Unbidden, the same description has come up for our agency’s style of public relations again and again. The editors we work with call us “pleasantly persistent.” That’s persistent as in tenacious, assertive, and maybe even dangerously close to over the top in our eagerness to sell a story or to strike a great PR deal. Our consultants aren’t obnoxious – never rude or threatening – but we’re the persistent people who are full of good ideas and who just aren’t going away.


It’s a valuable principle.


How many great stories went unpublished and great deals went unsold because someone was too hesitant to step up and ask? Or stopped asking after floating the first gentle request?


A great personal growth coach, Pamela Maier, once stated, “You’ll never know what someone might be willing to do if you don’t ask.” She was right.


Many of the greatest PR wins we’ve accomplished were won for that very reason: We were bold enough to ask. Politely, of course. There’s much more to a great PR pitch than just asking, but none of those skills will matter to a person who isn’t bold enough to step up to the plate.


This principle applies to our strongest clients as well. Here’s a great case in point: Mike Proper, CEO of DirectPointe, has led that company from its inception to its current level of growth and presence in 29 countries and all 50 states. In fact, DirectPointe has been named the top Managed Service Provider (MSP) in the world, ranking number one on the MSPMentor 100 list for 2008.


Mike wanted to meet MSPMentor’s Managing Editor, Joe Panettieri, in person at the recent CompTIA Breakaway event in Orlando. Did they connect? Indeed, they did. You can read all about it in Joe’s blog this week, Meet America’s Most Progressive MSP. Here’s what Joe had to say:


“He called me and text messaged me more than a dozen times during CompTIA Breakaway. He runs a fast-growing managed service provider. And he isn’t using traditional technologies to do so. Who is this guy, and why does he want to talk to MSPmentor?


“…I’m glad Mike tracked me down. And when I describe him as ‘aggressive,’ I mean that as a positive rather than a negative. Whether it’s his pursuit of a face-to-face meeting or a sale, the guy doesn’t quit.”


You can read Joe’s entire article on MSPmentor.


The moral of the story is clear. In PR and in business, the ability to be “pleasantly persistent” can clearly pay off.


Cheryl Snapp Conner, Managing Partner

Most typically, PR consultants operate in the background, heard but not necessarily seen. Today, however, we can't resist putting the following photo of our Senior Consultant Clay Blackham in lights. Notice the stunning mustache? Until the hour before his mother's wedding, Clay declared his intention to wear this manly addition to his persona all the way to the end. At the final minute, however, he relented and shaved the offending bristles once full shock value had been achieved.


In honor of the occasion, however, our partner in podcast Brad Baldwin has immortalized Clay's macho appearance in film. With all due respect and apologies to the original source files, today we share the true and typically hidden personality of Clay. Enjoy.

The goal of any PR campaign is to secure interviews with media, analysts and bloggers; then follow up by seeing articles come to fruition. Aside from the pre- and live-event interviews, a quintessential component to securing coverage are post-event interviews.


Maintaining an open and immediate line of contact with your PR team can streamlining these interviews–especially since media requests can come without warning.


Every company executive/spokesperson should have their PR team cell phone and office numbers. Programming these numbers into a cell phone/PDA helps to know instantly who is calling.


The media work on very tight deadlines and need to get information as quickly as possible. There are strong and valid reasons a spokesperson should avoid allowing a reporter to call through to their cell line directly. However, there should never be a time, especially during the launch of a new product/service that a company spokesperson didn't answer a call because they didn't recognize their PR person's phone number.