[EVENT RECAP] TOAST Beauty & The Brunch: Pop-Up Beauty Bar & Unlimited Mimosa Brunch

[EVENT RECAP]

TOAST Beauty and the Brunch

An Afternoon of Beauty, Brunch & Bubbly at St. Gregory Hotel

 

Last Saturday, June 21, DC Beauties gathered at the M Street Bar and Grill at the luxurious St. Gregory Hotel for an afternoon of beauty, brunch and bubbly!  At the second annual TOAST Beauty and the Brunch, guests enjoyed the TOAST Beauty Bar and received complimentary beauty and health services from the DC area’s top nail, hair and make-up artists, “Glam Squad.”  Faces by Sonia gave beauties fresh faces for a day out, while Sheri Jhon Salon, a mobile hair service, completed looks with dramatic hair transformations.  Re Nu Me Organic Essentials pampered beauties with hand massages with their fragrant organic body butters and oils. Sassy Nail Salon and Spa manicured nails and provided summer nail polish trends to attendees and Plush Beauty Box finished up makeovers with a lip bar.  It Works! Independent Distributor Shonita Roy made attendees healthy treats with chocolate and banana protein smoothies to energize guests and promote healthy lifestyles and nutrition.

Celebrity photographer Marcus Bennett captured new looks and faces of attendees at the TOAST Brunch Beauty Lounge.

VIPs, Sponsors and Media were invited to the VIP Beauty Experience from 11am-noon received and received one-on-one beauty treatments and consultations from the TOAST Beauty Bar Glam Squad.  All guests enjoyed a luscious three-course, unlimited mimosa brunch and received swag bags that included items from Uptown Magazine, Skinny Girl Cocktails and Fullips.

Raffle winners won amazing prizes from It Works!, Pinnacle Vodka, Bartenura Moscato, Bratty Behavior and (1) complimentary admission and brunch to next TOAST Brunch in August among others goodies!

TOAST Brunch is collaborative event concept by Aja Inc. and BIO Events & Public Relations.

 

Photo Credit: Marcus Bennett

 

#TOASTBeautyBrunch
@TOASTBrunch

 

 

NEWS: Owner of BIO Events & PR listed as Forty UNDER 40 Prince George’s County 2014

Kimberly Williams, Owner of BIO Events & Public Relations, has been selected as Forty UNDER 40 Prince George’s County 2014 presented by the  Prince George’s County Social Innovation Fund (PGCSIF).  This honor recognizes extraordinary Prince George’s County, Maryland residents, under 40, to highlight their contributions and encourage civic engagement in the County.

There will be an Awards Presentation and Reception January 29, 2014 from 6-9PM at the The Sunset Room National Harbor.  Tickets are $40 and can be purchased here.

The PGCSIF is a a sponsored program fund of the Community Foundation for Prince George’s County.  It works as a catalyst for social impact. Its mission is to build social capital and invest in new approaches to solving challenges in Prince George’s County.

See full listing of all honorees below.

{LISTEN} BIOEventsPR Owner on The Launch Party Radio Show May 15

{LISTEN} BIOEventsPR Owner Kim Williams on The Launch Party Radio Show! Kim was a featured panelist on segment, The Blind Side of Public Relations, to discuss the “unwritten” rules of the PR industry and what the classroom does not teach you about being a publicist.  Other panelists included Paris Nicole Payton of The PNP Agency, Jenna Boyer a Public Health publicist and LaWanda White of Independently PR. The panelist discussed current PR news, internships, marketing, business and more.  If you missed the show, you can listen by clicking here.

 

Are you creating the PERFECT PITCH?

When pitching the media, it can seem like a difficult to know and understand what they want and if they believe your pitch is newsworthy for their audience.  The media could be a television producer, magazine editor, blogger, newspaper editor, reporter or journalist.  They are the “gatekeepers” to your public.  You must ensure that you establish credibility and connections to build media relationships.  In today’s social media driven world, more and more of these “gatekeepers” get flooded with pitches everyday, so establishing a relationship and connection with them can definitely get your  pitch some attention.  Outside of the  “must haves,” such as spelling, punctuation, grammar and providing contact information,  here are some key elements to include to “create the perfect pitch!”

1.  WHY ARE YOU PITCHING TO ME?

The first words the media will see is your subject line.  Make it catchy to grab their attention and arouse their curiosity.  Find an interesting angle and do not mention the company name, yet.  Most times, you will be pitching a new client so they will not having any connection or knowledge to your client anyway.  Tell why their audience would be interested in your product or service.  Communicate your passion about the product or service.  In the first paragraph, get to the point and pitch your product or service.  You will lose the reader if you do not put the main reason of why you are pitching to them in the beginning of your letter.  Make the first sentence an extension of the subject line.  Also, do not make your pitch seem as though you are sending to a distribution list – they will automatically hit the DELETE button!

2.  THE FIVE W’s

As you learned in grade school, the 5 W’s (Who, What, When, Where, and Why) are important in letting a journalist receive the full picture of your pitch.  These are the basic elements of journalism and should not be taken for granted in a pitch.

3.  SHORT AND SNAPPY

The media gets bombarded with pitches and they still have to make time for their other journalistic duties.  So, as you can see, reading a long pitch will more than likely get ignored and/or deleted.  Like pitching in person, keep your pitch to no longer than three (3) minutes.  The same with email, keep it equally short with the most relevant information a journalist needs to show interest in your pitch.

4.  CALL TO ACTION

Be clear and to the point of what you are asking of the journalist.  After explaining your client’s product, service or situation, ask a question or set a clear action step.  If you want a journalist to consider reviewing your client’s product, offer a sample.   A pitch letter is designed to create a dialogue with one journalist.  Don’t sell your product, sell your story.

What are some other elements that have proven successful to you or you like to see in a pitch letter?  Share your thoughts!

How to Be a Good Public Relations Client

What Good PR Clients Do

Since public relations isn’t done “to” a company—it’s done “with” the management team or owners—there’s an essentially different nature to how this kind of professional service is successfully delivered. It’s much more akin to legal or medical services with the “defendants” or “patients” (read: management team members) having to be deeply and consistently involved in an ongoing process.

As the now-famous slogan coined by tech PR guru Regis McKenna goes, “PR is a process, not an event.”

Without recognition of that, PR generally goes nowhere—and the agency will not work with that client for long.

Two Business Cards, One Team

PR is most productive when the agency and client people work as a team. The ideal is a blurred distinction between the two organizations. The goals are nearly the same, only the paychecks and business cards are different. Efficient teamwork and friendships develop, with the clients relying on agencies for a full range of strategic as well as tactical communications values. The agency is free to ask all questions, including the hard or perhaps embarrassing ones, and offer help wherever and whenever needed while remembering its charter to client service.

Exactly when things can go really right or very wrong is typically at the outset. The client/agency relationship should be based on a high degree of trust and openness. You see this plea or expectation on agencies’ Web sites all the time: “We have strong relationships with our clients.” PR services need to be delivered like any other professional service, as typically required by lawyers or accountants. Public relations can truly add value to a business or organization only if the agency people have an intimate understanding of what’s going on, warts and all.

An arms-length relationship, when the agency is seen as a “vendor” (like office supplies or a delivery service!), isn’t going to yield effective long-term results because the agency won’t have been let into what strategically bears on the business. Without such insider knowledge, PR plans will likely be off the mark, short-term and not deliver desired results that matter.

Getting What You Pay for

To gain a better understanding of this perspective, consider that hiring an agency to just execute some tactics like a string of press releases would be like going to the doctor to have a band-aid applied. You can do it, and pay for it, but it certainly isn’t the best use of your money or the doctor’s talents.

You’ve got to tell the experts where it hurts and let them diagnose whether or how applying public relations practices may relieve the pain. So, if you want real agency value, share your business or marketing plans and explain your objectives. Mention what may or may not have worked in the PR area previously. Then let the pros prescribe ideas and strategies that address your business problems.

Valuable agency people want to understand the core challenges and bring their experience, imagination, and creativity to finding a solution. Remember, you’re investing in expertise to help with business problems that you can’t or don’t want to solve by yourself. So find an agency that will lead you toward desired goals and an effective market position. Let them become a strategic asset.

Just hiring some extra hands to perform work that you decide is valuable and which you yourself direct isn’t cost-effective. If that’s going to be the case, hire a junior employee.

Conversely, for the agency people reading this, if your client isn’t taking your advice or, worse, is dictating strategies and tactics, plan on replacing the account as soon as possible. You’re just an order-taker. You’ll be replaced very soon.

Invest the Time

If a client hands a completed document to its agency and expects the agency to use it as is, little is gained in client-derived value from the agency. Agencies offer far more value than mere errand runner for company messages. The often staggering aggregate communications expertise offered by PR agencies is totally wasted. Worse still, the mutual learning created by working together cooperatively in the creation of new information is also lost.

Agencies need and want to learn ever more about their clients’ business. You didn’t learn everything you know about your market and your company instantly. Dealing with the learning curve is worth the time. That’s why agencies ask for strong relationships.

Client and agency people get to know and work together most effectively in collaborative creation of communications strategies and tactics. The two-way explanation, give-and-take of such work helps people in both environments understand each other’s value and creates the best ways to expand client company or product awareness. It’s a simple case of two (different kinds of) heads are better than one. More importantly, for the client, it’s a case of getting all that you’re paying for.

Case in Point

Even with something as basic as press-release development, for example, being placed in the position of merely reacting to client-generated copy leaves the agency without access to other information that might lead it to make suggestions that increase newsworthiness and marketing effectiveness. But if they don’t get to ask the basic marketing or business communications questions up front, that value can’t be provided.

The Q&A around “so what?”—or news significance—is among the key things that agency pros are trained for. Without it, a big limitation is created. When agency personnel are removed from the origination of copywriting projects, clients lose. The agency team doesn’t learn about what’s not in the press release. And, often, what isn’t stated in the final press release copy, and why, is as important for the agency to know as what is.

The dialog preceding writing assignments may be more valuable to marketing than the finished written product—particularly so in business-news publicity.

Client-developed releases are often dismally off the mark and fail to answer the most basic questions that business reporters need answered. That’s often because of the inherent inside-out perspective common to those working within an organization. It takes an exceptional writer working inside a company to maintain the opposite “outside-in” perspective while pedaling the company’s key messages in a news or feature story.

Moreover, if you’ve hired a good PR agency, in the process you will have hired excellent writers. That’s a core public relations competency. So give them the opportunity to practice their art and let them write! The results will be better.

Clients should continuously get more from their agency as time passes. As the relationship and the agency team’s client knowledge grows, so should the service quality level.

Source – Ford Kanzler, Marketing Profs

Public Relations vs. Marketing

 

The agendas of public relations and marketing are different. Marketing is interested in the market — consumers and demand. Public relations is interested in relationships — reducing conflict and improving cooperation.

Good public relations will create a healthy environment for marketing. But simply providing technical support for marketing is not the same as good public relations.

An important study on excellence in communication management identified four major public relations models:

• Promotion and publicity (one-way communication/hype)
• Applied journalism (one-way communication/credible)
• Research, persuasion (two-way communication, win/neutral)
• Dialogue, mutual solutions (two-way communication, win/win)

(More than one model may be apparent in any public relations practice. Philosophy and vision will determine which one is dominant.)

The same study found that excellent organizations were associated with three factors:

• Effective organizations treat PR as a management function.
• The most effective model of PR involves dialogue and mutual solutions.
• The commitment of key leaders and asking the right questions are critical.

The two critical questions were:

• How do we manage our interdependence with the community?
• How do we develop excellence within our organization?

The bottom line is a balance of receivables and payables. Marketing adds value by increasing income. Public relations adds value by decreasing the expenses that are necessary when issues are ignored.

Consider the alternatives to these situations:

• Activist groups being satisfied with your performance
• Customers comfortable that they can count on you
• (or) Donors being loyal to you when money is tight
• Employees respecting you as a good and fair employer
• Fewer people feeling like suing you
• Journalists knowing you to be responsive and credible
• Legislators seeing you as ethical and having public support
• Neighbors not minding your presence on their street
• Shareholders regarding you as competent and competitive
• Your industry considering you a leader

Faking it doesn’t work. Not caring and then apologizing doesn’t work. An old adage is that the “P” and the “R” in public relations stand for performance and recognition. Good relationships are genuine.

Marketing and public relations both work best when they’re treated as distinct management functions. These two functions can pull together as equals on a team, and this works to integrate the business process.

Source – Top Story

 

6 Ways to Track the Impact of Social Media on Public Relations

Have you used social media strategies to support your public relations efforts? Are you struggling to show whether social made a difference?

This post will focus on six metrics you can use to measure the impact of social media on public relations (PR).

Why social media and PR?

As news outlets continue to boost their online presence, public relations professionals have a tremendous opportunity toleverage social media outlets to enhance their outreach efforts.

Social media networks like Twitter provide a new level of access to reporters that open dialogue in new and exciting ways. As social media sites become the “source” for news and breaking stories, marketers are seeing media coverage spread more rapidly than ever before.

But the big question is, how can you quantify the impact that social media has on your public relations efforts?

Social media and public relations go hand in hand.

The best way to show the impact is to look at how social media has affected the costs of marketing efforts.

This can be accomplished by utilizing a few standard public relations, online advertising, search engine optimization and website metrics that can be combined to show a holistic view of the true value social media is bringing to the table.

The following list of metrics can be used toevaluate public relations or they can be used across several marketing channels toshow a cross-channel view of where social media is delivering.

#1: Cost per Impression

Social media helps to expand the reach of your message and has a tremendous impact on the number of impressions that are generated for PR stories. Therefore, when you show the change in the cost per impression with and withoutsocial media, you can make a compelling case for why social media efforts are crucial to your strategies.

Facebook Insights readily provides impression data, but it can be more difficult to measure on Twitter. TweetReach andSimply Measured both provide information on how far messages are traveling on Twitter.

TweetReach is a social analytics tool that provides detailed metrics on the impact of your Twitter conversations.

Simply Measured takes a different approach to analytics. Rather than a rigid dashboard, they empower non-technical marketers and PR professionals to become data rockstars.

You want to collect the total number of “eyeballs” that could have seen your post and divide it by the amount spentfor the outreach to determine the cost per impression.

#2: Cost per Engagement

Engagement is the one thing at which social media continues to beat every other marketing platform, time and time again. It’s almost unfair to compare social media engagement against other channels, because other marketing channels simply do not have as many opportunities to generate engagement.

Aggregate how people engaged with the content and divide it by the cost to determine the cost per engagement.

Types of engagement include shares, clicks, comments, likes and mentions. The key to understanding if an action should be measured as engagement is to ask, “Did the user physically do something in order for the action to be complete?”Action is what separates an impression from engagement.

#3: Cost per Click

Public relations can drive users to click on links that are shared through social media channels. It can be difficult to figure out the number of clicks generated from links shared by third parties, but you can calculate the number of clicks that were generated through your own messaging by using the stats from your URL shortener.

Many times, articles will contain a link that goes to your corporate website that will add another layer of clicks to the mix. You can also request the number of page views of the article from the publication that had a social media site’s referring URL.

Take the total number of clicks and divide them by the cost of the outreach to determine the cost per click. Typically, if you compare the results to other advertising channels that use a cost-per-click metric, such as online advertising, you will see that social media delivers inexpensive clicks on public relations messages.

Social media decreases the cost of public relations impact.

#4: Cost per Site Visitor

Due to the nature of online sharing, it is common to see a spike in website traffic that surrounds PR outreach. Considering that companies pay a lot for online advertising to get visitors to their site, not measuring the cost per site visitor across channels is a missed opportunity to show a positive social media impact.

To calculate the cost per site visitor, take the total number of website visits generated and divide it by the total costof the outreach. Then, compare the results to online advertising and search engine optimization costs.

#5: Cost per Inbound Link

While more companies strive to improve their search engine rankings, more public relations professionals are being asked to request “backlinks” in media articles. These backlinks drive traffic to the corporate website.

Therefore, another good metric to compare is the cost per inbound link. To calculate this metric take the total number of inbound links the article generated and divide it by the total cost of the outreach. Then, compare the results to search engine optimization costs.

#6: Cost per Subscriber

When visitors make it to your website, it’s important to measure the actions they take. More and more companies are looking for ways to convert web traffic into “subscribers” who have provided their email address, allowing an additional opportunity for follow-up marketing efforts.

Therefore, consider comparing the cost per subscriber across all of your marketing channels to understand how public relations is performing in relation to your overall marketing spend.

To calculate the cost per subscriber, take the total number of new subscribers generated and divide it by the cost of the outreach.

Final Thoughts

You’ll notice that many of these metrics are not traditional “public relations” metrics, but rather they can be utilized to create a cross-channel dashboard which will show how social media and public relations efforts complement each other and deliver “inexpensive” results.

The results tend to be inexpensive because the incremental spend to capitalize on social media is usually very small. Remember, the goal is not to show that social media is “better” than other marketing channels, but rather that your other marketing channels are performing better and more cost-effectively when social media is in the mix.

Source – Nichole Kelly, Social Media Examiner

WRITE PRESS RELEASES THAT DAZZLE

When a reporter is wowed, intrigued, surprised or captivated by your press release, you can be pretty sure you’ll get some media coverage. And for most businesses, positive media coverage is worth its weight in gold. The bad news: Although truckloads of news releases fill reporters inboxes every day, few of them are dazzling, or even interesting.

As a former editor, I speak from experience when I say that most press releases end up in the garbage can. But don’t let that stop you from sending them, a well-written news release can generate more publicity and goodwill than you could ever accomplish with a paid advertisement. To help keep your release out of the garbage and get it in print, start by following these five guidelines.

1. Make it newsworthy. Releases should be used to announce news, and they should only be sent when something truly newsworthy is happening at your company. Don’t send releases that sound more like advertisements than news; they’ll get tossed immediately. (However, newsworthy events may happen more often than you realize.)

In keeping with the news format, eliminate any superfluous language or outrageous claims (don’t describe yourself or your products as wonderful, amazing or unbelievable!). Is your release written in language that would appear in a story in the newspaper or magazine you’re pitching? If not, it might sound like fluff rather than news. Make it clear from the beginning what your news is and why it should matter to the reporter and his or her readers.

2. Tell a good story. Although you’re sharing hard news (I hope), your press release should still be interesting to read. Even though your readers are media-types who do this for a living, they still like to hear a good story. Draw in your readers with a creative introduction and interesting language. Find new ways to say ordinary things. Read magazines, newspapers and books and pay attention to the stories that interest you and keep your attention. Then try to mimic those techniques and styles when writing your own releases.

3. Target your audience. As with any writing project, keep your audience in mind when you’re writing. The editor of a small-town newspaper has different interests than the editor of a trade journal for CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Choose the media outlets that would be most interested in your release and send it to them. For best results, you might even send each person a unique version tailored to their interests. And always send your release to an actual person, rather than sending a release to a general news desk, find out which reporter covers your industry or the type of news you’re sending and send it directly to him or her.

4. Develop a relationship. Once you’ve located the reporters who cover your industry, start developing relationships with them. Call or e-mail to introduce yourself and find out if they prefer releases to be faxed, e-mailed or mailed. Be respectful of their time and the harried pace of their work, but don’t be afraid to check in occasionally to follow-up on a press release or let them know how much you enjoyed a recent article. Don’t just rely on them for free publicity; find out what you can do for them and do it one-sided relationships never last. Be easy to work with and willing to accommodate their needs, and they’ll be much more interested in covering your news.

5. Be consistent. Your communication with the media must be ongoing in order to get their attention. One release sent in a vacuum will probably not yield a lot of results. If reporters are unfamiliar with you or your business, it won’t be a top priority for them to cover your release. However, if they’re accustomed to receiving (actual) news from you and you’ve made an effort to forge a positive relationship with them (see #4), they’re more likely to a) actually read your releases, and b) publish them, or at least keep you in mind as a resource for future stories. If you really want to take advantage of the possibilities press releases can offer, keep hanging in there.

Copyright 2004 Nancy Jackson

Pitching Do’s and Don’ts Every PR Pro Should Follow

Media relations is a lot like dating.

During the early stages of a romance, too much contact simmers the sizzle.

In media relations, why would you reach out to someone, then slam him with a pitch? That isn’t reaching out at all. It comes off as unnatural, insensitive and forced. When you think about it, cold pitches are basically one-night stands.

I chatted with a few food and beverage pals who were more than happy to set the record straight. Their key takeaways about pitching were:

1. Don’t ever call—ever.

2. Don’t “pitch” per se. Just include useful information and tips without a gimmicky story idea. Exclusives have a much better response rate than spam. It’s important to be respectful, resourceful and genuine.

Here is a collection of tips from writers Lauren Bloomberg, Angel Antin and Amy Cao; and editorsJenny Miller (Grub Street/New York Magazine,) Maggie Hoffman (Serious Eats), Andrea Bartz (Whole Living), and Jacqueline Wasilczyk (Zagat.com).

Media Relations Do’s

1. Do understand the types of stories media outlets look for, and what an editor’s needs are. You will immediately lose the writer’s trust if you don’t tailor your pitch.

2. Do send products, if the publication doesn’t have a policy against accepting gifts. Staff will happily bust open those samples and, if they really like them, the product will score a placement.

3. Do meet up with media. I spoke to an editor once who told me he never responded to pitches, unless he knew the PR person.

I prefer to take an organic approach and attend as many industry events as possible. Make sure you’re networking, not working. I’ve heard of PR folks who got blacklisted from gatherings because they were always “on.” Remember, you need to prove you are a resource to journalists. This is earned, not granted.

4. Do offer exclusives that reflect the publication’s need.

5. Do email instead of call. There is never a good time to listen to a pitch over the phone. But, feel free to call a publication’s main number to find out who your best contact might be.

6. Do keep emails brief. Writers love it when you mention how you came across their article, whether through a friend or via Twitter. Demonstrate you’re genuinely interested and share at least one authentic reason for working together. It will go a long way.

7. Do go through connections if you have them. You will get a better response rate.

8. Do include the date on every document you create. Nothing is more frustrating than reading about the rollout of a new product, only to find out it happened eight months ago.

9. Do let a writer know if you pitched her editor. If your pitch catches the writer’s attention and she turns it in to her editor-who heard about it from you two weeks ago and told you no-then you just turned a potential contact into a seriously unhappy camper.

10. Do consider the types of sources the outlet requires. Never assume a news outlet accepts PR pros as spokespeople.

11. Do understand a journalist’s obsession with accurate reporting, especially in the wine world. Angel Antin elaborated further on this:

“Misspellings of crème brûlée keep me awake at night. I write a great deal about the wine industry, and thus have to deal with all those pesky accents on imported wines. I’m indebted to a PR pro who conveys a wine’s correct spelling (with accents), vintage and suggested retail price to me faster than I can spell Gewürztraminer. And I can spell it really, really fast.”

Media Relations Don’ts

1. Don’t make the pitch too specific.

2. Don’t send images unless the reporter asks for them.

3. Don’t send packages without checking first. Addresses change, and so do editorial calendars.

4. Don’t contact media via Twitter. It makes the message receiver feel like he’s being attacked from all sides. Follow-up emails, however, are encouraged. They show you are persistent and that the reporter is not the recipient of a mass email. Do, however, use Twitter as a relationship-building tool.

5. Don’t include large attachments, period. Top-tier media receive 500 emails per day, most of which are pitches.

6. Don’t suggest a quick meeting before you give information. Most journalists are too busy and prefer all the information up front.

7. Don’t be afraid to email the reporter to ask a quick question such as, “What types of stories do you look for?”

8. Don’t pitch made-up holidays like “hamburger week.” The reporter will forward your press release to colleagues, and they will mock you.

9. Don’t target the same person more than three times. If he doesn’t respond, he’s probably not interested. When you don’t hear back, it’s time to move on.

10. Don’t show up at the writer’s house with a pitch. True story.

If you adhere to these tips, you will be a champion.

Source – Cassandra Bianco, Ragan

How Start-ups Should think about PR

If you start a company, you have about a 50% chance of being around in five years, which is the same survival rate as if you were just diagnosed with colon cancer.  Now let’s talk about PR.

When you start a business, you also start a timer that is counting down the days until your cash flow runs dry and your business fails.  Regardless of how well you are financed, who sits on your board or how good you are at keeping your costs under control, there is heightened significance to every moment, dollar or action when you are starting a business.

Every dollar or hour you commit has to have a discernible return.  The duration over when that return plays out may vary from company-to-company, but the return has to be there in a time that makes sense given your balance sheet and cash flow.

PR has traditionally been somewhat amorphous in terms of analyzing its return so it presents a challenge to start-ups.  Somewhere in the back of your mind, you know that it’s important to get people talking about or with you but it’s not always easy to justify the costs (mostly time-based) involved with generating and participating in the conversation.

The evolution of PR has accelerated over the past decade and some would say it’s become more impactful and measurable.  Mid and large-market companies can now take a more quantitative approach to understanding the impact of their activities but the metrics are generally still one step away from the metric that start-ups should care about, which is dollars.

As a start-up on the clock, PR should be tied on some level to dollars generated because if PR isn’t helping to generate sales, then it’s not worth doing.

Starting from this premise, here are some additional thoughts on the how start-ups should think about PR:

1. Even if you’re not spending dollars on PR, you’re spending time on it  and time is the most valuable commodity you have when starting a business.  Your time could be spent building an awesome product, selling it to customers or supporting customers after the transaction to make sure they come back for more and tell their friends about your business.  Every hour you spend on PR is an hour you lose on actions that you know have a discernible ROI.

2. Derive multi-faceted value from singular activities – If you are going to spend an hour on PR, then make sure you get some benefit out of it.  If you spend that hour digging up a journalist to pitch, constructing a pitch, sending the pitch, not hearing back and then summarily forgetting that the hour just happened, then you have just failed.  If you use that pitch as the basis for a story that you share on your blog, then you have derived some value from the effort.

Every day, you are doing things outside of PR that can be repurposed to support PR and vice versa.  Keep that in mind.

If you just spent an hour writing an e-mail to a customer, explaining your perspective on something, then you have just created a story for your blog, which brings us to our next point.

3. PR can be mediated or disintermediated – It used to be that PR meant relying on someone to tell your story on your behalf to their audience.  Not any more.  You can tell your story to your audience yourself these days.  In fact, when you’re getting started, disintermediated PR is often times better because A. You aren’t relying on anyone else to communicate on your behalf so you can be sure that your content gets out there into the public sphere, B. You can get feedback that will help you tweak your product and your marketing/sales mix and C. you can target people who will actually care about your business or product and this is important because…

4. You aren’t that special – As Palahniuk wrote in Fight Club, “You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all a part of the same compost pile.”  Most journalists don’t want to write about you because they know that it’s likely you won’t even be around in a couple of years and they have heard the same pitch ten times today already.

Journalists don’t want to hear you telling them why your business or product is unique and special.  In fact, I don’t really want to hear that either.  What both the journalists and I want to hear, is something interesting that I haven’t heard before.  Don’t write 300 words about why you’re awesome and send that to a journalist, write 300 words about the research you did to determine that “awesome” is actually “not awesome” (and how this sparked your interest in starting a new brand called “not awesome”) and why that research is relevant in the context of a story.  Now we’re having a conversation and the conversation is important because. . .

5. A hit isn’t the result of a pitch, it’s a manifestation of the relationship that you build with your network – When you’re engaging in mediated PR, don’t go looking for one-night stands, look for buddies.  I’ve heard from my friends that one-night stands can be quite exciting.  You meet someone out, flirt, hook-up then never see them again.  You really don’t want to treat journalists or bloggers like this.

Journalists or bloggers are as tuned-in to your market as anyone.  Building a great relationship with one can be incredibly beneficial for a lot of reasons.  They can be an incredible source of information, they can point you in directions you never considered and can even lean on you for future stories and this is valuable because…

6. Even if you get a hit, it may not be a hit – I’ve talked to many entrepreneurs and small business owners who have spent too much time pitching, who have finally received a hit.  The ensuing conversation often times goes like this:

Entrepreneur: “Hey, I finally got a hit in [Insert prestigious publication of your choice].”

Me: That’s awesome, did you get a lot of new customers?

Entrepreneur: I got a couple.

On a side note, I really think the value of hits is in how the hit becomes a promotional tool by reinforcing your credibility (so pimp the brand where you got the hit all over your site) and in the organic search value the link from the hit brings to your site.  This is important because even after you have gotten a hit, you want to think about whether the benefit justified the cost and if it didn’t, then

7. If the experiment fails then stop and try something different – The most successful entrepreneurs who do their own PR are good because they try a bunch of things, stop doing things that don’t return and focus on things that do.  It seems like a simple equation but there are complexities, mostly in the execution of the tactic, the length of time that the tactic is executed and in the framework through which return is analyzed.

In general, PR can be an extremely valuable exercise if it is performed with the right mindset.  This is just a list of observations I’ve made, based on my own experience as well as from watching others.  What do you think?

Source – New Influencer