Archive for the ‘Public Relations’ Category

More Small Businesses See Value of Websites

Audience Engagement, Branding, Internet, Marketing, Public Relations | Posted by Larry Greenberg
Oct 06 2010

Small businesses are finally beginning to appreciate the value of having a website, if recent surveys are any indication.

In late 2009, Ad-ology, a marketing and advertising research firm, conducted a survey that found that 46 percent of small businesses did not have a website.

Only six months later, another report sponsored by Network Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business, indicated that about 67 percent of small businesses plan to have a website by mid 2012. That same report said small businesses don’t plan to abandon their website in favor of a social media-only approach.  Instead, 30 percent of those who use social media said social media is the reason they intend to spend more on their websites.

Another study by American City Business Journals (ACBJ) of over 1700 small and medium businesses (SMB) found that those whose owners are more involved with the Internet overall enjoy a greater market share than their less web-engaged owners.

Search engines have become the ultimate business reference desk.  People seeking information about an important product or service purchase will conduct an online search, hoping to learn more about their subject, as well as available providers and, if possible, those providers’ credibility.  Businesses that don’t have websites risk being defined by others – or worse, not found at all.  The days of letting your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages or dialing 4-1-1 are over.

Websites enable small businesses to do the following:

  • Describe concisely what the business does, its intended customers, and the problems and needs it solves
  • Build credibility by presenting information that underscores its expertise and conveys its integrity
  • Showcase a unique brand, helping to convey the company’s personality, and the set of attributes that set it apart from the competition
  • Establish a direct communications channel that allows prospects to contact the business directly, while those prospects are in the process of making a purchasing decision;  it’s also a platform for facilitating customer care
So what are the first steps for business owners who may be undertaking the creation of a website?  That will be the topic of the next post.

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Internet Marketing: Assuming the Mindset of a Media Company

Audience Engagement, Branding, Internet, Marketing, Public Relations | Posted by Larry Greenberg
Sep 27 2010

“Every company is a media company,” says Tom Foremski, the former Financial Times journalist.

Foremski is the force behind The Silicon Valley Watcher, which follows the business of technology and media. He also has a new website called, suitably enough, Every Company is a Media Company.  Foremski writes regularly about how the Internet, social networks and other types of digital media have radically changed the way we communicate – consumer to consumer, business to consumer, business to business.

Regardless of an organization’s size and structure – e.g., S-Corp., local service provider, or a multi-divisional international corporation – having a credible web presence has become essential to marketing and sales.   As I recently told a group of small business owners at the Mount Vernon Business Expo, a company’s strategy need not be extravagant.  In developing a strategy, however, businesses can benefit by assuming a mindset that is similar to that of a media company:  How can I be of use to my visitors?  What kind of information do they want and need?   By acting as a media company would, brands can build credibility and good will with target audiences and increase the frequency with which it engages prospects and customers.  Behaving like a media company means also abandoning the hard-sell and offering one’s expert advice without the expectation of a reciprocal sale.  The paradox, of course, is that the goal of such selflessness will lead to more sales in the future.

The financial barriers to web marketing are typically pretty low.  The time barriers – the amount of time that must be continually invested for a successful program – can be high.   Posts in the weeks to come will be written for the online marketing novice – the business owner or organization director seeking to understand the basics of creating a web presence and what type of investments, monetary and otherwise, are required.  I hope others who have already initiated Internet marketing programs will share their thoughts as well.

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Is Technology the Answer to Bad PR?

Journalism, Public Relations | Posted by Larry Greenberg
Aug 12 2010

For quite some time there has been a love/hate relationship between journalists and those who would have them write stories about their clients.

Three years ago Wired’s editor-in-chief Chris Anderson caused a stir when he published his blacklist containing the email addresses of more than 300 PR folks he said had been spamming his inbox with irrelevant pitches.  Other writers followed with their own lists, sending waves of recriminations throughout the public relations industry that continue to this day.

Poor training and laziness are often cited as the primary culprits behind the indiscriminate pitching of reporters.  What about technology?  Is technology an accomplice in turning media relations into a simple numbers game in which anyone can email blast the entire journalistic universe with a way off-target pitch?  Or could it be a corrective?

Darryl Siry just launched NewsBasis as “a platform for better media relations.”   Siry, CEO and founder of the new company, has worked both as a journalist and public relations executive. In a recent blog post Siry gave his rationale for starting NewsBasis:  “I concluded that the disconnect between PR and the media is really a design problem – and I believe that a lot of value can be generated by a platform that addresses this from a technology and design perspective.”

NewsBasis’ goal is to align “interests and timing in the ‘pitch process.’”   Public relations representatives or individual subject experts can create profiles detailing their focus areas.  They can then insert their opinions into relevant articles which journalists can then find as they’re searching for information and sources.  Journalists can also post queries for experts.   In addition, NewsBasis has algorithms to match reporters with sources based on profiles and behavioral analysis of past usage on the system.

Services like ProNet and HARO have already helped improve pitch relevancy, although Siry believes Aardvark and Quora are better comparisons “in that we want to focus on connecting requests to authoritative responders and develop a searchable knowledgebase over time. “

NewsBasis is brand new, and I haven’t had the chance to use it.  The strength of any platform like this, however, is in the network effect – that is, how many reporters are actually using it.  NewsBasis will need time to grow.

Nothing can replace training, creativity and relationship-building.  That fact is that NewsBasis, a technology platform, is constructed to force public relations representatives to research, understand and contribute contextually appropriate information to a particular story, thereby encouraging them to become better media relations pros – and a truly useful resource for journalists.  That can only be a good thing.

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