A PR Guru's Musings is now at www.stuartbruce.biz
http://20six.co.uk/stuartbruce
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Self Promotion
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PR elevator pitch
Like most good business people I've got an elevator pitch - a quick 60
second pitch that I can use to answer the question "So what do you
do?". But I'm not convinced that it's as good as it should be. I'm in
the communications business. I should be able to stun people with my 60
seconds in the lift (wouldn't it be nice if us Brits could use lift
pitch, but it just doesn't sound right).
The reason that it doesn't work as well as it could is because its more
important to listen to what people want than to just jump in and pitch
your wares. And you don't have time to do that in a lift.
One option is to bore people with the fact that we can provide clients
with a full range of public relations and marketing communications
services. Yes we do media relations, yes we do communications strategy,
yes we do print and design, yes we do business blogging consultancy,
yes we do newsletters and magazines. But so does every other PR
company. We think we are good. Hell, we know we are good. But so are
lots of other people.
Another option is to talk about the sectors we specialise in. We are
very good at technology PR, at professional services PR for solicitors
and accountants and at public sector PR for local authorites,
government departments and voluntary sector organisations. We're also
the bees knees when it comes to PR and marketing for small and medium
size businesses, or owner managed and family businesses. But other PR
companies are good at those sectors as well.
Yet another option is to say that we provide solutions to business
problems. For some clients it's about helping to increase sales, for
others it's helping them to recruit. Others have a lousy reputation in
their local community and need help to fix it (we usually start by
telling them they've got improve how they behave). But other PR
companies do that as well. Not as many, because there are people out
there who have big teams they need to pay for and their 'consultancy'
will be to sell you services you don't actually need.
One thing that does set us apart is that we only want to work with
people we like. It's simple really. If we like you and believe in you
and your company then we will do a much better job on your behalf. That
makes us happy and it makes you happy.
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New graphic on the blog
We recently had some new photographs done (I've been doing a number of
press interviews recently and the last time we had professional photos
done was about three or four years ago).
I've also taken the opportunity to refresh the photo on the blog. At the same time I've given more prominence to Stuart Bruce,
my name, and less to Bruce Marshall Associates, the company name. The
problem with the new company name is that everyone thinks my name is
Bruce Marshall! For the record it isn't. The company name comes from
the two founding partners Stuart Bruce and Karen Marshall.
Sorry for the very dull post, but hopefully it will help to clear up the confusion.
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Property Week - Building blogs
Property Week has an article about the Newhomeblogs.co.uk in which I am quoted. It's paid subscription only but you can sign up for a free trial.
My quotes were:
Stuart Bruce, a blogging expert at technology consultant Bruce
Marshall Associates, says the message sent out by a sponsored site is
mixed. ‘It is a moneyspinner and I think many original bloggers would
say that this goes against the grain,’ he says. ‘But whether they like
it or not, over the last 12 months blogs have taken off and have become
mainstream, particularly among US corporates, who see the potential of
presenting a more humane face. Even the vice-chair of General Motors is
blogging.’
Bruce believes it is very astute of a UK company to pick up and run with the idea.
And:
Bruce foresees a day when housebuilders use their own blogs to
replace the acrimonious atmosphere of public consultation, and only
well-organised groups get their say.
‘Blogs are an ideal way
for the public consultation that has become a central part of the
planning process,’ he says. ‘It is a fast way to float ideas and reveal
the changing dynamics of a scheme during the consultation stage. It
also means people can respond immediately.’
The other interesting fact to emerge from the article is that it
appears that David Wilson Homes understands the blogosphere better than
many companies and has been using the blog "to interact with its
customers".
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Missed this quote in The Guardian
Just found out that I was quoted in last week's Guardian in an article by Dominic Timms about Blog Relation's PR blog survey. My quote was:
"The PR who ignores blogs
is even a bigger fool than the those who think that blogs change
everything," said Bruce Marshall, the founder of UK technology PR
company Bruce Marshall Associates.
It sits alongside a quote from Neil Boom of Gresham PR who says:
"Why are blogs any
different from any other form of company pressure or mad crank? If
companies waste their time trying to deal with bloggers they will tie
themselves up in knots," said the Gresham PR chief, Neil Boom.
The problem with quotes taken out of context (The Guardian
lifted both of these from the survey without speaking to either of us)
is that you don't fully understand what people meant. I'm sure Neil
didn't just say that, as if he did then I think his clients will be
getting some seriously bad advice.
I stick to my belief that blogs are just another channel/medium that
need to be considered as part of an overall communications strategy.
For some companies they might form a big part of the strategy, for
others a tiny part. But you need to consider them, in order to make
that decision.
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PR Week - the future of news is (really) simple
The latest PR Week has an article about RSS. The author is David Murphy who interviewed me a couple of weeks ago.
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Labour Party conference
This week I'm at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton. I'll still be available by email if you need to contact me. Or drop me an email if you fancy meeting up at conference.
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Busy, busy, busy at Bruce Marshall Associates PR
It's a busy time for us at Bruce Marshall Associates PR at the moment. Some of the jobs that we've got on are:
> Preparing for an important new product launch for our client Softalk, a software company that specialises in messaging, collaboration and CRM software for small and medium size businesses.
> Just about to launch a brand new business blog for Softalk that will look at all of the issues that help small and medium size businesses work smarter and more intelligently.
> About to start work with a new client which is a small UK-based specialist manufacturing company that with our help is going to start blogging (from my meeting on Saturday). Official announcement soon, once the paperwork is complete.
> Working on a new business proposal for a company in New York that is launching a new web-based business in the UK.
> And finally our brand new podcast should be available later this week. The idea at the moment is that each episode will feature an interview with a prominent person relevant to people who are interested in PR and communications. The focus will be on UK businesses and the public sector, but will hopefully also be of interest to a wider audience.
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