ArticuBLOG

Since When is “WORK” a Four-letter Word?

Forget the economy, the mortgage crisis and the downfall of Bear Stearns.  The biggest problem facing business today appears to be finding people – be they Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y or Net Gen – who are good at their jobs and then retaining them. 

Articulate SVP Sharon Tolpin and I recently attended a breakfast forum by the Cornell Entrepreneur Network.  There were bright people there from various walks of life, from brand-name companies like Yahoo!, Goldman Sachs and Ogilvy and Mather, to law firms, commercial realtors and technology and social-networking startups.

All had one question in common:  How can I find, hire and retain good people?

Why is this so hard? 

For me personally, this question also stems from recent experiences in trying to find qualified job candidates.  Articulate has a terrific reputation among tech and B2B firms, our clients love us, and we have had single-digit voluntary turnover for the past two years.  So it must be a pretty good place to work.  But, in posting for resumes on Media Bistro, LinkedIn, Craig’s List, PR News, Bulldog Reporter and Hot Jobs, I cannot even begin to describe the overall poor quality of respondents. 

Not only were there typos in the MAJORITY of resumes and/or cover letters (when there were cover letters), but the MAJORITY of the applicants failed to meet even the most basic criteria in the job description.  We scheduled a scant few for a brief qualifying telephone interview and asked them to send, in advance, electronic copies of their clips and to be prepared to offer some ideas about what they could do for one of our current clients.  Doesn’t seem too demanding. 

About one-third of the candidates cancelled when they realized we actually wanted them to prepare for the call, and another third just failed to show up for the scheduled call.

In chatting with a few of the Cornell event attendees, our recent experience seems like the norm.

Why is this so hard?

If you think you have what it takes to rise above the riff-raff and be seriously considered for a job, send me an e-mail at lgrimmer@articulatepr.com.  I want to hear from you.

By Laura Grimmer

Analyst vs. Journalists

I recently made the switch from full-time analyst relations to public relations.  People often ask me what analyst relations is; at the simplest level, it’s influencing the market’s influencers, particularly industry analysts. 

As part of our Articu-Relationships program, we had an industry analyst come and speak about the workings of his analyst house as well as personal experiences.  Interestingly, this analyst was a former journalist at a major enterprise IT publication.  While overall the session was quite informative (except when I made a terrible joke about spamming), what was most interesting about the session is that one major theme emerged – analysts and journalists are not so different.

Things I’ve learned about analysts and journalists:
• They don’t rest on their laurels – A good journalist or analyst challenges the market assumptions, predicts trends and gets to the bottom of marketing propaganda.  It’s their job to break down what the marketing folks are actually saying to explain to the educated masses.
• They do their homework – Most do background checks on the company’s Website at the very least, if not garnering feedback from other major industry players and end-users.
• They go below the surface – Whether they focus on understanding the technology or how it changes the business, they look for greater meaning.

Now that I’ve realized that analysts and journalists aren’t too different, I’ve come to a bigger question: Who are more fun?  I guess we’ll make that call after tradeshow season!

By Katy Zack

Articulate’s Quarterly Newsletter

Articulate launched its quarterly newsletter this week – The ArticuNewsletter (I know, I know, but we’re going with a theme here!).  The newsletter includes:

·        Commentary from Laura Grimmer, Articulate’s founder and CEO, on the state of public relations during a recession
·        A profile of CDC Software’s PR successes
·        Links to Articulate’s blog – The ArticuBlog (see the theme?!?)
·        Updates on recent media and analyst industry moves
·        Highlights of our clients in the news, including The New York Times, CIO, eWEEK, TIME, Network World and InformationWeek … to name a few 
·        Articulate corporate news, including the broadening of our Analyst Relations program and the launch of our Business-to-Industry (B2I) practice
·        Calendar of upcoming industry conferences and event

If you’re interested in receiving our quarterly newsletter, feel free to drop me a line and I’ll add you to the mailing list:  mgarnett@articulatepr.com.  Most of our newsletter content can also be found online at:  http://www.articulatepr.com.   

By Megan Garnett 

Shake On It

For centuries the handshake has served as a social offering of meeting, greeting, parting, congratulating and sealing a deal.  Seems easy enough, right?  It’s just one hand meeting another.  Maybe not so.  In my opinion, this seemingly simple gesture actually packs a lot of meaning.

Networking is a big part of what we do – not only at Articulate, but within the PR industry as a whole.  Recently I’ve been doing a lot more networking and in doing so, I’ve met a lot of very interesting people.  And with meeting and greeting comes handshaking. Lots of it.  Which leads me to this blog – a blog on the importance of having a good handshake.

Having shaken hands with more than 50 people during the last month or so, I’d like to think of myself as somewhat of a handshake connoisseur.  And I can solidly say that a weak handshake is among one of the most disappointing things in meeting someone new – especially if you’re networking.  In order to really understand what a weak handshake is, I suppose I should outline what a “good” handshake should be.  I’m talking about a firm, but not bone-crushing shake that consists of actually enveloping my hand in yours and shaking it at least three times.

So let’s discuss the handshaking-don'ts.  If you’re meeting someone for the first time, particularly in a business or networking setting, you want a handshake that conveys intelligence, confidence and genuine pleasure to meet the other party.  So what don’t you want to do?

·        Don’t give the floppy fish handshake – in other words, the other person shouldn’t feel like they’re shaking a dead fish.

·        Don’t shake someone’s hand with less than your full hand.  That includes your thumb, because it’s part of your hand.  The dainty three or four finger-grab doesn’t portray confidence or sincerity.

·        Don’t compete for the Iron Man competition.  I’m sure you do hundreds of tricep curls every night, but shaking someone’s hand or the first time is not the time to convey this information via a bone-crushing grip and wind-ripping arm shake that last for half of our conversation.

I think the best handshake advice goes back to the old adage from middle school guidance counselors – just be yourself.  You want to convey the best possible image of yourself, and the perfect way to do this is to have a good handshake.  So practice with your friends and prepare yourself for the next big (or small) networking opportunity.  You never know what you might gain, or lose, with that “small” gesture.

By Meghan Attreed

The Twitter Obsession

A friend of mine, knowing my hatred for all things Twitter, decided to send me an article about a UC Berkley journalism student who was imprisoned in Egypt only to be released after sending the tweet, “ARRESTED,” to his network.  His network sprung into action, calling the American Embassy, Associated Press, International Herald Tribune and UC Berkley, freeing the student after only one day in jail.  Impressive; but I still dislike Twitter. 

The “tweet” the student sent is the equivalent of a mass text message or status update on Facebook.  This “tweet” could only have reached a maximum of just over one million people as opposed to the more than 36 million that currently use Facebook.  But let the Twitter evangelists continue to spout on about how the service helped release a man from wrongful imprisonment.  They don’t have much else to stand on. 

Twitter users make up a niche market that is mostly comprised of tech insiders.  Respected influencers like Robert Scoble, Michael Arrington and Sarah Lacy have loyal followers and their tweets receive a good deal of attention.  But ask a person that’s not affiliated with tech industry about them and I’m sure you’d be met with a blank stare.  Despite extensive media coverage of the increase in Web traffic that the site experienced this week, there are still several hundred social networking sites ranking ahead of it in terms of traffic.

The niche market and dismal Web traffic numbers beg an interesting question about the industry that is so in love with Twitter.  Is the tech industry at the forefront of something truly forward-thinking and interesting or are we all a bunch of grown-up nerds trying to be cool?

By Kate Reed 

A New Era in Political Campaigning

The 2008 presidential election has been one of the most fascinating elections of our time.  Media coverage of the races has been in full swing for more than a year now, providing us with details of each candidate’s move on the campaign trail.  Cable news pundits, talk-radio hosts and bloggers have played a large role in the increased coverage of the campaign.  However, previously unconventional outlets such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace have now become critical resources for the candidates.  Through these channels, candidates can now target specific groups of voters who aren’t typically in-tune with the campaign.

Whether they like it or not, this has made politicians more transparent than ever before.  Any mistake or slip-up they make will be on YouTube instantaneously for millions of American’s to see.  In a way, this has made the candidates more accountable to the public, but it has also created a political environment that focuses its attention on “gotcha” moments rather than important issues affecting the country.  Therefore, it is up to the candidates and their campaign staff to manage and utilize these resources effectively.

By now all three remaining candidates are well aware of how important a role these outlets can have in reaching certain demographics.  It will be interesting to see how they are used in each candidate’s campaign strategy in the months leading up to Election Day. 

By Jonathan Klein      

NYSIA’s April Meeting

Last night, I attended NYSIA’s monthly meeting with some colleagues.  The topic of discussion was “Running a Tech Business in NY:  Challenges and Payoffs.”  As I looked at the agenda prior to the event, I knew it would be a good discussion because of its relevance during the recession.  There was a great cast of characters on the panel and each of them offered up very interesting views of technology in New York versus Boston and Silicon Valley.  My favorite line of the night was from Roger Krakoff, an investment professional from Sigma Partners.  When discussing how the recession will (if it hasn’t already) affect technology companies, he said, “Nice-to-have loses to must-have.”  That’s the main difference.  When the economy is very stable, companies feel as though they can make purchases that they wouldn’t make in an unstable economy.  (I should also mention that Sigma Partners is one of the VC firms that just gave our client RecycleBank $30 million in Series B funding.  I digress.)  All in all, the NYSIA event last night was great.  In my opinion, the best thing about the events is that you never know who you will meet.  All sorts of connections come from those meetings.  If you are a New York tech company, you really should be attending.  Its great networking!  For more information about NYSIA, check out:   http://www.nysia.org.

By Kate Corcoran

The Ever-Present Threat of the Data Breach

In an article appearing yesterday in The Washington Post, Robert O’Harrow reported that states across the U.S. are running intelligence centers filled with the personal information of millions of Americans.  Formed as a way to identify potential threats after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, these centers are brimming with information from places like the Federal Trade Commission and the CIA.  Government officials use sophisticated facial recognition and identity resolution engines to identify non-obvious relationships between people and aliases. 

While information gathering is critical to antiterrorism efforts, many officials are concerned that the information contained within these centers is not being handled properly. As watchdog groups work to make these centers more transparent on the grounds that the privacy of American citizens is being threatened, I wonder if we should be more concerned about the vulnerability of our personal information to a security breach.  In the first three months of 2008, at least 8.3 million personal and financial records were compromised, with the Identity Theft Resource Center recording 167 breaches.  According to the center’s study, the government was responsible for approximately 18 percent of these breaches.  How much would this number rise if one of these databases were breached?

I can only hope that as more attention is brought to these intelligence centers, someone takes notice of the potentially devastating affects a security breach could have.  The massive data breach that happened in July 2005 at discount retailer TJX Companies is still making news three years later as settlements are only just now being reached.  How much worse will a breach of the phone numbers, insurance claims, wage, property and utility records, criminal justice information, traffic tickets and confidential CIA and FBI records of millions of Americans be?

By Kate Reed

Media Survey Raises Issues About Online vs. Print, PR Pros

The March 31 issue of PRWeek, one of our industry’s trade publications, raised myriad points about the evolving media landscape.  There were two extracts from the study that caught my eye:

1)  Online vs. Print Journalism:  Nearly 60 percent of journalists surveyed said they were being asked to work more today than in previous years, and nearly all of it is due to the increasing prominence of posting online, be it blogs or stories.  Many of our clients continue to view traditional print media as the Holy Grail.  Frankly, they’re missing the opportunity that is online journalism.  As news holes continue to shrink (just this week, the Newspaper Association of America reported that advertising revenues for 2007 dropped 7.9 percent, the second-worst year in more than half a century), online media outlets will continue to gain increasing importance and value.

2)  The Value of PR Professionals to the Media:  According to the PRWeek survey, just 7 percent of journalists said they received pitches from PR people that were truly relevant to their areas of interest.  That means for more than 90 percent of journalists, they’re getting darned near useless e-mails from a lot of PR people who aren’t doing their homework before pitching them.  It makes the value of our relationships with the media that much more critical.

In sum, the media industry is changing daily.  Online entities like the Drudge Report and The Huffington Post are encroaching on the footprints of one-time leaders like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.  We as PR pros must be even more diligent about the role we play in the media equation, and in how we educate our clients about the value of PR, in any form.

By Laura Grimmer

PR and the Recession

Recession:  It’s everywhere.  It’s the cover story of every publication you pick up and written across the faces of financial services firm employees.  But, the question is:  What does it mean to us in the public relations industry?  For some of the bigger firms with large Fortune 500 companies as clients, you would assume they’ve already hit the breaks on PR activities.  I’m certainly not saying all of PR has grinded to a halt, but you would think these folks with shareholders to appease have certainly slowed the roll of marketing and public relations.  I even validated this by having a conversation with my father the other day (a finance decision maker) and asked him about the first thing he would cut.  He said marketing and public relations initiatives because they are expendable. 

This got me thinking … are marketing and public relations expendable activities, especially during a recession when it’s important to drive sales?  Maybe I’m biased, but I would disagree in most cases.  Ultimately, if you have a successful PR team then PR will drive sales.  Shouldn’t that be the ultimate objective?  OK, say a company needs to reduce its spending.  I would argue that cutting PR wouldn’t be the best option.  Instead, it should be ensuring that the PR team is aligned with the company’s goals and that it’s doing everything to use PR to drive sales.  I know the argument there is that even if PR succeeded in getting traction in all the right places, spending could be down in target markets.  But this very much depends on the need of the product/service offered.  For instance, during a recession it makes sense to implement a customer relationship management (CRM) system that can help align, manage and make a sales force’s job easier.  If they can sell more easily, then the company can make money. 

Where does good PR come into play here?  Getting the right message out about how a product/service can impact business and who specifically it can help – especially during a recession.  (Obviously, this is the case for us in tech PR.)  Long story, short:  For us folks in tech PR, where the products we represent serve mission-critical business needs, we should be just fine.  For other folks out there, you may want to ensure that your PR objectives are in alignment with your clients’ ultimate business goals.

By Kate Corcoran