and timely article in the Wall Street Journal that talks about how startups and board members are clashing over whether to save or spend in down times. One insightful quote from the article comes from a board member of a startup noting, “”Companies can’t just save their way to success.”

For tech startups, in particular, or for any company comfortable navigating the social web, there are a plethora of online vehicles to meld with your company’s Marketing and Public Relations efforts that won’t break the bank.  At Ignite PR, we are helping our clients,which range from startups to established public tech companies, undertake various social media activities to stretch their marketing dollars more effectively. 

Which camp does your company fall into on this debate: the save or spend camp?  Equally important, what are your competitors currently doing to expand their business amid this lingering recession?

 
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Steve Reubel recently podered whether Twitter may one day replace public relations professionals’ traditional method of pitching press via email.  It reminded us to earlier this year when we asked professionals in public relations to self-police how they interact with press and bloggers via Twitter.  We had our suspicions on whether press and bloggers might be receptive to this approach, so we decided to ask a handful and get their two cents on the matter.  What follows is an aggregation of their perspective, as well as that of ours here at Ignite PR. 
 

Twitter’s greatest value is that it is a place for conversations.  Where brevity rules, a pitch in 140 characters is just too limiting and cannot typically provide enough context. Clearly, there might be an exception here – perhaps with a breaking news announcement and the public relations rep reaching out to targeted press and bloggers that are visibly available on Twitter.  The norm, however, is more likely to be a simple tweet to a journalist that could potentially spur interest, but for the idea to become anything bigger, then the conversation would eventually have to transition over to email or phone. Additionally, most workflow productivity occurs around email, and Twitter is nowhere near supplanting email as the preferred communication tool to drive business.  Lastly, while conversations on Twitter can suggest sentiment around a topic, the signal to noise ratio on Twitter is so high it is difficult to sift through.  The odds are just much greater for a pitch to get lost in the heavy volume of tweet streams than via email.

There are, however, appropriate ways public relations people can use Twitter to interact with press and bloggers.  Here a few examples.  Follow key influencers who cover your clients’ industries (i.e.: mobile, cloud computing, online search, etc.).  Monitor their tweets and read the articles they link to.  Share links or participate in discussions they’re tweeting about from a market-centric standpoint and not a vendor-centric one.  If a bi-directional relationship is established, send the reporter that specifically covers your client’s space a heads up on a pending news announcement.  Show reciprocity and retweet (RT) a journalist’s article or blogger’s post that you found insightful or provocative.  

However, using Twitter to blindly spam journalists with off-target tweet pitches will kill PR people’s opportunity to engage with media and bloggers in a meaningful way.  Twitter’s novelty has opened up new opportunities for key influencers and public relations folks to connect.  If poor pitching practices carry over to Twitter, media will quickly find a way to disconnect PR from this channel.  We remain hopeful that Twitter doesn’t become a hotspot for unsolicited, endless public relations pitches polluting the micro-blogging channel.  Leave that dirty work to the spammers who push seedy content and get-rich overnight schemes.

A special shout-out and thank you to Kristen Nicole (@KristenNicole2), Nick Hoover (@iweeknick) and Anthony Ha (@anthonyha) for sharing their thoughts with us on this topic. If you’re not following these bloggers and reporters on Twitter, we highly recommend that you do.

We pointed out in an earlier post why it is important for clients to be upfront with their PR teams about internal issues and product deficiencies.  In that same vein, we want to discuss why it is important for Marketing to communicate with their public relations teams about marketing activities that they are planning to participate in as early as possible.  Marketing and public relations already work closely together, yet sometimes those seemingly unimportant details  just doesn’t get conveyed. We’ve worked with both high tech startups and large tech companies that have at times failed to mention to us their upcoming marketing plans or ongoing initiatives that we could have significantly leveraged on their behalf—-had we known about it in advance.

For example, if a client’s CEO is participating in a panel along with a number of highly regarded industry experts, it is a good idea to inform the public relations team and not keep them in the dark until the day the panel is taking place.  Another example might be having advance knowledge about a significant partner’s plans to do a major initiative in which the company can ride the cocktails of the announcement either by offering perspective or invaluable insight. Marketing needs to be highly attuned to all of the various activities planned and understand that they might also be solid opportunities that the public relations team could tap, so it’s important to at least run it by PR early on.  No harm done with good planning.  At worst, PR will tell you that there is not enough substantive “meat on the bone” so to speak.  The art of being sensitive, opportunistic and agile to potential news opportunities and working closely with your public relations team can a) beat your competitor to the punch when media seek additional or insightful perspective and b) enable the company to exploit an unfolding opportunity before it happens and successfully wire itself into the subsequent news and blog posts that unfold.

Staying highly attuned to market-centric opportunities can payoff handsomely in building greater awareness for the spokesperson as a thought-leader or keeping the company top-of-mind with media and bloggers that cover certain beats, be it security, social networking, online paid search, etc.  That’s why you want to have your PR fully aware of even the most mundane of upcoming corporate and marketing activities, because they are the most attuned to recognize strong news potential; if there’s nothing there-there, they will tell you that it’s too fluffy, but at least they can easily inform you early on and not after the opportunity has been largely missed.  Certainly not all marketing activities are going to be newsworthy, but your public relations team should know about it in advance and will be able to counsel the company on whether it merits doing any proactive outbound activity or guerilla marketing to successfully leverage the opportunity.

Cision, an online database provider of media contacts aimed at PR professionals, is planning to add journalists’ Twitter handles.  Many members of media have joined the ranks of bloggers who are actively leveraging Twitter for its ability to amplify their reach, so the move by this contacts vendor isn’t all that surprising.  In fact, analyst firms, with the exception of Jeremiah Owyang and Forrester, are just starting to awake to this new powerful and growing channel. At Ignite PR, we use Twitter to communicate internally and externally with peers, follow breaking news, discover interesting data, spot emerging trends and meet or follow interesting people. Twitter’s most important value is its inherent nature around organic participation and the meaning and connection behind one’s network.  On Twitter, one can engage with other interesting individuals who have similar interests, share great content, and are just interesting people in general. Twitter along with other social media channels, such as Facebook, Digg, YouTube, FriendFeed, etc., provide a simple and interactive way for people to engage in conversations with a wide array of individuals and expand or build a new network of interesting contacts.

Cision’s move raises a red flag however.  When other database vendors start selling off Twitter names/handles, they stand to benefit at the expense of others.  So far, PR folks actively using Twitter early on seem to be using it in a way that is not causing friction and we wholeheartedly applaud their practice-to-date.  Yet there is still cause for concern when PR folks are using Facebook to actively pitch reporters and bloggers. One can easily see novice PR people blasting press release links or pitches aimed at Twitter users, namely press and bloggers, because they aren’t investing the time in understanding the do’s and don’ts of using Twitter.  Thankfully Twitter’s management does a good job of shutting down spammers, but if database vendors are going to be selling lists of Twitter users to willing buyers such as PR agencies, then they both need to be responsible for understanding and underscoring acceptable practices for using this growing new channel.   It’s critical that PR people embark on a real effort of self-policing how they use new social media channels to reach members of media or the blogsphere.  Just as social media tools and channels are ushering in a new way to reach and communicate with one another, PR should seize the opportunity and turn a new page in how they use this new channel in an acceptable way. 

President Obama promises to usher in a new era of openness based around three priorities: communication, transparency and participation.  President Obama’s theme of open communication and transparency was carried out through Facebook, SMS and Twitter updates on his campaign trail; YouTube video addresses during his transition to the Whitehouse; and user engagement post-inauguration via the new makeover of the Whitehouse.gov website.  By continuing to apply a wide range of social media tools, President Obama is bypassing mainstream media channels and opting instead to reach out directly to his ardent supporters to continue engaging with them. 

There’s a big takeaway in all of this for big companies and startups alike looking to build their own communities and leverage social media tools: start incorporating a digital social media strategy to accompany traditional PR efforts. For a great example, take a look at how successful Zappos.com has been with their company-wide embracement and use of Twitter as a new communication channel with their customers.

Twitter, SMS, YouTube, Facebook, blogging, Digg, Delicious, Flickr, etc. are cost-effective communication channels that are quickly becoming mainstream, enabling companies and people to reach out to their constituents and network of friends faster and farther than ever before.  Social media initiatives enable companies to quickly communicate with existing customers or prospects, enhances a company’s transparency with customers, and encourages user feedback, ultimately building trust, loyalty, and goodwill. 

Today’s economic downturn is affecting not just banking, housing and automotive, but all industries. As businesses adjust to weather this severe economic storm through reduced spending and layoffs, expensive advertising budgets are among the first to get slashed and the media industry is being hit hard.  Print advertising at newspapers was down 16 percent in Q2 and it is steadily contracting.  While more ad dollars are still being spent online versus print, Q3 experienced for the first time a slight decline in online ad spending.  Print media in particular is being impacted; Time Inc. is undergoing significant layoffs across its multiple titles such as People, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated.  Condé Nast was recently forced to let go of staff from its newly launched Portfolio, and Forbes underwent a restructuring to combine its web and print operations. 

Given the climate, print media has had to make tough decisions.  With the bleak outlook, some are testing out new approaches and introducing innovative changes.  The Christian Science Monitor and more recently PC Magazine, the bellwether of tech journalism, announced plans to start publishing in a 100% online-only format.  There is a small silver lining for online ad revenues; the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers recently reported that internet advertising rose slightly in the third quarter, up 2% from the second quarter, an 11% rise from the same period last year.  Yankee Group predicts that the online ad market will reach more than $50 billion by 2011.

Traditional publications are also realizing the benefits of delivering content online to supplement print issues.  The New York Times’s Pogue O’Matic and Time’s Channel Podcasts are great examples that continue to operate and produce print issues but have started to post supplementary angles to their print stories in their online outlets.  The online sections are giving journalists additional space, where they can write a follow-on piece, include new perspectives, mention other players in the space, incorporate product information, post a video interview, etc.

With more ad dollars moving to the web, news outlets still have to carefully balance the mix of interactive features within their news content so that readers’ overall experience is kept in check.  Incorporating various interactive, multimedia formats and social media tools (podcasts, video chats, streaming video, photo slides) enables media outlets to engage readers and push their content out to a broader audience of readers.  Increasingly, online news sites are catering to a growing number of readers who want to share, vote, comment on or blog about the article; thus new social media buttons increasingly accompany the articles to support readers’ needs. As print publications expand their news coverage online and include new ways of engaging readers, high tech PR agencies will be afforded extended opportunities to collaborate with their clients on how they too need to leverage these expanding channels of communication, information sharing and reader engagement. 

I attended the Girls in Tech / Horn Group event that examined the notion of whether social media tools are killing PR.  The event was in part to address the ongoing backchannel blogger chatter, which is essentially asserting that PR is dying on the vine.  Kudos to the Horn Group and Girls in Tech for taking the opportunity to move beyond the negative bickering and look forward to the role that social media tools are having and how PR must harness them.  I agree with the stand that Sabrina Horn took in noting that, no, PR is far from dying and the industry is, in fact, on the cusp of being reborn. In other words, there is opportunity on the horizon for those agencies that choose to transform for the future.  The panelists were fantastic, each bringing a different and highly relevant perspective: Sam Whitmore of Media Survey served as the moderator and did an excellent job of prodding the audience for feedback while trying to cover a number of areas and keep all participants on track.  Susan Etlinger, from the agency-side, Jeremiah Owyang, provided the analyst and blogger perspective, and BoomTown’s Kara Swisher lent perspective from her traditional media experience.  Unfortunately, the 90 minutes didn’t afford the time to really dig down into how different social tools are enhancing PR or could be integrated more successfully.  Nevertheless, the exchange was positive and fruitful, providing some good take-aways.  Kara Swisher was vastly entertaining and provided a dose of reality related to the drama and antics some bloggers are exhibiting.

A few folks from the crowd provided a client perspective, noting that they want their agencies to be more expert at product marketing and SEO and web analytics.  Jeremiah was spot on in his assessment that today the PR industry has to build out core competencies in SEO, web analytics, product marketing, viral marketing and beyond in order to be able to offer a new brand of PR services and expertise to clients; This new brand of PR is one that will blend core practices of traditional PR with online marketing — while harnessing existing and future tools that disseminate information faster and farther. There are indeed new revenue streams to be realized here for PR firms.  PR is at a crossroads in its need to evolve and become savvy in online advertising and other marketing competencies so that we can help clients navigate how they can most effectively apply their marketing efforts and dollars to drive company revenues. 

Like the auto industry’s need to retool their manufacturing plants, now is the time for the PR industry to also retool.  Future core services that we begin to offer clients need to be creative and closely align with how to leverage the expanding communication channels and the different avenues in which content and services and conversations are being disseminated, shared, and consumed.