Yesterday, research analyst Brian Summer posted a blog on ZDNet about how to conduct, or rather, how not to conduct an effective analyst day. While the post is clearly written with more than a little tongue in cheek, his points are well made.

In particular Summer’s comment around over-hyping a product should be taken to heart by many technology companies. He states, “Sure, any one can tell a story but you don’t need someone who’s clearly drank too much of the corporate Kool-Aid giving your pitch. Over zealous pitchmen are unintentionally obnoxious and impossible to believe.” In my experience this is certainly the case, and it ties closely into another of his points that analysts are smart enough to be able to read between the lines.

Working in tech PR, I can relate to many of his points, it’s incredible how many companies will insist on refering to themselves as some kind of ”leader” in all their communications, even when this claim has absolutely no founding whatsoever. If you are a market leader, then by all means, shout it from the rooftops. For the rest of us, far better to address your market by focusing on the truly strong elements of your story, than adopting the language of hype to create an impression that will be seen through by most at first glance.

Technorati Tags: public relations, analyst relations, pitching, ZDNet 

My years as a business journalist have taught me a thing or two about what it takes to get the media’s attention … and what to do once you have it. There’s a process of engagement for which you should be prepared, but that doesn’t mean you should view it as a confrontation. It doesn’t mean war, as Bugs would say, but rather, opportunity. Here are 10 things to keep in mind, which I have divided into two postings.

1) It’s not about your agenda: If you’re a Microsoft or a Google, it’s easy to dictate the terms of engagement to the media. If you’re not, it’s a different playbook altogether. You have to offer journalists what they need when they need it, which takes research.

2) Sometimes, it’s spelled out for you: As my colleagues have discussed here before, many publications, especially niche players like trade or industry papers, plan out specific coverage of an industry, sector, trend or area of business development months in advance. It could be content for a section of a few pages, or to fill an entire issue. These “editorial calendars” can provide insight to when and how a particular publication may be interested in your story, or in your perspectives on the state of your industry. See Evaluating editorial calendar opportunities and When and how to inquire about editorial calendar opportunities.

3) Be flexible: Often, the best way to get exposed through the media is to be a source of comment on a particular area that impacts on your business. The journalist is looking for subject-matter experts for a story he or she already has in mind. I’ve dealt with companies looking for media coverage that wanted a corporate profile and wouldn’t settle for anything else. Rather than work with me to fill a particular need I had, they declined and gave up the chance for any exposure through the newspaper.

4) You can get whatever you want, if you’re willing to pay for it: No, that doesn’t mean that if you buy an advertisement you will get a story. Strike such blasphemous thoughts from your brain! if you insist on your message being told your way, subject to your approval, the journalist’s answer will most likely be “Our sales and marketing department would be happy to hear from you. Here’s the number. Bye, bye.” If what you want is an ad, then buy an ad.

5) A profile presented as an objective, impartial news story is not an oxymoron: If a journalist does decide to write specifically about your company, you have to understand that he or she, and their editor, will maintain control over the final product. At best, you can push for the right to double check facts and figures that the journalist will include in the story and verify any direct quotes from yourself or your staff that the journalist intends to include. For this to be a well-rounded news article and not a promotional piece, don’t expect you will be the only source, and that leads to the next point…

6) Do the right people know who you are? When a journalist writes about your company, what it does, where it’s going and the likelihood of it actually getting there, he or she needs sources. Sure, you may be tickled by the prospects for your brave new enterprise, but yours may not be the most objective opinion. The journalist will be looking for the third-party perspective of analysts who follow your industry and can provide a frank assessment of your prospects. So it pays to put yourself on the radar of the analysts who carry weight with the media and sell them on your company. Other sources could include your investors and even competitors. And don’t overlook the value of testimonials from happy customers.

To be continued…

Technorati Tags: Media relations, analysts, customer testimonials

January has been a long and busy month, with many current and potential clients eager to ramp their public relations programs. Looking back, it seems we’ve covered quite a bit of ground this month, everything from niche media outlets to PR measurement to the pros and cons of embargos and exclusives. Here’s a roundup of our blog entries, as well as some of the posts and bloggers that caught my attention in January.

January 2008

Francis
Five ways to dazzle a potential employer
Gay Acadian dog lovers, and other market niches
Fiction: Public relations can’t be measured
‘You have no privacy. Get over it.’
Embargos, yes; exclusives, no
It’s a small world after all

Danny
Embargos and how to use them effectively
If you want expertise and ROI, hire an expert
Analyze this (continued)
Going beyond no

Linda
Is journalist burnout the reason for escalation of the Hacks vs. Flacks war?
Revisiting the hacks vs. flacks job satisfaction debate
There’s a publication for every niche
Keeping up momentum after the PR launch

Jill
Preparing for a media launch
Why critical paths are critical
Links to Canadian, US, international and online newspaper lists

Blogs on my radar

Do you know whom you are pitching?
Melanie Seasons wrote a great piece on blogger relations, sharing a list of questions to ask before pitching bloggers.

If Consulting Clients Were Dogs, Wouldn’t We Train Them Better?
Eric Eggertson reminds us how important it us to manage client expectations.

Media Bullseye
I have been enjoying Media Bullseye’s blog and podcast summaries. Reading their PR Blog Jots is a great way to stay on top of popular and interesting posts that are making the rounds. Their PR Pod Jots are prefect for anyone who is having trouble finding time to listen to PR and marketing podcasts.

Del.icio.us bookmarks as measurement?
While comments, trackbacks and hits are often used as metrics for measuring the success of blog posts, Shell Holtz suggests looking at the number of people who save a post as a del.ici.ous bookmark. Using this metric, it seems our post with links to newspaper lists was of most interest to del.ici.ous users, with two people adding it to their bookmarks.

10 Ways to Get Coverage in Features (and only one is Response Source)
Sally shares a list of ideas you can use when looking to position your client as an expert source in feature articles. This is only one of many great blog posts written by the authors of Getting Ink.

Technorati Tags: public relations, PR, media relations, blogger relations, pitching bloggers, blog measurement metrics, blog measurement, embargos, embargoes, niche media, pr measurement, public relations measurement, analyst relations, media launch, pitching journalists

In my post about analysts back in December, I promised to expand a bit more on the differences between the large analyst companies and the smaller, boutique firms.

The large, global analyst firms that publish all those high-profile industry reports are the undisputed top dogs. They command huge consultancy fees and can have a significant influence on companies looking to make technology decisions. As such, these firms are usually the first to be mentioned when technology companies start thinking about getting in front of analysts.

This is completely understandable, and engaging with these analysts may well prove to be a good decision, but tech firms embarking on their first round of contact with analysts should not put all their eggs in one basket. For almost every technology discipline, there are also smaller analyst firms that specialize in research and analysis of those sectors.

These firms, while not necessarily commanding the same level of influence as the big boys, still present a potentially valuable option to tech companies. Their tight focus on an industry sector can mean that they are better equipped to share advice and insight with companies operating in those sectors.

The smaller firms’ sphere of influence among the companies that represent your prospects is likely to be less than that of the larger players, but it should not necessarily be assumed to be so. I have worked with boutique analyst shops that had the ear of IT executives at some of the world’s largest organizations.

Ultimately, the big firms may still end up being your preferred choice for pursuing an analyst relationship, but companies should always look closely at all the players that are out there before making their decision. Taking the time to find out more about the analysts your space may result in some pleasant surprises.

Technorati Tags: analysts, analyst firms, analyst relations

Typically, when we engage with clients, whether they’ve ever done any media and analyst relations in the past or not, we engage in something we call a ramp up and roll out. This media and analyst launch ensures that all the key target media and analysts for a company are made aware of our client and its offerings, and is usually centred around a news release that either has some sort of “today” hook or positions the company in the marketplace as a thought-leader or ground-breaker in its own particular niche.

The main goal of this exercise is to get a lay of the land for what the media and analyst opportunity for the company is over the long term. Any coverage that we get, and inevitably we do get coverage for our clients during the launch, is, in fact, largely a by-product of this investigative and introductory exercise. What we hope to end up with after the roll-out portion of the launch is a clear view of the ongoing opportunity to tell a company’s story and what sorts of methods we can employ in order to harvest that opportunity.

The arrows in our PR quiver extend well beyond hitting send on news release after news release, and methods we employ and to what degree depend on what will best serve the needs and further the sales objectives of the client. Sometimes, especially when a launch has gone particularly well in terms of garnering immediate coverage, companies tend to think, “We’ve done PR now - look at all this coverage. I don’t have to do anymore for a long time as we’ll ride the wave that this initial push has created.”

These companies are doing themselves a great disservice by losing the momentum created by the launch and by not pursuing the worthwhile opportunities unearthed during this process. Our strong counsel to clients is that the best approach to media and analyst relations is a sustained, on-going conversation with the media and analyst targets who have the potential to greatly influence purchasing decision-makers in your market. Through the launch, we have established a “Rolodex factor” that means that when media are writing an article about a topic on which you have a perspective, there is a much greater chance you’ll be included. Likewise, if an analyst is writing a report about your market and the vendors therein, you will be included as a worthy competitor. Although some mindshare is gained during the launch process, the only true way to learn of and take advantage of these appropriate opportunities is to maintain the conversation with media and analysts and the only way you can do that is to engage in an ongoing PR program. The specific dynamics and budget of the program are variable propositions; we map out what we feel is the ideal program and then, if required, augment it based on budget and other considerations.

Whatever your budget, if you’re going to invest in PR – and it is an investment, not a cost centre – it’s best that you have a long-term view and plan to support the program for more than just a launch. If you wait too long to re-engage after a burst of PR activity, the progress that you made can disappear, and disappear quickly.

Technorati Tags: public relations, PR, media relations, analyst relations, media coverage, ROI, return on investment, business objectives, PR results, public relations results

My colleague, Jill, recently wrote an introductory post on analyst relations, and I felt compelled to augment this with some additional thoughts on the topic.

“Technology analyst firms, there’s no point in talking to them unless you’re prepared to pay them, right?”

Wrong. But it’s not an uncommon perspective among technology companies that have yet to engage with the analyst community.

It is certainly true that analyst firms do very well out of the consulting side of their business, and it is fair to assume that companies who pay their consulting dues probably experience a good level of mind-share with the analysts as a result. But it is a mistake to say that there is no value in speaking with analysts unless you pay them.

Technology analysts are viewed as independent experts in the fields they choose to cover. As such, they have a reputation to uphold. (Granted, some have more of a reputation to uphold than others, but we don’t need to go into that here!) This reputation depends entirely on the analyst being firmly plugged into the industry in which he or she is an expert. And this means they need to know about everything that is going on in that sector - from market leaders right down to emerging players.

As a result, those introductory briefings Jill describes in her post are highly important to analysts, ensuring that they maintain that position of all-knowing expertise that their clients expect.

Of course, the degree to which unpaid briefings with analysts are immediately useful to a company depends very much on the individual analyst. Briefings can be effective testing grounds for messaging around new products and services, but feedback is often at a premium and there will always come a point in the conversation where you are recommended to “have a conversation with our account manager.” How early this point comes in the conversation varies greatly between firms and analysts.

But none of this means you should not be talking to analysts. They are a direct conduit to your market. If they don’t know about your company, they can’t recommend you to end-users or include your products in reports. Ultimately, analysts will give coverage to companies that deserve it, typically through demonstrated, quantifiable success in the marketplace. In most cases, spending money with them will give you access to their expertise, but it does not equate to coverage in industry reports.

In the weeks ahead, I’ll continue to write about analyst relations and explore some of the differences between the big analyst companies and smaller, boutique firms.

Technorati Tags: analyst relations, technology analysts