What do PR agencies bring to the table for AR?

At the inaugural meeting a couple weeks ago of what is hoped to become the Silicon Valley chapter of the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR, website, blog), I ran into Anne-miek Hamelinck, VP of Waggener Edstrom’s AR practice. I asked Anne-miek what she thought PR agencies brought to the table in terms of AR. Here is her answer.

How serious is the PR pro at an agency about AR? Check the Twitter follows.

In Killer questions to ask PR agencies to see if they are AR pretenders or contenders, we provided a technique to help determine whether a PR agency that is bidding for a vendor’s analyst relations (AR) business truly understands the analysts and AR. There might be another technique that could potentially – but only potentially – provide another interesting insight into the dedication to real AR. 

      Do they follow more analysts and AR than media and PR on Twitter?

This is only a potentially interesting insight because adoption of Twitter by analysts and AR professionals is still at a nascent stage. If an agency staff member is not following many analysts and AR pros on Twitter it could mean

Do you really want PR to own social media for your company?

Interesting post by Jason Falls on his Social Media Explorer blog: Social Media Is The Responsibility Of Public Relations.

Oh, really?

SageCircle believes that PR and AR – and other outbound communications functions – have different goals and techniques and each needs to address their tactics to their unique audiences.  This means that AR needs to voice its opinion and support its own needs regarding company policies.

While there is plenty to debate on this issue (e.g., Where does Social Media live in the organization?), the purpose of this post is to encourage analyst relations (AR) teams be active participants in internal discussions about the role of social media in their companies.

SageCircle Technique: 

• Educate yourself about social media
• Determine what role social media will play in AR activities in the near and

How closely does AR, PR and Sales have to coordinate?

Here is an interesting comment (click to enlarge) that might portend a problem for technology vendors in the near future:

This reminds me of the discussions in the mid-90′s around the then nascent market category of customer relattionship management (CRM). One of the perceived benefits of CRM was that it would provide companies a single view of the customer that would make life easier for the customer and provide business value to the company. But there was also huge disagreements over who would “own” the customer: customer service, marketing or sales.

Today, people are starting to play multiple roles as customers, influencers, collaborators and

Killer questions to ask PR agencies to see if they are AR pretenders or contenders

There are many drawbacks to using PR agencies to conduct analyst relations – not the least that most analysts hate dealing with agency staff.  Sometimes, however, communications and IT vendors have no choice but to farm out some analyst-related activities. To minimize the chance of agency staff causing problems with the analysts, vendors need to carefully evaluate whether or not a PR agency is actually competent in analyst relations before hiring them.

A technique SageCircle has developed is asking a series of questions in the form of scenarios about AR situations. The responses to the scenarios can then be graded for compliance with AR best practices and insights as to how the analysts work. As always, it is important to weight the questions because some will be more important than others. In addition, it is critical that a standard evaluation framework be established so that responses from different agencies will be graded consistently.

The killer questions should not just be asked of the agency’s senior executive that is trying to win the business, but also the staff that will actually be doing the work.  Reluctance by the agency to introduce you to the staff should raise red flags about the breadth and depth of AR expertise in the firm.

The first killer question to ask the PR agency rainmaker and staff is

An analyst has some advice for PR agencies

Redmonk’s Stephen O’Grady in Bad PR – The Bane of My Existence: Seven Suggestions for PR Workers has some practical advice for PR professionals at agencies. Here are his seven suggestions (details in the post):

1. Analysts Are Not Press: Don’t Treat Them as if They Are
2. Caller ID Works: Don’t Just Keep Calling, and Calling, and Calling
3. Personalization: Don’t Address Your Notes “Dear Blogger”
4. Press Releases: Don’t Use it as

Why AR is more important than PR for a Startup [Startup Saturday]

Research by SageCircle, H&K (in multiple Technology Influencer Studies conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates), Lighthouse AR and other AR advisory groups has consistently shown that the most significant influence on purchases is peer recommendation and personal contacts.  Second is industry analyst opinion, which leads all other influence including advertising and PR.  For a startup attempting to break into an existing market or carve out a new market space this is critical information.

For a startup, traditional PR is certainly important and should not be ignored, but allocation of resources to AR can provide a higher ROI.  Press is very transient and even an outstanding article or mention does not have staying power over the long run if it gets buried in the clutter of a Google search.  Analyst reports have a much longer shelf life and may be referred to months after they are published as a relevant research note is more likely to surface during a research search on the analyst firm website.  Good research consumers will then contact the analyst firm for an update or discuss the report during an inquiry.

Industry analysts also convey information at industry events, act as sources for reporters, and can even have influence on Wall Street.  It is therefore critical that they are

Does H&K hiring Peggy O’Neill change the agency competitive landscape? Potentially very much.

When H&K’s Josh Reynolds announced at the AR meeting at Gartner US Spring Symposium that he had hired Peggy O’Neill, Oracle’s VP of AR, a lot of us in the industry went “Wow!” Wow because Peggy was leaving one to the top AR jobs to join an agency and wow because H&K had just grabbed a heavy hitter to add to already strong AR story. But does this hire really make a difference in the grand scheme of things? SageCircle believes it does.

Frankly, PR agencies in general do not have a great reputation for best-in-class AR. The analysts dislike the typical agency PR professional doing AR because they are not analyst centric.  Unfortunately most PR staff treat the analysts like reporters. For example, analysts loathe that PR pros spam them with requests outside of their coverage area. Ugh. On the vendor side, AR managers look at PR agencies as necessary evils because

Why reporters call the wrong analysts

How many times have you seen an analyst quote in the press and wondered “well why did the reporter contact that analyst” or “if that reporter had contacted someone familiar with us we would have been more favorably mentioned”?

Reporters use a variety of sources to gain content for their articles and frequently quote analysts to add credibility to their data, observations, or opinions. Sometimes it seems that some publications have a policy that each article contain at least one industry analyst quote. In some cases the analyst is named, while at other times the reference might be “a leading analyst from <firm name>” or “according to <firm name> analysts.

Unlike quotes in your press releases you have little control over these analyst quotes.  Or do you?  If you are working closely with

“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

This oft-attributed quote to Mark Twain might sum up how the Motorola AR teams feels about a quote by an analyst in Motorola CMO out: Tried to save Razr, got cut saying that the entire AR team has left Motorola. “Wow!” I thought, “That is absolutely amazing!” Just to double check, I dropped the Motorola AR folks an e-mail. The response was quick and no, the AR team was still there. I’m sure the analyst is now thinking “Oops!” More importantly, I hope the reporter is a little red faced as well.  

For PR — Analysts can be a great sounding board for your PR campaigns

A good PR campaign consumes significant resources in time, money, and creative energy.  With today’s limited resources it makes a lot of sense to test out a campaign early in the process to ensure that it will meet its goals.

Analysts have a unique ear to the market, your customers, and your competitors.  They have seen the hype, FUD, programs, practices and other campaigns that work and those that fail. Frequently they have strong relationships with the press as go-to resources for quotes and story background.  Given a strong personal relationship with your AR managers they can

For PR… Why PR and AR need strong collaboration

How often have you been part of this vignette? The scene: PR manager strolls into the AR manager’s cubicle.
 
PR manager: “Howdy. Can you get me an analyst quote on this topic for my press release? Oh, and an analyst that can act as a press reference would be great as well.”
AR manager: “Sure, shouldn’t be a problem. When do you need it by?”