In the midst of PageOne Public Relations' Chantal Yang's juicy juxtaposition of JBoss and its public relations (non)strategy, I found this comment hugely important:
JBoss always put the community first. Under the open source mantra of "release early, release often," JBoss developers didn't wait for sign off from PR to release code, announce it on community mailing lists, and blog about it. This was initially a major headache for PR...
The PR team initially tried to control this, but communities don't work this way. Traditional PR often focuses on controlling the flow of information when it should focus on the content itself, regardless of whether it is delivered through press releases, interviews, blog posts, podcasts, or presentations. (Emphasis mine)
JBoss' voice worked because it was authentic. Sometimes that came through in JBoss founder Marc Fleury's brash style, but often it was as Yang suggests: content first, process later. Good PR seeks to create a marketing message but also to harness a company's existing messaging.
In my own work, I never ask Alfresco's PR team what I should write about, though sometimes our PR firm likes what I write and tries to build a media outreach campaign based on themes I've already noted in my blog. No matter how many times you think you've said something, most people haven't heard the message yet, so there's always ample room to expand the communication channels, even with the same message.
JBoss worked because the company and its community wrote excellent code and talked about it in authentic, compelling ways. A strong PR team can help to complement this. Just be sure that PR complements, rather than controls, your message.
Follow me on Twitter at mjasay.
After a few years of running a conference and blogging, it always surprises me how limp public relations is for most companies.
Good PR is the lifeblood of companies, particularly in an economy in which IT spending has lulled, yet most companies underinvest in PR. And most others do it poorly.
The cardinal rule of good PR is to bring real value to the conference or publication you're soliciting--not to primarily seek value for yourself. I get pitched infomercials all day, every day, from PR "professionals" that clearly haven't taken the time to read a thing I've written. Sending a canned press release focused on a proprietary (or open-source) product update to a blogger interested in open-source business strategies is an exercise in futility. I simply don't care.
I'm not alone. Most journalists are looking for stories. A press release is not a story. Taking a little bit of extra time to add context to a product release, for example, can go a long way.
Who cares if Hyperic came out with version X of its product? I know I don't, and I like the company. I start to care when it's positioned as "10 percent of the cost for equal or better functionality." I care even more when I hear how Company XYZ used Vendor XYZ to save money, drive productivity, etc.
That's the blogger side of me. The other side, the conference organizer, is the same. I want to have the Open Source Business Conference address cutting-edge issues in open-source business. I'm looking for macro issues, not micro issues, which means that I want to hear how industries are being shaken, not how one vendor does gee-whiz whatever for its customers.
It's easier to do this sort of PR when you have taken the time to build a relationship with the writer or conference organizer that is relevant to your business. That way, you don't have to throw press releases over the wall, praying that it's a slow news day and the journalist will regurgitate your press release.
When you take the time to build a relationship, you can look for ways to push bite-size information into stories they're already writing, and influence the direction of future articles (or conference sessions).
In other words, you have to earn your retainer. Good PR isn't magic, but it can be magical. It just requires a lot of work to ensure that it gets done well.
My own employer's PR firm, Lois Paul, does a good job of this, as does Page One PR. Both work hard on cultivating long-term relationship with journalists and bloggers. It's not easy, but it's also the best way to ensure PR doesn't become infomercials. Yes, journalists hate those, too.
Follow me on Twitter at mjasay.
Yes, the Microsoft "Vista Capable" emails demonstrate a fair amount of bungling within Redmond of the Vista product launch, but they're far more interesting in what they reveal about Microsoft's involvement with reporters and analysts, as TechFlash's Todd Bishop reveals.
Microsoft worried about (and sought to immediately address) the media's fascination with Apple, tried to guide coverage of Vista, and pushed to ensure that analysts felt Microsoft's confidence in Vista.
For example, the summary of Microsoft's meeting with several Gartner analysts in October of 2006 is fascinating, and made more so by Jamin Spitzer, group manager of Worldwide Analyst Relations at Microsoft, who suggests that two objectives of the meeting with Gartner were to create "confidence in the Vista product, OEM/Retail channel, and device/app compatibility," as well as "provide Gartner 'wiggle room'."
Though Spitzer never indicates what he means by "wiggle room," presumably he was hoping to give Gartner room to write a positive review of Vista, despite its problems. In 2005, Gartner suggested that enterprises could take a pass on Vista until 2008. Apparently, the "wiggle room" didn't work, as Gartner continued to advocate holding onto XP rather than going with "Vista Capable," as Vista would not be "all that easy to roll out" and declaring that it simply wasn't ready for prime time.
Strike one for Microsoft.
Microsoft, however, fared much better with Rob Guth, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Sometimes accused of having a pro-Microsoft bias (but one that actually does his homework, regardless), Guth wanted to talk with Microsoft about Windows. The company agreed in order to provide "balance," as Tom Pilla, director of Public Relations, wrote to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in November 2006:
... Read More- prev
- 1
- next
