This document discusses the shift from traditional public relations (PR) to social communications. It emphasizes that companies should think of themselves as media companies that create and share content. It encourages integrating social media and other online platforms into marketing strategies to build communities and visibility. Companies are advised to populate content widely and think of PR and social communications as complementary, rather than seeing one as replacing the other.

1. STORY TELLING / SOCIAL
COMMUNICATIONS
Israel Startup Network
Tel Aviv- 7 April, 2011

2. PURPOSE
• Help
you take inventory of what you are doing in PR / Social
Communications
• Possibly
realign your communications priorities depending on
where you are in the life cycle of your company
• Provideperspective from someone who works with Israeli
companies and understands the communications & budgetary
challenges you might face

3. ABOUT...
• PR guy for 25 years
working with Israeli high
• “Social Media” for 7 years tech companies for 17
years
• Blogger
• Content Producer

4. ABOUT
focus has been on...
• Fabless semiconductors
• Telecom
Message / Story
• Networking Reach
• Security
• Enterprise Software

5. ISRAEL BASED
CLIENTS SERVED
• Accent Software • Finjan
• Allot Communications • Jungo
• AudioCodes • N-trig
• CopperGate • Promisec
• Iris Antivirus • Shopping.com (DealTime)
• Envara • Xacct (and others....)

6. REACH
• Reach has traditionally been focused at the media and industry
analysts
• Content produced by the Marcom team
• Shift to bloggers
• Then... shift to the social web (not social media)

7. SOCIAL WEB
• Many content producers
• Connecting with disparate ecosystems
• Often time, integrating a personal brand

8. TYPICAL PR MINDSET
• We’re an OEM.... there’s only 35 companies in the world we are
going after and we know them all... why do we need PR?
• Our strategic partners / distributors around the world will take
care of this for us.
• We don’t have a budget for PR - we invest in R&D / Engineering
• How do you measure this?
• We have someone internal who can do this for us

9. SOCIAL MEDIA MINDSET
• Social Media is too time consuming, impossible to measure
• We don’t have the bandwidth
• This is something my kids do on Facebook
• We’re a medical device company and have to be serious about
this.
• Being on twitter is not a fit for what we do

10. PR
• Still matters in the traditional sense but is changing
• helps you develop your voice
• keep a consistent message
• gaincredibility through external validation of media and analyst
coverage

11. PR
• You may not even need a U.S. based PR firm; Israel has a large
number of very good Marcom service providers - consider
blended services to get the best from the U.S. (and other
countries) and save money on other services like writing
• Ifyou read and study the media, follow the editorial calendars, etc
you want to be in, you can do some of the outreach yourself
• The assumption your Agency has “contacts” is bullshit
• Great content, a sustained presence, and having a voice will help
you be found and build your credibility

12. THE SHIFT...
• Towards a blend PR and Social Communications....

13. YOU ARE NOW A MEDIA
COMPANY
• Content creator
• Story teller
• Community builder / ecosystem developer
• Aimed at being found, discovered and shared by media, analysts
and for business development
everyone in your company should think and act like a journalist

14. BUILD A BODY OF WORK
• Makes it easier to sell your story
• Enables your content to be re-purposed
• Increasesyour chances of being found when journalists / analysts
are doing research about your space
• Improves SEO

15. static
Web site Press Releases
Media
Outreach Trade Show
Booth
Brochures Analyst Briefings

16. active

17. Go Wide. Go Deep. Integrate.
Team Company Technology
Members
Blog News
Twitter
LinkedIn Delicious Article submissions
Facebook Slideshare Commenting
Docstoc
YouTube
etc....

18. ALAN’S BELIEF SETS
• Think of your business as media company that makes, sells,
builds.....
• Populate content widely and open / social platforms
• Stop
worrying about SEO. Use common sense and write /
produce great content
• Define your own metrics. What it’s important to measure for
your company is different from another

19. BELIEF SETS - CONT’D
• Findsomeone not in marketing / pr who is personally active on
social networks and have them pitch in on this initiative
• Initiate
programs that enable product managers / key team
members to build their own personal brands
• Develop marketing programs that are based on your team
leaders’ personal likes and passions
• Consider blended services where you team your U.S. agency with
Israel-based service providers as way to save on fees

20. Examples:

31. PR VS. SOCIAL
COMMUNICATIONS
• PR reaches the media - you: to media: to many
• Social
Communications reaches your network that is relayed
through other people’s networks - you: to others’ relayed
networks
• One is not a substitute for the other
• PR brings the strategy and discipline.
• Social Communication brings humanity and genuine voice

32. GOOD EXAMPLES
• www.socialmedia.cisco.com
• www.intel.com/sites/sitewide/en_us/social-media.htm
• www.scobleizer.com / www.rackspace.com

33. READING
• Curation Nation by Steve Rosenbaum
• Content Rules by Ann Handley & CC Chapman
• Trust Agents by Chris Brogan & Julien Smith
• Clue Train
Manifesto - 10th Year Anniversary Edition by Chris
Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger, Rick Levine

34. FINALLY
• Social Communications....
• promotes humanization of brands
• allows for random, being discovered and found
• depending on how you apply it, can be used in R&D, market
research, customer support, and discovery

35. PRESENTATION
• Online today at: www.alanweinkrantz.com
• copy and share with others
• these are my belief sets
• yourmileage will vary depending how of much you do and how
long you can sustain.

36. AND...
• Be aware of cultural differences and acceptance of taking part in
this approach

37. CONTACT
• Alan Weinkrantz
• alan@weinkrantz.com
• @alanweinkrantz
• facebook.com/alanweinkrantz
• linkedin.com/in/alanweinkrantz

38. thank you!
© 2011 please share:)