It’s been a busy start to the year for everyone here at éclat as I’m pleased to say we’ve signed up a number of new technology PR clients in both the cloud and security sectors. It’s always a frantic time when the agency first starts work with a client, not just because we often need to build the client’s profile from a standing start, but because of the need to figure out the best way of working with each individual customer. To be honest getting to grips with the technology is often the easiest part – particularly as we’ve got a strong track record in both of these tech areas. What takes time and effort is figuring out how the client ticks, working out the processes to get the information we need and educating the client about what is actually newsworthy and what is just marketing hype.

There’s also the thorny question of when to take the client out to meet the press and who will make the best spokesperson. It’s not always the CEO who will be the best person to engage with the media and we can often suss this out from doing some media training with a group of potential spokespeople and then giving our honest feedback on who would work best. This can of course be political suicide for the agency or the client side contact if handled insensitively!

Getting time to meet the media is also difficult in this day and age, with most journalists having their nose to the grind meeting daily deadlines for online news. That’s probably why informal social events like getting together over a beer after hours seem to be more popular these days. Finding a strong news story to tempt our time-pressured media friends out for a meeting is a must have – but some clients need help in appreciating what is and isn’t newsworthy. This is again where having agency time with client spokespeople who have first-hand experience of dealing with customers can be invaluable in helping us wheedle out potential news angles. Impressing on our clients the value of statistics and independent endorsement of marketing messages is also vital as well as helping them to understand how to craft a comment on a breaking news story that offers new insight or information.

What makes a massive difference in helping to speed up this process and enables the agency to quickly start gaining coverage for the client is the competence, understanding and credibility of the PR contact at the client. When that individual can help in digging out those PR nuggets – particularly when the client HQ is overseas – the speed and success of any media engagement is dramatically increased. The willingness of that individual to also take advice and guidance from the agency is also paramount. Here’s hoping our new batch of clients falls into this category!

Anyone else want to share their experiences of helping build a PR profile from scratch?

Although we’re probably all thinking about getting things finished before Christmas, it’s sobering to think that, when we come back in 2012, the countdown to Mobile World Congress will be well and truly underway.

With this in mind, here at eclat we’re starting to think about next year and all things ‘mobile’ and what to do to make a real difference from PR activities at the event. If you’re planning your PR and looking at how to really make the best of the time leading up to and during the event, then don’t forget to register for our webinar on Tue 13th Dec, which will give you the inside track on everything from the best way to get in to the Mobile Daily to what really makes an impact for journalists gathering news at events such as Mobile World Congress.

“How to Make a PR Splash at MWC” will be covering some useful hints and tips and what’s new for this year, to be presented by the Show Daily editor, Justin Springham. The freelance journalist and founder of Mobile Groove, Peggy Anne Salz will be providing her perspective and top tips on what to do to make an impact to get your story noticed by journalists.

As 2011 draws to a close, and things (we think) start to wind down a little in preparation for the holiday season, this really is a good time to start planning activities for next year. So, if you work in marketing or in-house PR, please reserve your place at this webinar and get the lowdown directly from journalists who can provide their expert insight.

Click here to reserve your place, join the webinar:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/144308808

As a species, change is one of the most unsettling inevitabilities that we face, and it has a tendency to drives us all a little bit mad when it happens. From the big things like changing career, or moving house, to the subtle things like the change in seasons, these adjustments can have a major impact on our psyche; I myself have been overcome with anxiety after changing brand of teabag.

However, during my time at éclat I have come to realise that the greatest rewards are almost always outside of your comfort zone, and actually venturing outside of it is usually a lot more fun.

So how does this all apply to the world of Technology PR? Well, throughout our quest for new clients I have come across a recurring theme, the same fallacy keeping people from making a change. Often, organisations that already have a PR agency are very reluctant to change to a new one, even though they may not be entirely satisfied with the service they are getting. Many stick with what they know for fear the problem will become worse, or they fall victim to the PR myth that there will be a downturn in activity for several months, and coverage will dip whilst the new agency, ‘gets up to speed.’

But here at éclat we understand the importance of keeping up PR momentum, even if you are in the midst of taking the leap to appoint a new agency, and that is why we are working hard to dispel this myth with our new promotion. Up until the end of January 2012 we are offering a money-back guarantee to any organisation that already has a PR agency but is looking to review, and our side of the bargain is to guarantee that we will at least match the coverage generated by your current agency in the first quarter, or you get your money back. It’s that simple. We all know that such an important decision cannot be undertaken in haste, but taking a calculated risk is entirely different to making a rash decision and that is exactly the concept behind this promotion.

So I suppose my final thought this week is that we are all creatures of habit and disrupting the status quo and venturing into the unknown can be an unsettling prospect, but change is good. It is scary but it keeps us alert, so why not go out on a limb? Isn’t that where the fruit is?

P.S. Do you want to see something really scary? Count the amount of times I’ve written “change.”

This week has been extraordinary. One client needed last minute support for a trade delegation to Qatar, interviews at an event in India, a strategy to influence regulatory bodies at national and European level and PR support for announcements in Germany, France and Spain. Oh, and our normal work supporting them in the UK of course. Plus, this is just one of our clients!

The beauty of being part of an international network of agencies is that this sort of requirement can be met with relative ease. However, it does take more than the wave of a magic wand. Time has to be spent with each partner agency to get them up to speed so that they can deliver what is needed. Co-ordination of international activity is often seen as easy and cost free on the client side, it isn’t.

Time zone issues, cultural/language differences and a varied media climate do still exist in today’s world. Just because a PR campaign works in the US does not mean it will anywhere else. Even in a supposedly global market, and with internet communication seemingly seamless across the world, the PR methods, messages and approaches for success differ widely.

Industries like technology, security and telecom often treat the world as if it is a single entity/market, or at best they invent regions (like EMEA, AsiaPac, Eastern Europe or ‘emerging markets’) terms that mean nothing to real people in the real world. At worst this creates the internal myth that global PR is being implemented for a brand when it clearly is not. A good thing is when this thinking leads to a regional structure with marketing savvy people in each area of the world. They are often aware of the differences and, with luck, have the influence and budget to make the PR really succeed.

So here’s to diversity, localisation of campaigns and greater success.

It’s tough trying to sell PR services at a show, as the majority of exhibitors are selling, not buying, just as you’re selling, not buying, which in a way puts you at loggerheads from the off. As far as I’m concerned, there are three approaches you can take. The first is to casually sidle up to the stand and politely ask “hello, what is it your company does then?”, and listen closely while they give you the ten minute sales pitch. All well and good until you see their faces drop as it dawns on them that, in fact, you’re not a potential customer in any way shape or form, and you’ve just wasted ten minutes of their time that could have been used for selling. Alternatively, you could grab the first person you see on the stand and say: “I do PR – do you want any?”, however here you run the risk of being perceived as a bit brash, or worst, obnoxious. The third option is to ask to speak to the person who handles PR/ Marketing, to discuss the company’s requirements with them. Beware of this tactic, as there’s every chance you’ll be confronted with the current PR person, which could be very awkward indeed; after all you are pitching for his/ her job. The best strategy here is to shuffle away, and try not to make eye contact with them the next time you walk past the stand.

Despite the feeling of awkwardness when wandering up to a stranger and trying to sell cold, you need to remember that often people are quite happy to talk. After all, your presence might offer some light relief away from their selling duties. At a trade show such as IP Expo, there are many PR folk doing exactly the same as you; and though it’s crucial to make a good first impression and adopt a succinct selling technique, in the end it comes down to budget, and whether the company is currently looking to review their PR. You need to remember that, whilst they may not be reviewing now, six months down the line it could be a different story. The golden rule is to source as many business cards as possible, and do the necessary post-show follow up; this means, regular contact. After all, it’s unlikely they’ll remember you from the show directly afterwards, let alone six months later when they’re actually reviewing their PR, if you haven’t kept in touch.

Oh, one final thing – don’t be nervous. What’s the worst that could happen? As a very wise PR recently told me, the worst response you’ll ever get is: “I’ve spent £10K to be here – now please get off my stand”. Fair point, move on.

One of the questions that frequently comes up when meeting with new clients or at pitches with prospective clients is how can you measure the effectiveness of PR? It’s an interesting one and the answers are probably as varied as the organisations that ask. In all actuality there probably isn’t a ‘one size fits all way’ of measuring success, just as there isn’t a standard measurement across PR land.

We’re probably a little different to other marketing disciplines which have a more standardised way of measuring results; a direct mail campaign will be measured on number of responses that are generated or how many responses turn into firm leads and eventually convert into sales. With SEO you can take your pick, click throughs, visitors, page views, time spent on site and so on.

So can you apply any rules to measuring PR? One of the most widely used tools is the ‘share of voice’ which will tell you how many column inches you’ve generated against your competitors. For many this is a good indicator of how successful a campaign has been and provides an independent evaluation of who has achieved most coverage. Data measurement can also be used for AVEs – advertising equivalents of the column inches achieved. This may sit a little less squarely with some however, as many studies have shown there’s a huge difference on the impact of editorial as opposed to advertising so can we really measure one against the other?

Most clients of course expect some form of measurement; we need to demonstrate results and a return on investment, but column inches may not be the only way to measure success. One of the areas we’ve always worked hard at in this agency achieving pre-agreed targets with clients so that, at the end of the month or quarter, we can demonstrate what has been accomplished. Perhaps the most important thing for us, as PRs, is to get a good understanding of what ‘success’ for each client means from the outset. This could be which titles they most value, what they’re looking to achieve – is it numbers of mentions, getting more visitors to their site, thought leadership on a subject or shifting perceptions through the tonality of coverage. In this way everyone knows what you’re aiming for and what we need to achieve.

All of us have suffered the agony of sitting at an industry awards ceremony watching another company carry off the award that we so richly deserve and struggling to feign indifference as we watch them carry off the spoils. So I thought I’d share a few thoughts on the thorny subject of awards and how to win them, buoyed up as I am by the rich pickings of award wins for our client this year including three more awards at this month’s IBC exhibition.

So what’s the score with awards? Is it down to how much you spend on advertising or how convincing your award submission is or how many customer testimonials you can turn up? Well there’s no simple answer to this and of course a well written award entry which has been properly researched and written accompanied by plenty of independent endorsements is of course important in getting you onto the winner’s shortlist. I’m also pretty convinced that getting the editor’s vote on the panel of judges is definitely not harmed by a healthy injection of advertising, but most of the awards we’ve won for clients this year have been without any accompanying advertising expenditure. Most judging panels are made up of a number of industry experts and the winner is usually decided after a fair amount of discussion and debate. So doing your homework and checking out the judges from previous year’s – which generally contain a smattering of analysts and other industry influencers – and making sure that you’ve properly briefed them as part of your PR and AR activities will go a long way to helping your chances.

I’m not of course suggesting that having a great product or service is unimportant in this whole process. If your product doesn’t have a clear differentiator to help it stand out from the crowd then you’re probably wasting your time in entering an award in the first place. But winning an award requires forward planning and working out a strategy like most other marketing activities. There are never any firm guarantees but what we’ve learnt from the success stories of awards we’ve won for clients this year ranging from consumer technology, security, broadcast, outsourcing and general IT vendor awards the principals are the same:

• Identify the target awards well in advance – ideally 3-6 months before closing

• Ensure you can meet the minimum criteria – e.g. If they request customer references and you haven’t got any don’t bother entering.

• Research how the awards operate and especially how the judging operates. For example is it judged by a panel or by a public vote?

• Work out your strategy for winning and put it into practise

• Leave plenty of time to draft the actual award entry and write it in a way that clearly explains why you should win with independent endorsements – not just brochure speak and flannel or heavy technical write-ups!

If you’ve done all of this, then cross your fingers and dust off your black tie or cocktail dress for the awards ceremony.

Google+ opened up to public access this week and with an estimated 25 million users in its first two months, it is possible that Google’s new social network could add to the ever growing list of social networking sites visited daily by users.

Social media continues to grow and dominate website traffic, a recent Nielson report found that 53 billion minutes were spent on social networking in the United States in May 2011, which is equivalent to 106,474 years!

Twitter in particular has become an integral part of any PR Executive or Journalist’s job, giving up to the minute news that so many TV news programmes claim to provide. Speaking at CTAM Eurosummit, Futurologist George Leonhard said Twitter is replacing CNN as a global news source. In one example, the social networking site took just 26 seconds to post information on a news event, compared to the BBC who took 41 minutes.

I recently spoke to Charles Arthur, the Technology Editor at the Guardian, who told me that all the national journalists use Twitter, he said “It is an important way of keeping their finger on the pulse of what’s happening or finding things out. Twitter, far more than Facebook and far more than LinkedIn, is a place where people find out what’s going on because it’s so quick, because it’s so direct. For journalists, there is simply nothing to match it” (see the full interview here )

The biggest problem with Twitter is not its functionality, but the sheer scale of what is being shared. With over 190 million users posting 65 million tweets every day, it can become a challenge to pick out the interesting or important stories, as well as fact from fiction.

I have seen time and again when a story begins to spread on Twitter it can be, at times, very difficult to find which are tweets are true, and which are based on rumour and guesswork.

Twitter has become an invaluable tool for Journalists, PR executives and companies to communicate with a global audience and keep up to date with what is going on, but it does come with a price, so if you are following a breaking story don’t forget the old saying “Don’t believe everything you read”

In the short time I have been at éclat I would now consider myself a fully functioning member of the team. I have my feet firmly under the desk, a wall plastered with to-do lists and post-its, and an embarrassing childhood photograph on ‘The Wall of Shame,’ I am in it for the long-haul.

In the time I have been here I have surpassed my own expectations, getting to grips with a whole range of new processes, practices and technical jargon that I never thought I would understand.

But after overcoming these initial obstacles and becoming at ease in my new environment, I faced a brand new challenge; Becoming the ‘10 minute expert.’

The ‘10 minute expert’ was a term I first came into contact with during my degree. My lecturer explained that when you are in this kind of job you have to be easily adaptable, you have to be able to read information fast, process it and understand it, be able to explain it to others and write about it in ten minutes. At the time I thought it was easy, having never been outside of my comfort zone and still living in my naïve, student bubble where I thought I knew it all. I did not know what was in store for me.

Now, in the world of Technology PR, this has quite quickly become a reality. I have found myself not only pitching around news stories on data breaches, authentication, endpoint security and mobile backhaul, but actually writing articles on digital investigations, web caching and today, the role of outsourcing in innovation!

I never dreamed when I started at éclat, that I would one day not only understand these subjects, but would feel comfortable writing and talking about them. I could not be further from my comfort zone but actually, I like it out here. However, my next challenge – stopping myself talking about Technology PR to people outside of the scene – I have a feeling it is making me quite unpopular.

I recall writing many articles over the last several years around the subject of turning raw business data into useful information to enable better decision making. The objective was usually to promote a client and/or a particular product, but the subject interests me none the less.

“We have an opportunity for everyone in the world to have access to all the world’s information. This has never before been possible. Why is ubiquitous information so profound? It’s a tremendous equalizer. Information is power…None of us is as smart as all of us.” Eric Schmidt, University of Pennsylvania Commencement Address, 2009.

I have often discussed this subject with the younger members of our team who have grown up with the internet and all its glorious easy access to information on almost any subject under the sun. For them the retention of information is not habitual, why remember stuff when you can so easily find it when it is needed? For example, why remember a phone number when it is stored safely in your mobile? Well, in order to call for help when you have your mobile stolen or it is lost. Why retain information on a client’s business, messaging and market? Because you should not need to search for that information during a call or a meeting, whether with a journalist or the client, it just looks bad. How often have you called your bank or insurance company and heard the phrase ‘I’m sorry, I can’t help at the moment as our system is down’? Frustrating is it not?

“Knowledge is power.” Sir Francis Bacon, Religious Meditations, Of Heresies, 1597.

Knowledge comes from the retention and questioning analysis of information, and experience is built up through the process of applying that knowledge and measuring the results to test its efficacy. Easy access to all the information in the world can also lead to another problem; much of it can be very entertaining and also useless and thus wastes a huge amount of time.

“There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.” Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970).

So we need to be capable of sifting the useful and high quality information from the vast sea of internet delivered data. Reliability and trustworthiness of source is vital and both knowledge and experience is needed to spot the useful from the useless. Having this capability opens up the real value of the internet as a research tool, in PR or any other area, a vast library accessible from anywhere by anyone (As long as they have the right subscriptions of course. Little of value in this world is free).

“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.” Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784), quoted in Boswell’s Life of Johnson.

I agree with Samuel Johnson that knowing your subject and knowing how to find out about any subject is a powerful combination. As a client looking for specialised B2B technology PR support, an agency team with the experience and confidence to successfully apply this combination is a recipe for success.