What We're Saying

It’s the dog days around these parts. No question, things slow down this time of year, but that doesn’t mean your PR has to come to a stand still. Here are four ways to get the most out of your PR when things slow down. BONUS: these tips can be applied to any slowdown period for your company, not just seasonal.

1)   Conduct a Media Audit – Are you convinced your competitors are racking up write-ups from all the top tier press? Wondering if your message is really resonating? Your gut can take you a long way with PR but it’s still good to look at the facts now and then to validate what you’re sensing (or to take you gently out of denial). Media audits are a fantastic way to know for sure what kind of press and analyst coverage your competitors are realizing compared to your company. It’s also a powerful way to determine if your messages are resonating the way you want them to so you can tweak the story if and where need be. You may think your brand exudes the cool factor, only to learn that your products are being placed squarely in the “practical business” bucket. Regular media audits will catch these inconsistencies.

2)   Catch up on Content – Content marketing is becoming a powerful tool in the PR toolbox. Our clients who are thought leaders and contribute articles to their industry websites and blogs see a much higher return on all PR efforts – across the board. But thought leadership can be time consuming, especially if you like to do most of the writing. Take advantage of the slow times to pen and pocket a bunch of articles that can be brought out and dusted off later. This helps make thought leadership consistent throughout the year with a steady stream of published articles, and you’ve already done the hard work.

3)   Freshen up Your Story – Chances are it’s been a while since the last time you looked at your key messages and noodled on the story you’re trying to tell. When things are busy, we’re head down just trying to get through what’s in front of us. When it comes to public conversations – such as with social media channels and press – the story gets cold after a little while. Use the slower times to think about new stories. For instance, have you noticed any unique trends...

Its wacky news time again folks.  Although it has been a while since I have authored a blog post, the wacky news of the Web hasn’t been slow to produce head shaking, eye rolling information. In celebration of the summer time heat slow down (maybe only in Phoenix?), I have decided to bring some funny co-worker antics to perk you up.

Seat cover please

An Iowa man recently turned himself in and admitted to causing $5,000 in damages to his company’s office furniture. After mysterious stains kept appearing on co-workers office chairs, upper management decided to install hidden cameras in the office to be activated after hours. The result: camera footage of said employee peeing on co-workers chairs. #gladitwasntmine

One too many paperclip tosses

This particular video makes me laugh out loud every time I view it. Sure, it might be a good fake, but who hasn’t wanted to do this to a co-worker at some point in your career. Lesson: next time you notice a co-working reacting unfavorably to your jokes and comments, consider stopping while you are ahead.

Always be nice to “that guy”

We all know a man or woman that we like to keep on our good side in the office. Someone that we have seen get to a boiling point and thought, “I definitely don’t want to make that guy mad!” This guy would be on the top of that list.

I think I know her

Although this woman is tagged as crazy, I believe there could be two causes of her hysteria. One could be the outrageously small size of the elevator. The second cause could be that her client decided to ask her why they haven’t been written about yet in the Wall Street Journal.

Here’s to the start of summer! Don’t let the heat cause you to be too grouchy to your co-workers – you never know what you are risking!

Guest post by Justin Gray, CEO of LeadMD

If I had just one prospect, I would give them a hell of a lot of attention. Every message would be spot on and tailored to their needs. If they downloaded a whitepaper on ROI, I would immediately send them a link to our ROI calculator and then track to see if they used it. Once they became a customer I would treat them like gold. They would hear from me once per week, maybe more, with helpful hints and tricks to be a better customer.  I would deliver extraordinary customer service and notify them of changes and issues IMMEDIATELY.

The problem is I would go out of business. I'm not Tom Hagan in The Godfather.  I can't afford to have one client and I certainly can't afford to focus on only one prospect.  So what does this mean?  It means I have to speak to every prospect like I personally wrote the communication.  How do I scale in order to do that?  Content.  I have to have a TON of content.

So the question then becomes, what content to choose?  Third party content is the best thing in the world.  Well, maybe a close 8th.  Third party adds credibility.  So why doesn't everyone do it?  Its expensive.  An average cost for an analyst whitepaper is 10-30k.  Licensing can be more, and that’s nuts. But how important is content? I started LeadMD with $100K and $100K of it went into content.  Most people would think THAT'S nuts.  But what I quickly learned was that third party articles and commentary performed just as well as expensive third party whitepapers and ebooks.  In fact, it established me as a thought leader and I get more frequency and more variance so I can use them for marketing.

So, how does PR play into this content game? Here are a few ways we work with Ubiquity to feed the marketing engine:

To write content
UPR allows me to pass content through someone who doesn't operate within my walls.  I think that’s the number one issue with marketers – they speak like they are talking to themselves.  They are cutoff from what resonates with actual buyers.  UPR helps me maintain that independence.

To push us
We love to write but I need someone keeping us on task. UPR establishes all of the media relationships and handles getting us great placement. They do this very well. Let's be honest, no editor one wants to hear me pitch them.  I love the service too much.  Everything comes off sales heavy. 

To distribute content
UPR socializes our content through their channels and get us more, and better thought leadership gigs.

And how do we use all of that great content that UPR is helping us generate?

For demand generation.  Articles are a great way to "hook" a prospect.  We want them to say, "Hey, these guys know what they are talking about!" and then subscribe to see more. The content generated by UPR and...

I was just searching for the first post I wrote for this blog to send to a client. It was this one about messaging being like chicken. As I was searching I came across another blog post from July 2009. It was a list just published by Guy Kawasaki, “A Dozen Don’ts for Entrepreneurs.”

I re-read the list and realized that I think about it often. None of these tips are dated, and they’re so true. So I thought I’d resurface it for the peanut gallery. Enjoy!

1. Don’t worry, be crappy. Perfectionism, first of all, is an illusion. Nothing is perfect. Even worse, perfection stands in the way of revenue and truly learning what customers think because nothing is in their hands yet. When your product is “good enough” (but not “perfect”), ship it, and see what happens. 
2. Don’t give out lofty titles. Just because a roommate was there during the drunken weekend when you came up with the idea for your company, doesn’t mean he should be CTO. Someday, you’ll need to hand out titles like director, vice-president, and chief whatever officer, so keep them in reserve. Until then refer to each other as “co-founders” and describe the area of responsibility: for example, “programming.” If your roommates aren’t cool with this, they’re doing you a favor by showing their colors now. 
3. Don’t hire your family. The probability that your spouse or relative is the best person you can get for a job is 0%. The probability that people will hate working at company with spouses and relatives is 100%. The probability that one of you will have to go someday is also 100%. Never hire out of expediency. Always hire the best person you can get. This usually means not hiring your family unless you’re Jack or Suzy Welch.By the way, if you both hire your family and give them a lofty title, you are truly a bozo. 
4. Don’t sweat valuation. This is easy for a venture capitalist to say, but your company is either going to die or make you more money than you imagined. Whether you have 10% or 15% and whether your pre-money valuation is $2 million or $3 million isn’t going to really matter. Do the math: 15% of $0 is $0, so stop negotiating, take the money, and build something that’s worth more than $0. Whatever valuation a venture capitalist offers you, increase it by 20% and counter her offer. This is just enough to show that you’re not a pushover, but not too much that it will prolong or blow up the negotiations. 
5. Don’t believe venture capitalists. Having said that you shouldn’t sweat valuation, you shouldn’t believe venture capitalists. It’s not that we’re all liars—we just don’t finish our sentences. Rule of thumb: add “as long as things are going well” to everything a venture capitalist tells you. For example, “I am investing in your team” or “I will be there for you.” 
6. Don’t create lofty forecasts that you call “conservative.” You...