Looking for a Top-Notch Public Relations firm

We’ve recently begun our search for a top-notch public relations firm to aid us in generating online, print, TV, etc. buzz about TalkShoe and its podcasting business, and new foree into social networking. (Lots more to come on this subject)

If you know of a good agency with both traditional and online PR experience, as well as experience working with hot tech startup companies, email me at markj@talkshoe.com. — Thanks.

Back in the Old Days

This post relates to junior employees taking direction from senior employees. Back in the old-old days, work life was pretty straightforward in terms of decision making. Senior employees (managers) made decisions, and junior employees carried them out. This was a very efficient system, although junior employees didn’t always buy into decisions. If a junior employee didn’t listen, it was considered insubordination.

In the old days (my generation), senior employees weighted advice from both senior and junior employees. Senior employees ultimately made the decisions, and they were carried out by junior employees. But junior employees had the right to disagree, but in the end everyone still realized who was boss. If a junior employee didn’t obey the decision, it wasn’t considered insubordination, but it wasn’t a good thing over the long term.

Today, things have changed again. It seems that senior and junior employees negotiate equally and openly. Junior employees are generally not afraid to speak their mind. In particular, at TalkShoe, since we’re focusing on social networking, junior/younger employees still  have a say. Now we must reach consensus. If a junior employee doesn’t carry out the decisions made by the senior employee, it’s more the senior employee’s job to once again try and reach consensus. This can be very inefficient if decisions have to continually be revisited; however, ultimately it’s great when concensus is reached, and all employees feel ownership of the decision.

How is the Internet like a T-bone Steak?

Last Saturday night, my wife and I went out to dinner with some old and new friends to a great new restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh (The Capital Grille). I ordered the porcini mushroom crusted steak, a house specialty, medium rare, and we all drank a considerable amount of California red meritage wine. When I got the bill, which was split 4 ways with a stack of our credit cards, my mind immediately wandered to Internet Pricing.

Internet Pricing? After a fabulous meal? What gives? I thought, how is it that I — and many others — are willing to pay $30+ for a steak, which gives us pleasure for maybe 3 hours, and people are not willing to pay $30/year for a great Internet service.

Carnegie Mellon student project

TalkShoe has just begun doing a project with students from Carnegie Mellon University MISM program which is a joint technology-business masters degree. The students will be looking at methods and best practices for marketing into social networks, especially MySpace, Facebook and Ning. This is part of TalkShoe’s new thrust into getting social networkers to use Talkcasts for discussions, conversations, and of course live podcasts.

Check out the students’ blog where they’ll be making their findings public and soliciting feedback. http://twelve300.com/

Poor experience with RacePoint PR Firm

I had a very disturbing call with a representative from RacePoint public relations firm today. It seems that all they want to talk about is money — meaning how much I will pay them  — before they even told me what they could do for me. Here’s the email I sent them today.

I am extremely insulted by a recent call I got from one of your representatives. The only issue he wanted to discuss was money. I had sent a Request for Proposal (RFP) with our desired needs, and what came back to me was that it would cost $15K minimum. Not who would be on the account. Not questions about the RFP. Not what you could do for TalkShoe, but only money.

Frankly, I’d be happy to pay you $20,000/month+ if your firm can produce results. I just resent the very first call only being about money, and not about your capabilities.

The RFP I sent you was very broad, so that you could give me an overall sense of your capabilties. When I asked what could be taken out of the RFP to get the price more in the $10,000 range, the answer was sorry, there’s nothing we can do. That makes no sense. Clearly if you spend less hours (for example by eliminating PR with national press), it would cost less than going after national press, right?

I feel like I am being treated like an idiot. I know the PR process and have been a VP of Marketing for 15 years. I am also a professor at a major US university and in fact teach marketing, PR, advertising, etc. I know that retainer pricing is ultimately about price/hour, and PR firms estimate the approximate number of hours it would take to service a given customer. What ever happened to “earning the customer’s business”? Surely a better approach would have been to tell me all the great things you can do for TalkShoe and then talk price. Or asking me to clarify the RFP, or something.

Premium Wine and Beer in a Bottle

One of the greatest things about working in a start-up, especially an Internet startup, is the casual and relaxed environment. Our office is a large open area with 4 people in cubes, plus two offices that each house 4 employees. Needless to say, we’re a close-knit group. In the open area is a crappy old pool table with the pockets falling out, and a well warped slate/felt (home field advantage). Next to it is a pinball machine, although I’ll admit that I suck at pinball. There’s also a new putting machine and golf balls around the office, and a ball dart-board hanging on the door.

Best of all is the small refrigerator in our tiny kitchen, which often doubles as a 2-3 person conference room (standing room only!). So what’s the big deal about a refrigerator? Every company has a fridge, right. Wrong! While there is some diet soda, our fridge is stocked primarily beer. Premium bottled beer. As you might has guessed, I’m drinking one right now — Circus Boy Hefeweizen from the Magic Hat Brewing Co. (excellent beer by the way)  We’ve also got a cadre of other microbrews, and a few old favorites like Sam Adams, and of course, our company favorite Guinness (Brilliant!). I remember last St. Patty’s Day drinking Guinness, and I do remember we did a lot of creative thinking that day.

What’s the real value of this to the company, you might ask? It’s comeraderie, it’s a relaxed atmosphere, it’s treating people like responsible citizens, it’s CULTURE. And it does make a difference. It’s letting people wind down from the stresses of a startup. We do a lot of good team building standing around playing 9-ball and having a beer.

Taking out the Trash

Planning and executing trade shows are a pain in the butt. Lots of details, forms, etc. This week I’m in major trade show mode. I haven’t done a trade show by myself in years.

This brings up an interesting point. We entrepreneurs refer to this as “taking out the trash”. Startup employees, no matter what their title or level, have to do all kinds of menial tasks since there are no support staff. Here at TalkShoe, we have zero administrative personnel. What’s interesting is that one minute I’ll be planning the long term corporate strategy or talking about venture capitalists, and the next I’ll be faxing in a form listing the people who will staff our booth at the tradeshow, or listing some podcast on iTunes.

To be a successful entrepreneur, you’ve got to WANT and be able to do both big and small things. This is one of the reasons that people from large companies don’t always make good entrepreneurs. They’ve always had large support staffs, and can even feel some work is beneath them. Anyway, gotta go and fax in some more forms.

Trade Shoe — Podcast Media Expo

TalkShoe is going to the Podcast Media Expo trade show in L.A. next week. It’ll be our first real trade show where we’ll have our own trade show booth. To say the least, trade shows are expensive. Really expensive. Including everything (space, booth, shipping, furniture, etc.) most 10×10 ft booths cost $10K+. And of course, as a startup, we basically have no money. What to do ???

As they say, if you can’t fix it, feature it. We decided a few months ago not to buy one of those typical “Skyline” popup booths, which including graphics would cost about $5-$7K (ouch!). No booth you say? Well, I told my graphics guy, “let’s get creative.”

Our booth will certainly be different. There will be a large screen with our live software projected on it. Around the sides, will be cutouts of people from cardboard and painted to look like the images on the TalkShoe website. And there will be shoes. Lots of shoes. On shoe racks, hanging on the projector, on the tables, you name it. And a bunch of balloons with the TalkShoe logo because we can’t afford to hang a banner. We’ve also made the booth components to be very portable because we can’t afford to ship lots of heavy boxes. All-in-all, the booth should cost us around $1,000, a nice savings. And if you’re at the show — check us out — and wear your shoes!

Hate Talkcasting

It turns out that someone has been recently using TalkShoe as a means to spread hate. The person has been joining live Talkcasts and making threats to people, and then finding information about hosts and contacting them directly. You’ve got to be kidding! I can’t give any of the real details because we’ve had to contact the police in California where this crazy guy lives — turns out the guy has some emotional problems, so there’s no need to worry. Now our CEO, Dave, has do deal with this stuff, instead of dealing with more important real business. You just don’t put this kind of think in your Palm Pilot day planner.

Entrepreneurship Course at Carnegie Mellon Univ.

I teach several courses at Carnegie Mellon University as an adjunct professor. These days, colleges like to offer courses taught by both university PhD professors, as well as by people in the “real world” like me.

Last semester I taught my Entrepreneurship & Business Planning course. Given my experience at TalkShoe, which lets people create live and interactive podcasts, I decided to create my course as a podcast. Instead of just recording lectures, I created the podcast separately and optimized it for iTunes, iPods, etc. The course is split up into 30+ classes each about 30 min. in length. I also assume there are no PowerPoint slides to view (although I provide those online also), and have no need for the informal chit-chat that we do in the classroom.

The podcast is free and online (Go to the Podcast) To date, my podcast episodes have been listened to over 50,000 times by over 3,000 students, a far cry from the 300 or so students I’ve taught in the classroom. This semester, the course is being used as a distance-learning class. In addition to the podcast, we have live classes on TalkShoe, and the students submit assignments via email. I’m really excited to use this new medium.