BIGfrontier Communications Group in Chicago just released the results of their recent study about whether or not PR can help a start up get funding faster than if they don’t engage in a PR campaign.  Apparently, companies are 30% more successful in getting funding within 1-3 months than their counterparts who don’t look at PR.

“Those entrepreneurs understand that anything they can do to get them an advantage to get limited or finite funding is something they should avail themselves of, especially now,” said Steve Lundin, founder of BIGfrontier. The boutque firm specializes in PR for startups, tech and consumer companies, and law firms. [source]

The study spoke with 300 start ups, none of which were BIGfrontier clients (which was my first thought, so I was glad to hear that they weren’t talking to their own clients), and only 18% of them even had a PR in place during the funding process.

Overall, this doesn’t surprise me in the least, and certainly was a bit of a no brainer. Companies can only be helped by a positive PR campaign.

I’m in complete agreement with the study, not that this should surprise anyone, but I’m a firm believer that PR and social media strategies are two of the best ways to get your company noticed, to raise it’s profile in certain communities and among specific stakeholders. Why would you even consider not engaging in a PR campaign?

This evening was Vancouver’s monthly Third Tuesday, where Mhairi Petrovic, the founder of Out Smarts, explained how to sell social marketing to the traditional marketing decision makers. Raul (aka Hummingbird 604) live-blogged the event.

The information was fantastic, and I thought it needed a wider audience. The full post from Raul is here, but the salient points are below.

Some of the primary objections to social media that traditional marketers have to social media include: 

1) “We already use social media” Complete misconception -  having a website or a facebook page is not participating in social media.  

2) Perceived as a tool for only the younger set. This is a misconception. Yes, MySpace was adopted by young music lovers. The over 35 demographic is the fastest growing sector of the users of Internet. Social networks for professionals are the fastest growing social media segment. 

3) Social media does not apply to me. Technorati and its State of the Blogosphere report stated that they have 133 million blogs in 36 countries. 100 million people on MySpace, 140 million people on Facebook, 20 million photos on Flickr. You have to join in the conversation, before you get left behind.

4) Social media as simply a fad. It’s got no long term/staying power. The case of Friendster is commonly cited as the example of social media being a fad. This is only one case, but the first blog is dated 1982 so it’s not a flash in the pan. If you don’t start using these new technologies NOW you, and more importantly, your business, risk getting left behind.

5) The need for transparency and the fear of losing control of your brand. Those that need to control every press release and make sure that what is being said meets the party line think that social media is too risky. Business owners who think that participation in social media makes you vulnerable and means that you lose control of your brand need to learn this is not the case. Participating in social media means that you actually get more control than you may have had previously - you can respond to any negative comments and move the discussion to your corporate blog.

6) The need for privacy. LinkedIn and Facebook have privacy settings. Set appropriate limits both in terms of who to add and what information you put out there. You control the content. Don’t put EVERYTHING if you feel that it may infringe on your privacy. Use these tools appropriately, understand that you’re in control, and limit your risk by using these technologies in the right way.

7) “Social Media is just fluff.”  People say that Facebook is just fluff - all those zombies and bunnies and garden patches! But the sheer volume of people using it, shows that there is relevance in it. There is a lot of fluff in TV but that doesn’t stop companies from spending billions in advertisements in these media. Your company can benefit from social media if you implement the tools appropriately.

“I don’t have time for social media”  This excuse allows people to negate doing something that they have to do. You can’t afford not to at least consider what your competition is doing with social media and to find out what you can do with social media. You can reach your customers more effectively through social media and by building community. Overall, a social media campaign costs less than a traditional campaign. You may need to hire someone to help you navigate the social media waters and to do it correctly, but that cost will only be a positive investment. 

9) “The only professional way of doing it is the traditional way.” Social media tends to be seen as either “for, or by amateurs”. Social media strategists are considered snake oil salesmen still. Social media is NOT only for amateurs, it’s not an appropriate comment at all. For people who only do traditional marketing, they should transfer the budget for those projects to social media for one month to see how it effects it.

10) “Show me the money. Where is the ROI (Return On Investment)”. There is a dearth of information (publicly available - what has been the return on investment in social media?). Wal-Mart episode - got bad marketing. Mazda did a similar thing. Despite their huge presence, they still had to lay off people and cut off costs. Social media-based marketing is not the end and be all, but it is a component that you can use in your marketing arsenal. Traditional marketing campaigns are even harder to measure in terms of ROI.

Mhairi’s main and central example on huge ROI for using social media - a UK company “ WigglyWigglers” that engaged in a great social media campaign. This is a gardening company. They have a podcast, YouTube channel, a blog, a newsletter and they use them actively to share information on the worms for gardening. The result: they now have over 40,000 podcast subscribers, 43,000 newsletter subscribers, more than 800 friends on Facebook, customers in New Zealand and North America, they’ve improved their Google Page Rank massively, online sales 50% of their total sales, and they’ve done this all with a 97% reduction in their advertising costs. That really proves the ROI on these technologies.

The bottom line is that traditional marketers can no longer ignore the benefits of social media. All the results attest to the fact that traditional, old-school marketers need to learn some of these tools, and harnessing these tools can only benefit you. 

Hanging out at the Network Hub listening to David Jones, one of the VPs at Hill & Knowlton tonight. And yes, we know it’s Monday. David is in town throwing Beer 2.0 tomorrow night so we threw Third Tuesday on Third Monday.

One of the things that cracked me up right away was “give PR people access to social media and they will f*ck it up.” I’ve been on both sides, and I can attest to the fact that this can be very true.

I have to say, David is a very engaging speaker – funny and honest. Just my kinda guy! We bantered about how we both think the social media press release is kinda useless – he’s meh about it than I am, but we both agree that it’s simply not necessary. (image source Rebecca Bollwitt)

There was a great discussion about what Hill & Knowlton does for their clients using the MAIL acronym: Monitor the space; Analyze your findings; Interact with the communities; Lead and start creating your own content.

It wasn’t until David started talking about the blog dashboard that he created and put on his on blog that I finally connected the dots and realized that he’s DoctorJones on Twitter. You know, someone I actually talk to, regularly. Yep. Quick on the uptake. That’s me!!

Jason Calacanis thinks so.

I’ve gotten more press than any entrepreneur could dream of–certainly more than I deserve–and I’ve never had a public relations firm working for me. [source]

Ok, fair enough, and I agree with Jason for the most part. I don’t think that all start ups need PR. What’s pissed me off about Jason’s article is his overall perception of the industry.

You must realize that journalists are constantly getting banged by lazy, clueless PR folks who fire first and don’t understand what the word "aim" even means.

Now, while that can be true, not all of the PR people in the world are lazy or clueless. In fact, painting all of the PR people in the world with that same brush is like a Canadian (yes, that’d be me) saying that all Americans are fat and ignorant.

When I was doing PR full time, I was adamant about doing it right, not being clueless about anything I pitched or the way I pitched it, when I made phone calls, who I pitched, what they covered etc.  Even more important, now as a journalist, I want to be pitched properly. I’ve written about this in the past, and I suspect it won’t be the last time.

So, yes, take a look at Jason’s tips for doing PR for your startup, but make sure that if you’re pitching a reporter, that you’re doing it right! Don’t ask if they got your release. Make sure you know the beat your target is covering and for the love of god, don’t get upset if they say no.

Like I said, I’m sure that I’ll revisit this because, well, I’m still getting shitty pitches, so until that changes, I’ll keep harping on it.

Marshall Kirkpatrick of Read Write Web just posted a missive about whether Start-Ups need Community Managers or not (post). He presents, as Marshall always does, both sides of the coin very well.

Before we get into the Yes or No question, the short version of what a community manager is and does:

A community manager is someone who communicates with a company’s users/customers, development team and executives and other stake holders in order to clarify and amplify the work of all parties. They probably provide customer service, highlight best use-cases of a product, make first contact in some potential business partnerships and increase the public visibility of the company they work for. [source]

Are they necessary? Some, of course are adamant that they’re required staff members for ANY start up, others are equally as adamant that they’re not required for many months or years after the company has a full fledged and powerful community.

Recently – well, ok, yesterday – I told a start up that they were too “young” for a community manager position, and now I’m actually rethinking that point.

While I don’t necessarily disagree with myself on this point, I think a hybrid model is what’s needed for a start up. Someone who can take on the social media strategy and who has the traits of a social media strategist, but who can also handle the traditional public relations required for exciting new services, and who can parlay both that PR and social media knowledge into tending the online community. It’s possible, but it does require a special blend of person, with a specific skillset. There’s a few of us out there, it just takes a little hunting to find us, but boy, when you do, did you ever find a goldmine.

Not only will you have found someone who can work with your community with the empathy and understanding that community requires, you’ll get someone who will understand how to speak to your major stakeholders, your general public and the media covering your space.

So, is this new hybrid a required position for a fledgling start up? I’d have to say yes. Certainly after you’ve hired your tech and development team and before you start looking at traditional roles like PR or Marketing, or even the new traditional roles like social media strategist. Take a good hard look at what your company actually needs first and see if the hybrid model fits your needs.

I spent the weekend thinking a lot about social networks, a bit about feeling a little social networked-out (I was barely on Twitter all weekend, and that’s unusual for me) and some time wondering what you guys want to see here. Am I delivering content you’re interested in? Is this content you care about? What would you like to see more of?

And so, to answer that question, I bring you the first BuzzNetworker Poll! (cue fanfare)

The business channel frequently does “Fun Friday” posts that you can see all over the channel. Last Friday I participated, but forgot to tag it as a Fun Friday post because I was busy doing blog off stuff.

This week, the question is: your business epiphany - what one moment influenced your career or business more than any other?

I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to figure this out. Finding just ONE moment is difficult, and to add to that, I’ve changed careers slightly. If I were to tell you what influenced my PR career, it would definitely be meeting a woman who did PR and spent time telling me about her job, and encouraging me to go and play in the world of PR.

If I had to choose the one moment that influenced my current career, I think it would have to be sitting down and talking to my friend Lisa about the English Civil War.

Somehow, and I can’t remember how at the moment, we got onto the topic of my life. and what was bothering me at the time (and that’s probably how we got on the topic of my life), and Lisa started to explain the concept of the Salonnieres to me.

She’s reading this book called the English Civil War: Papists, Gentlewomen, Soldiers, and Whitchfinders in the Birth of Modern Britain. It discusses these women, who were, essentially, the connectors. The women who had a large network, brought people together and connected the dots for each other.

Lucy Hay is the one that Lisa is particularly referencing me to. The book describes her as:

Lucy Hay was England’s salonniere, a beautiful woman who enjoyed politics, intrigue, plots but also intellectual games, poetry, love affairs, (intellectual and probably occasionally physical, fashion, clothes and admiration.

The full explanation is here. See, it’s hard to pick just one moment! Think about it – what would your moment be?

Every time I hear that phrase, I think of the movie Comedian.

But I digress. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about PR, social media, and the changing face of the industry.

Alejandro from SuccessFool and I were talking one evening about his series on entrepreneurs and their stories. He asked me about my own entrepreneurial journey and what, if anything I would do differently the second time around.

I have a rather unique entrepreneurial path… I was working for a CFO at a college and just didn’t like it. He would hand me the school’s 3M budget, ask me to balance it and then take credit for my findings at the board meeting. Not cool.

I met a woman through my volunteer work who did PR and it was like the heavens opened up, there was a chorus and I saw the light. I immediately did some research, found a course that would get me the most hands on experience in the shortest period of time possible, quit my job and went to school.

Within the first two weeks of my course, I had my first in-house internship at a local hotel. I stayed with them for eight months, and still have a good relationship with my boss of the time. After that, I moved to the local branch of a large international agency and stayed with them for about 18 months.

It was a four semester (two year) course, and by the middle of the third semester, I had clients, I was getting paid more than my peers were in entry level positions, and I’d started my business. I took a half day off the day we graduated and then went out full time on my own the next day.

But things were different five years ago. PR was easier and it was more about the pitch and getting a client coverage. I was good at getting coverage, and I’ve had several reporters tell me I’m a favourite to work with.

Now, with the rise of social networks and social media strategies, it’s not as easy to reach out to reporters as it used to be. Media convergence and online news sites are killing the traditional publishing business. There are a billion traditional PR people out there who are now claiming to be social media experts because they have a Facebook account and they Twitter sporadically. These alone do not make you a social media expert.

What brought all this up, and why I felt like I needed to tell you all of the above in the first place was Doug Haslam’s (@dough) post about why a start up needs PR. I disagree. In fact, I agree 100% with Loic (the founder of Seesmic) who says that the success of your start up depends not on the backs of your PR people and your marketing messages, but instead on the entrepreneur him or herself. [post]

The PR world has changed. It’s not the same as it used to be, and it’ll never go back to being the way it was. To quote the clip above “in a [media] world…” this complex, I don’t want to play too deeply in the PR field anymore.

One of the first things Doug points to is Twitter and the fact that they don’t employ a PR firm [post]. I still say that what Twitter needs is not a PR firm but a Community Manager/Evangelist.

It might be that, for me, the “oooh, shiny!” is gone from PR. There are still thousands of folks out there completely enamoured with the industry, and I applaud them. But it’s going to take a lot to convince the now jaded, cynical PR person in me that start ups need PR, that companies like Twitter or Seesmic should spend their money on PR instead of evangelists, and that PR is still as powerful as it was, even five years ago.

Oh the drama and controversy swirling about the interwebs right now! (I refuse to use the term “blogosphere” (even though I just did) and also, I hate Weblog. STOPPIT. It’s just a blog now, ok? We’ve got that cleared up? Can we move on? Ok. Great.)

First, Chris Andersen published his vitriolic post about being pitched as Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine.

There was a big bunch of kerfuffle (now THAT’S one of my favourite words) over that among PR people and journalists alike.

Then, Gina Trapani from Lifehacker tweeted [past tense of having written a twitter message] a link to a wiki, called PR Spammers. I’m sure you can figure out what that’s about.

That started a whole new kerfuffle.

So, instead of re-hashing something that is now essentially, old news, if you want details, go read Geoff, or Jason, or Brian, or Todd. I didn’t even get them all. But that’s a good start. If you want to see the other side, take a look at Matt or Stowe.

Whew. Ok. So here’s my whole thing. I’m currently on both sides of the fence here. I’ve still got a foot in PR and Social media, and I’m still working on clients (none of my clients are in any of the fields I write about on any of my blogs). I’m also a writer, and actually working towards doing more of that in the future.

Through the course of this blog, and the one I’ll be launching on the Lifestyle channel, I’ve been dealing with a lot of great PR people. Some, not so great, but 90% of them have been fantastic. But, because I have a PR background, I talk to them like I would like to be spoken to and I reply to them in a timely manner because it’s how I would like to be responded to. (do unto others much?)

So who’s right here? I think there’s a bit of both right and wrong, on both sides of the fence.

I think PR people who pitch blindly, throwing a bunch of shit at the wall to see what will stick, and in turn are pitching the Editor in Chief are lazy. Chris is right.

I think that media people who aren’t clear on how they want to receive information, and then get bitchy when they are contacted, or break PR’s trust - breaking embargos, threatening exclusives and when not granted them, refuse to write about the company, or just act as though the person on the other end of the phone is obviously a complete idiot because they dared to say the words “Hi, My name is Colleen, and I’m from Type A Public Relations. Do you have a minute?”. I should have named my PR company something other than “Public Relations”, obviously.

Folks, it’s time to put down the gloves.

Not long ago, I asked for pitches for this blog, and I meant it. I’ve been getting some great stuff, and I can’t wait to get everything reviewed and written about. I can’t wait to do author Q&A’s with everyone I’ve been speaking to recently. I still welcome pitches - after all, without the PR people, where would the writers get all of our news? Email’s great. In fact, you can call me too if you want (604-215-0697), and I’ll talk to you, but in the end, I’ll probably ask you to email me anyway.

Also, any PR people reading this, know that I also cover lingerie, cocktails, food and wine, travel and beauty, personal care, health & fitness and homewares. Feel free to send me anything that would fit into any of those categories.

Images courtesy me, on flickr.

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