By Leo Valiquette
It may have been a short month, by we still pulled together in February a rich lineup of content for marketers, entrepreneurs and investors alike. Hot topics included how not to do customer service, what’s to love and hate about technology marketing, the root causes of the so-called Series A crunch and the risks of “mentor whiplash.”
In case you missed any of it, here is a handy recap of our posts, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
Feb. 5: Is the ‘last mile’ of sales automation keeping your reps from closing more business?, by Jeff Campbell
Feb. 7: The trouble with mentors is…, by Francis Moran
Feb. 21: 6 little things that tell your customers you don’t care, by Linda Moran and Francis Moran
Feb. 25: Ego capital and the ‘Series A Crunch’, by Ronald Weissman
Feb. 13: Getting to the point in drafting a patent application, by David French
Feb. 20: The traditional corporate presentation is dead!, by Anil Dilawri
Feb. 27: You just never know where a story is going to stick, by Leo Valiquette
Feb. 6: Does your business suffer from multiple personalities?, by Leo Valiquette
Feb. 11: Do you have the key ingredients for an effective board?, by Denzil Doyle
Feb. 26: App development today demands a three-in-one approach, by Peter Hanschke
Feb. 14: Why I heart tech marketing, by Francis Moran
Feb. 28: Why I hate tech marketing, by Francis Moran
Feb. 19: Do your PR people suffer from telephobia?, by Leo Valiquette
Image: February2013CalendarPrintable.com
By Leo Valiquette
Last week, I spoke about how many PR practitioners fear to pick up the phone or otherwise attempt to engage with media beyond simply hitting “send” on a media release.
I want to follow up by emphasizing that, for a PR program to be effective, it must be consistent, persistent and applied over a period of many moons and fiscal quarters. Because, frankly, there is no telling where a story may stick or when a notable journalist may come out of the woodwork asking for the perspective of your organization’s brain trust on some timely and relevant issue.
Public relations or, to be more precise for our purposes here, media relations, can be broken into two general categories. First, there is the transactional effort, where the goal is to get media to pick up on a breaking news item that doesn’t have much of a shelf life. The second is building a rolodex factor by positioning your organization, or key individuals within your organization, as go-to resources the media can rely on for comment and insight on specific subjects.
These two categories are not silos. Every time you reach out to a journalist the effort contributes to building that rolodex factor, even if the justification for your call is a news item that will be as stale as month-old bread by tomorrow.
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By Leo Valiquette
Just when I think it’s a dead horse that has been well and thoroughly flogged on this blog, I have a conversation with someone who gives it a fresh gasp of life.
It comes back to this: The real effort in a public relations launch begins when you hit “send” on the media release.
And yet, here I was this very morning, having a conversation with a new client about an upcoming PR launch that illustrated, once again, that too many practitioners in the trade would have their clients believe otherwise.
It was a typical touch base kind of phone call, in which I outlined the process of the standard Ramp Up and Roll Out media launch that is a fundamental part of what we do through our affiliated inmedia PR practice.
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By Leo Valiquette
We were back at full steam last month after a welcome holiday break in December. In addition to our usual counsel about effective and strategic marketing practices, we featured guest posts on topics ranging from the ongoing patent battle between Apple and Samsung to regional economic development, how music affects the brain and the future of venture capital in Canada. There was even something about bootleggers, smugglers and a certain big football game.
In case you missed any of it, here is a handy recap of our posts, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
Jan. 8: Five new year’s resolutions all marketers must adopt, by Francis Moran
Jan. 15: The revitalization of the Canadian venture capital sector, by Chris Arsenault
Jan. 16: Let me wave my magical content wand, by Tara Hunt
Jan. 29: It takes more than bricks and mortar to build a regional economy, by Denzil Doyle
Jan. 22: A primer on strategic thinking, by Caroline Kealey
Jan. 09: When the cat’s already out of the bag …, by Leo Valiquette
Jan. 30: Bananatag discovers the marketing power of good press, by Fiona Campbell
Jan. 21: Music and the brain, by Bob Bailly
Jan. 14: Making the business case, face to face, by Leo Valiquette and John Hill
Jan. 04: First-time entrepreneurs: There are big ideas, and then there are doable ideas, by Alexandra Reid
Jan. 28: Do you know what your customer actually wants?, by Maurice Smith
Jan. 24: Customer service must be a deliberate strategy, by Francis Moran
Jan. 23: Brand marketing that is inspired, but not imitative, by Leo Valiquette
Jan. 10: It takes a village … to succeed in social media, by Megan Totka
Jan. 31: Super Bowl weekend: That time of year when a marketer’s fancy turns to thoughts of…advertising?, by Francis Moran
Jan. 17: A year in the life of bringing technology to market, by Francis Moran
Jan. 02: Apple vs. Samsung: U.S. Patent Office – Challenges to patent validity, by David French
Jan. 03: Holiday lessons for anyone trying to get their tech to market, by Leo Valiquette
Image: The Printable Calendar
By Leo Valiquette
Back in the day when I worked as a business journalist and sparred with “those PR people” for a living, I did, on more than one occasion, run afoul of a source or a business that I was writing about.
This is simply par for the course. I’ve always said that a journalist isn’t keeping their foot on the gas if they don’t receive a demand letter from someone’s lawyer every now and again.
Sometime ago, Francis wrote about how the interview’s never over. But in these examples, it’s clear that missteps can easily occur even when both interviewer and interviewee agree that the microphone is still on.
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By Leo Valiquette
