Tag Archives: Michelle McIntyre

7 Steps to Help You Get to Know Business Press in a Post Pandemic World

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I help a variety of business journalists with their stories on a regular basis: I enjoy seeing these people at events, which are now mostly online, chatting with them daily at Twitter, and reading the interesting things that they write.

I subscribe to a lot of daily newsletters, such as Morning Brew, and check the Twitter feed often. Reporters are often smart and funny, so I enjoy my job.

Think you know how to do media relations? If you’ve been a publicist for more than five years like me, it’s important to refresh the way that you do things in this post pandemic world. Tip: We are now in an epidemic.

The PR profession has changed quite a bit since the pandemic hit: It’s five times harder to develop relationships now because there are very few in person meetings and conferences. Previously you’d run into a reporter a conference or party, or you’d hold a mixer, like a wine tasting, with journalists. That rarely happens anymore in the technology business world.

Here are seven things to do to develop better relationships with business press in modern times:

  1. Make the note short. I was advised in a media relations refresher class at Stanford Continuing Studies to make emailed pitches no longer than 250 words. The instructor a former San Francisco Chronicle reporter, was very good. This tip works.
  2. Personalize the pitch. Make it friendly to their time zone, location and topics they seem to really like covering. Consider a journalist as your client, not your client as your client. Read what they tweeted in the past hour. If you pretend that a journalist is paying you, you’ll treat them with more respect and in turn get better results.
  3. Write a compelling subject line. But don’t make it click bait. People don’t like being tricked. An example is, “The shocking news about Prince William” when it is about how he likes Nutella on his bread instead of the more appropriate and healthier avocado, not true probably, but I’m trying to make a point. Your mind jumped to, “The prince is having an affair.” Treat journalists with respect. They are people. Treat them the way you want to be treated.
  4. Always read a journalist’s Tweet or recent story first. Looking up their stories helps because sometimes you find out that they haven’t written in a couple of years and took a corporate job. Then don’t waste the outreach time, unless you want to network with a peer.
  5. Be brave but not annoying. A follow up by text or LinkedIn direct message might be needed. If you have hard news that you know is major, but the reporter hasn’t opened the email note yet, figure out a polite but direct way to get their attention.
  6. Be sensitive to COVID concerns when setting up meetings. Don’t push an in-person coffee meeting on someone who is more at risk for COVID. “Read the room” as the saying goes. I set up an in-person meeting with a reporter who tweeted, “I would like to meet c-suite executives in person” recently. Note that an online tip has less of a chance of getting canceled. A reporter or executive with breakthrough COVID might still attend the meeting.
  7. Don’t overpitch your favorite journalists. I need to keep reminding myself of this. I’ve heard two editors say that they like hearing from certain PR people no more than four times per year.  This one is hard to follow if you serve a large number of clients. I typically serve between two and five PR clients at any given time.

On a final note, use these tips for trade reporters as well. Trade reporters need to be treated with respect as well. Don’t save the “weak pitch” for the trades. Give them strong spokespersons and relevant news as well. Trade press cover business topics as well.  ###

Michelle McIntyre is a Silicon Valley-based PR consultant who helps startups and their VCs get valuable attention. Prior to that she was the West Coast PR manager for IBM. @fromMichelle on Twitter

The US Demographic is Fast Changing; 3 Tips on Reaching Ethnic Communities

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The demographics of my town of Saratoga, a quaint village nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains – and by the way close to Apple, Cisco, Intel and Netflix headquarters — switched from mostly white to Asian probably around 2018. According to 2019 Census data, Saratoga is 49 percent Asian and 43 percent white.

This data is important and educational. Marketers need to realize how big the ethnic communities are in the U.S. and utilize smart tactics for reaching them.

If someone wants to reach the diverse audience here in my Silicon Valley village, made up of affluent technology executives, engineers, software developers, doctors and lawyers, teachers, plumbers, retirees, stay-at-home dads and moms, singles with no kids, and families, it’s wise to also talk to ethnic media when they are pitching stories.

Here are three tips on smart media relations or “PR” outreach to these groups:

  1. Tailor messages to community values. Vietnamese values are not necessarily the same as Indian ones. By the same token, some are.
  2. Use a trusted spokesperson. A colleague was the one that reached out to Sing Tao Daily for a PR campaign recently. I handled the main Silicon Valley newspaper as well as the broadcast networks like ABC, Fox and CBS. When it comes to Sing Tao Daily, my associate speaks their language and two of the people she highlighted in the story pitch were Chinese. Her help was greatly valued.
  3. Offer a stipend to trusted journalists at multi-cultural outlets. Julian Do who drives ethnic media services for clients like Blue Cross gave a unique tip during a gathering of PR professionals in Clubhouse recently. He said these media outlets are hurting for money and giving financial help by way of stipends helps immensely. He said it works adding that it does not influence the story. He compared it to buying advertising.

A good rule of thumb no matter what community you are trying to reach is to give something to the group that its constituents want or need.

Journalists like stories about the people they serve: Their readers or viewers, e.g. if it’s broadcast, like to hear “like” examples. Instead of pitching your standard U.S. company press release on a new product to an ethnic media outlet like Telemundo TV, form a story pitch around an interesting Latinx person at your organization who has impacted the community in a positive way.

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Michelle McIntyre is an award-winning public relations consultant and IBM vet in the Silicon Valley. She’s @michelle408 in Clubhouse and @FromMichelle in Twitter. Some of these tips came from a PRSA-SV Clubhouse panel event.

85% of Jobs are Secured Via Networking: Here’s How to Do it Right

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As a public relations professional I am often asked about how to best network. Building relationships is part of my job so this is a sensible inquiry.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics concludes that 85 percent of jobs are filled by networking. This can apply to landing a consulting gig as well. If you are looking for work or have a spot on the client roster, remember the tip that many jobs are filled before or right when they are posted. That’s because of networking.

Today I attended a talk hosted by a group of PR professionals: Smart networking tips were discussed. The speaker was Robin Beaman, a PR agency owner who worked for the likes of Oprah Winfrey.

Here are a few networking tips from the talk:

Networking is true relationship-building. It’s making and maintaining a friendship. Think about how to treat a friend. Buddies are nice and supportive to one another through good times and bad.

Giving the other person what they want is part of networking. Yes, this says help someone else. Not all networking is about what the other person can do for you. It’s a two-way street.

Call and follow up. This is definitely true when setting up a job interview or PR agency introduction meeting. However, it can also be applied to networking. Ms. Beaman said that it was not a smooth one step process securing her PR advisor opportunity with Oprah Winfrey. She followed up several times.

Perseverance works. Have a can-do attitude when pursuing opportunities. Robin Beaman said she didn’t just get in touch and immediately get hired to work her PR magic at B.E.T and Oprah Winfrey’s company. It took the right mindset, accompanying hard work and a massive amount of follow up.

In summary, my advice is that attitude plays the biggest role in landing a work opportunity. When you set your mind to doing something and hyper focus on that goal you have a higher likelihood of achieving it.

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Michelle McIntyre is a self-proclaimed Silicon Valley PR Diva, IBM PR vet, and syndicated blogger. She’s achieved 11 awards for outstanding media relations results. Follow her on Twitter @FromMichelle. @PRSASV hosted the event featuring Robin Beaman.

What’s Important To People During This Time of Uncertainty? Community, Gaming, and More

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Many people who took a recent survey say a sense of tribe or community is important right now.

Andrea “Andy” Coville, CEO of public relations firm Brodeur Partners, author, and the guest speaker on today’s PRSA-SV Friday Forum, conveyed findings from a survey of around 2,500 U.S. citizens from Gen Z to Boomers about what’s important to them. 

She offered a few summaries like be authentic and a trusted source of information.

Furthermore when you are posting to social media, Coville added, convey information that people tend to agree upon. For example, no one will complain about a picture of your dog. She also said that sustainability is a smart topic to discuss.

I’ll add that there’s no doubt that a quality PR professional can advise in this regard. By the way I worked with Brodeur when I was in a corporate PR department.

Here are 13 points I found most interesting:

  1. A sense of community is very important. Feeling part of a tribe or community is key.
  2. It’s harder to change people’s perceptions right now.
  3. Society overall cares a lot about kindness, honesty and optimism.
  4. Many are discussing new career directions. It looks like Boomers are the least likely to have done this in 2020 though. People are questioning their values right now.
  5. If you are at a nonprofit and asking people for money, keep in mind that people are preoccupied with saving right now. They are giving, e.g. to colleges, which was the fourth top area of giving.
  6. Mentoring is a good gift to give. People will give you a lot of time right now, e.g. as opposed to 2014.
  7. Reliable information is hard to obtain.
  8. Gen Z folks, e.g. a 20 year old, share opinions and news partially to show that they align with a certain group.
  9. Millennials and Gen Xers share information more as a way to call someone out on a bad opinion.
  10. “Food and drink” is the top consumer category that people are loyal to right now.
  11. People tend to hang out with those who share their views. Why join a tribe or group? Friendship was cited as the top reason by 51%.
  12. Attitudes towards and at businesses have changed. This is happening in a bigger way in government, healthcare, branding and diversity and inclusion.
  13. There’s a rise in gaming among millennials, especially females. This was mentioned several times.

Andy Coville summarized her presentation by saying she looks forward to seeing a return to fun in branding. So do I, Andy. So do I.

Andrea Coville photo: WE Magazine

Community photo credit: Canva

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Michelle McIntyre who authored this story is a global technology PR consultant, IBM vet and the volunteer media relations lead for the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council of Boy Scouts of America which now includes females: They recently celebrated their first female Eagle Scouts. @FromMichelle on Twitter Also follow @prsasv 

Crowdfunding Secrets Indiegogo and Kickstarter May not Divulge

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By Michelle McIntyre

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I recently met an entrepreneur named Kitae Kwon who had raised $84,000 three years ago on Kickstarter for his unique docking station called Landing Zone.

This is pretty amazing considering the average amount raised is around $5,000.

There are some other exceptions.

Scanadu, maker of the super cool Scandadu Scout personal health monitoring device, raised more than $1.6 million using Indiegogo.

If you are not that familiar with the concept, here is the definition:
Crowd funding or crowdfunding (alternately crowd financing, equity crowdfunding, or hyper funding) describes the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their resources, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. Crowd funding is used in support of a wide variety of activities, including disaster relief, citizen journalism, support of artists by fans, political campaigns, startup company funding, movie or free software development, and scientific research. (Source: Mashable.com)

From a technology perspective, usually people who sign up to use the crowdfunding services of say a Kickstarter or Indiegogo ask for monetary donations, not for equity in the company, and in return, send donors a gift. It’s usually their product.

It’s nice because it forces the founder to get his or her marketing act together. This could mean getting professional photos and videos made or simply writing sales messages.

It could also mean a slew of new customers, if the donor gift is in fact the product.

The third benefit is that it’s organized way for friends, families and of course, new contacts to donate to your company.

Crowdfunding typically works better for B2C products by the way. B2B’s should probably just tap angel investor friends directly for funds.
There are some downsides though. Kitae Kwon says watch out for people who make your product look bad by posting terrible reviews which can often be fake. For example, someone posts a negative review before actually receiving the product.

Kwon said they probably come from competitors or random people who just like to write bad reviews.

He added that you have to be strong and confident when crowdfunding. If it doesn’t go as planned, your company could still be successful. Sometimes the campaign was just not planned or executed well.

Additionally, said Kwon, you could have a successful crowdfunding campaign but the product fails.

The net is, says Kwon, don’t let the campaign define your startup’s future.

However, Kwon adds, there are many crowdfunding benefits. For example, when people donate to get your product as a gift, it shows a bigger prospective investor, like a venture capitalist it is in demand.

Since he raised $84,000 for his docking station for the Apple Macbook Air, which is 10 times the average amount raised, Kwon must have had a huge demand.

For more unique crowdfunding examples, check out this story on the website Hooked on Social Networking. For information about Kwon’s company Landing Zone, visit: http://landingzone.net/
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Michelle McIntyre is the president of MMC high tech PR, on the TEDxSanJoseCA executive team, and director of marketing communications for SVIABC. Follow her on Twitter at @FromMichelle  [Photo credit: iStockPhoto.com.]

 

What Prospective Employers Find Out about You on Social Media

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According to a story, “Should Companies Monitor Their Employees’ Social Media?” in the May 12, 2014 edition of The Wall Street Journal, job candidates need to beware that prospective employers are tracking their social media networks to get a glimpse of what they are like.

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The story covered results of a survey sponsored by Careerbuilder.com.

Although the article doesn’t refer to consultant candidates, there is no doubt they use similar research methods to check them out as well.

Here are the sites that employers are using to research candidates:
Facebook: 65%
LinkedIn: 63%
Twitter: 16%

Here’s what employers look for when they research a candidate using social media:
To see if the candidate presents himself/herself professionally: 65%
To see if the prospect is a good fit for company culture: 51%
To learn more about the candidate’s qualifications: 45%
To see if he or she is well-rounded: 35%
To look for reasons not to hire the candidate: 12%

Not surprisingly, here is what survey responders said hurt candidates:
Candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photos or info: 50%
Got a good feel for candidates personality: 50%
Candidates showed a wide array of interests: 50%
Background supported professional qualifications: 49%
Evidence of creativity: 46%
Excellent communication skills: 43%
Great references: 38%

Prospective employers need to be careful as well. The story says that these searches put the employers at liability. The story says that “An employer who learns than an applicant is gay, Moslem, disabled, or over 40 years old, and then hires someone else may face discrimination charges.”

To read the entire article, visit wsj.com.  The most interesting stats are on page R2 of the print edition.

If you haven’t bought a hard copy of The Wall Street Journal lately, pick up a copy at Starbucks or at a neighborhood store. It’s nice to read an actual “print edition” newspaper every once in a while.Of course you could also subscribe and get it at home or at the office.

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Michelle McIntyre is president of Michelle McIntyre Communications LLC, on the executive team of TEDxSanJoseCA, and director of communications for SVIABC. She’s @FromMichelle on Twitter.

Software Experts Advise Startup CEOs to Build those Ecosystems

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Facebook recently announced it was buying WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion. WhatsApp is valuable because it has 450 million users and is adding one million new ones per day according to the company.

The app allows people to send each other text and photo messages via the Internet, and will help Facebook grow stronger in the mobile market. A Time article described the deal as “epic” due to the humongous price paid.

Many billion dollar companies have blossomed recently because their apps have been adopted by a huge amount of people.  

And when an app becomes very popular, it can turn into a platform. Facebook, Salesforce.com and Twitter are all platform companies. Other companies make apps that work with them, making them even more popular and innovative.

Developing, building the ecosystem for and monetizing apps and platforms were topics discussed at the SVForum event “Apps to Platforms” Thursday, February 20th, at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose.

About 150 people made up mostly software start-up founders and developer relations executives from large companies like Dell, IBM, Google and Microsoft, and a few consultants like me attended.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed gave the opening remarks, stating more than once that San Jose is the capital of the Silicon Valley. To me, the Silicon Valley is mostly the South Bay and San Jose is the largest city here so I agree with him. Sorry, San Francisco.

Here are some of the other comments from the panelist and keynote speakers.

In the first panel, Adrian Cockcroft, technical fellow, Battery Ventures and Netflix’s former cloud architect said, “There are three questions to ask when developing a killer app. They are, ‘Is it easy to use? How will it spread, and how do you monetize it?’”

Randy Heffner, vice president, Forrester Research says that the granddaddy of APIs, which are tools that help the software programs talk to eachother, Amazon.com took off because it opened its API to mom and pop and boutique websites and blogs. He emphasized the link between APIs and the concept of the internet of things, or how many automated things in our lives are connected.

However, Heidi Williams, director of platform engineering at Box, cautioned, “If you give people all the control in the world, it can lock you in later.” She added that Box’s platform strategy is to build, distribute and monetize.

Saad Khan, Partner, CMEA Capital, who started as an intern at IBM alphaWorks team in the late 90s when I was also working at Big Blue, elaborated on the importance of connecting the software dots. “We’re going to an automated world where everything is modular and connected,” said Khan.

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Another keynote speaker stressed the importance of ecosystem in creating innovation. “A platform is a lot more powerful when you can get someone else to build it,” added Matt Thompson, general manager, developers and platforms, Microsoft.

John Wolport, IBM’s Seeker of Awesomeness (his actual title), and creator of its unique Extreme Blue internal incubator program says that a company like Big Blue adds integrity and helps with partner engagement.

ImageAn audience member asked him, “How can start-up founders and big company workers get along? Their situations are so different.”

Wolport said that there are a lot of entrepreneurs within IBM they are not so different after all.

John Sheehan, CEO, Runscope, stressed the importance of platforms saying simply, “They bring you an audience.” Sheehan used to work for Twilio, which started as platform which is uncommon.

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SVForum is an organization that fosters networking and best practices among members of the technology startup community. The group recently moved its office to San Jose from the North Bay. Its new CEO is Ms. Adiba Barney. @SVForum on Twitter.

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Michelle McIntyre is a public relations consultant, executive member of TEDxSanJoseCA, director with the Silicon Valley International Association of Business Communicators, and an IBM vet. @FromMichelle on Twitter

The photos were taken by Michelle McIntyre. They are of, in this order, Saad Khan, Partner, CMEA Capital; John Wolport of IBM; and project managers at the uTest booth.

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Rock Stars on the Next Big Thing in Technology

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On Monday January 27, three seasoned entrepreneur rock stars manned the panel chairs at an SVForum event at IBM in Foster City, Calif., giving several dozen early stage start-up founders advice on the dos and don’ts of successfully getting their tech businesses off the ground.
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The event “The New Venture in 2014 – Choosing the Right Idea, Building the Team, and Getting the Venture Started” was moderated by John Lee, vice president, Silicon Valley Bank.
 
The software-savvy panel included Spreecast CEO and founder of StubHub Jeff Fluhr, Couchbase CEO Bob Wiederhold who was at the helm of Transitive when it was sold to IBM, and Ullas Naik, founder of Streamlined Ventures. Naik is a seed stage angel investor whose various firms have backed 200 technology start-ups. Fifty are currently active investments.
 
The three generally agreed that Silicon Valley is the best place to start a technology company because it’s so entrepreneur-friendly.
 
“The technology ecosystem is robust in the Silicon Valley. Your management team should be based here. The way to think about it is if you want to make movies, you move to Los Angeles, not St. Louis,” said Naik.
 
They also said to choose a co-founder whom you know well and that a company’s strategic advisors should receive some sort of equity in order to be truly useful and not just a bunch of impressive names and photos on the website.
 
The panelists had strong opinions on recruiting co-founders. Fluhr said that he founded StubHub with a former Stanford B-school classmate. He added, “It is best if you have known someone a long time, so choose a friend you have worked with before or know from school.” 
 
Naik said, “I typically don’t invest in companies that have related co-founders, for example brothers or husband and wife. I also don’t like to invest in solo founders. There is too much to do. Co-founders who have just met three months ago are also red flag.”
 
He admitted that there are exceptions to the rule, for example, Cisco was founded by a husband and wife team. 
 
An audience member asked the panelists to comment on the next big thing in technology.

Jeff Fluhr said Bitcoin, the alternative form of currency was intriguing.
 
Database company CEO Bob Wiederhold said Big Data and the Internet of Things are important in his market and driving a lot of investments.
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Ullas Naik added that data and what people are doing with it as well as wearables are the next big things in technology. Naik also said, “I believe that an alternative form of currency will be big, but not Bitcoin.”
 
If you are interested in getting more hot tips from top technology company founders and investors, SVForum invites you to attend the APPs to Platforms event in in San Jose, Calif., on Feb. 20. Register at svforum.org. The all-day event is priced at under $200.
 
Follow SVForum on Twitter @SVForum.
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Michelle McIntyre is a tech PR consultant with 10 awards for outstanding results at top PR agencies and Fortune 500 companies. She’s a director with Silicon Valley International Association of Business Communicators and on the executive team at TEDxSanJoseCa. She’s @FromMichelle on Twitter
 

Photo 1: Jeff Fluhr
Photo 2: Bob Wiederhold

Do You Charge for an e-Book?

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By Michelle McIntyre

Oakland-based business coach for midlife entrepreneurs, Dina Eisenberg recently spoke to my Women in Consulting (WIC) group in Los Gatos last week about how to kick start an information product or “infoproduct” business.

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An information product is any product or service that you can sell to people to provide them with information. It includes e-books, books, audios, CDs, DVDs, seminars, videos, tele-seminars and more.

Because the event description mentioned her law degree and creating a “passive income,” I was expecting tips on self-employed (S.E.) IRAs and 401Ks. I had just set up a S.E. 401K so I figured it will probably be redundant to what I already just learned after spending hours with a Fidelity representative to set up my own plan. I went to the meeting anyway for the networking. 

 I was pleasantly surprised when Eisenberg started talking though.  

What it was really about was creating sustainable income to make, what Eisenberg calls “a cushion for life’s bumps.”  Consultants and entrepreneurs who are typically actively involved in delivering their service benefit from creating passive income streams that work, even when they cannot.

A self-proclaimed “information product junkie,” Eisenberg has also produced a range of products from online courses to retreats and subscription programs.

She said she it all started when her husband, whom she considers a successful entrepreneur just like herself, went on disability for two years due to a medical issue that has since mostly gone away. He was her fiancé at the time.

She shared her tactics with the consultants, many of whom had created their own infoproducts. Several consultants had their products on hand and the talk turned into a brainstorm and information share of sorts instead of just a presentation.

Two of her messages stuck in my mind.

First, start charging!  Yes, the internet is awash in free material however, people will pay for the exact right product that solves their specific problem at that time. Don’t assume you have to start with free.

Second, ask first.  The difference between a profitable infoproduct and one that flops is research.  Search Linkedin threads and comments for a wealth of topic ideas for your information product.

To learn more about Dina Eisenberg, visit her website at http://infoproductdoctor.com/.

Here are related Twitter handles.

WIC: @WIConsult

Dina Eisenberg: @DinaEisenberg

The author of this post: @FromMichelle


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Michelle McIntyre is a blogger and high tech PR consultant based in Saratoga, Calif. She’s also the director of marketing communications for the Silicon Valley International Association of Business Communicators and on the executive team for TEDxSanJoseCA.

 

15 Tips to Become a more Effective Entrepreneur

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by Michelle McIntyre

 

Late last year, my Silicon Valley entrepreneur meet-up group gathered for a breakfast networking session. During the event, participants shared answers to two questions posed by Host Sean Murphy.

 

 

 

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He asked, “What have you learned in 2013 that will make you more effective as an entrepreneur in 2014?” He added, “What will you stop doing to make time for it?”

 

There was a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge in the room and I found the 15 tips quite valuable. Here they are.

 

1. Be more patient.
2. Fail faster.
3. Focus early on value proposition, less on technical implementation.
4. Drop less important details.
5. Hire more carefully. Fire faster.
6. Stop coding so much. Spend more time on sales. (Several attendees were software developers.)
7. Delegate more and more effectively.
8. Always build a simpler product than you first dreamed of.
9. Network more. Listen more.
10. Take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
11. Plan more. It’s really hard to recover wasted hours.
12. Take more time to listen.
13. More focus on time management and effective action.
14. Concentrate on one line of business. Focus for effect.
15. Build on strengths.

 

Thank you, Sean Murphy, for sharing your meeting notes with me for this article.

 

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Michelle McIntyre, a high tech press relations consultant in Saratoga, Calif., is on the executive team of TEDxSanJoseCA and the director of marketing communications for the Silicon Valley International Association of Business Communicators.