Before You Hire a Technology PR or Social Media Consultant...
So you've got your budget in place, lots of new initiatives under way and your company is ready to top the charts with news and buzz.
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That's all fine and good, but you gotta have more than that.
You have to have an internal resource - often not the VP of Marketing who can be a go to person who can take ownership of the client / agency relationship.
Years ago, PR was pretty much handled by a VP of Marketing or the Director of Marketing Communications. We developed communications strategies, wrote traditional press releases, did outreach to the media and industry analysts and it all worked very well.
Now, with Social Media, the team and the nature of what we do has expanded.
There is a shift to voices - and having multiple voices in a company. Often times, it's in real time. The voice of my clients are found on blogs, conversations on other blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and yes, in industry analyst reports and traditional media.
Before you move forward, it's important to make sure that if I call on an internal resource for product information, technology clarification, input on messaging, availability to be interviewed, or integration with your IT department for social media initiatives, everyone on the team has buy-in and is willing to make the time to integrate strategic PR and Social Communications into the mix.
Photo by Alan Weinkrantz shot while walking the streets of NYC. Share but please credit.
