What the Heck is PR Anyway?
Before we dive into what all startup founders should know about PR, let’s define what PR is since it can be really confusing for someone new to the PR game.
There are Five Roles of Public Relations that most people agree with:
- Brand Building: This is a major part of PR since how the public perceives you will make or break your brand. This is different than marketing since marketing is a direct plea to customers while PR creates a company persona that builds goodwill in a non-sales/marketing way. At least that’s the ideal case.
- Messaging: A consistent message is vital to a company. This starts with your slogan or what your company believes in. Your messaging is also crafted by what others (e.g. Bloggers, press) say about you. PR attempts to manage that.
- Lead Generation: PR is the tip of the lead generation spear. It’s how the public discovers your brand via reviews and stories in the press. Social media is now playing a bigger role in this.
- Communications Command Center: A consistent message is the key to success during a crisis or an opportunity. Your PR team is your go to team when breaking news happens. Your PR team should be constantly interacting with the press and opinion leaders so that when good or bad news breaks, it can be handled properly.
- Increase Your Valuation: Ultimately, a good PR team and strategy will increase your companies awareness and that in turn increases the value of your company.
The five roles above are the classic roles of PR. Even in the new world of social media, they are still valuable and relevant.
What a Founder Needs to Know about PR
All aspects of PR revolve around the five roles but when you throw in social media, you get a whole other dimension in which to play. Most of the time, social media is great way to raise awareness and build your brand. Some brands also use it as their central communications center for everything that’s going on.
As a founder, the most important thing to remember about PR is to not neglect it. There will be a time when your company will face a challenge or an opportunity that will require some sort of PR savvy response. Either avoiding or wasting an opportunity will be a major regret just because you don’t understand or have a PR reaction.
So, what’s a founder to do if the budget is just not there to hire a professional PR firm?
For starters, have a solid social media strategy that includes regular contributions to your sphere of influence. What may you ask is a sphere of influence?
A sphere of influence is who your companies interacts with and those that follow you. It’s vital that you get others to know, like, trust, and promote your brand. You do that via contributing with blog posts, sharing articles, getting on panels, attending conferences, etc. Anything that shows that you are a regular contributor before good or bad news strikes. If you don’t have anyone on your staff to do that, then you as the founder have to take charge.
It’s Never Too Early for PR
A lot of founders think that PR is something you do when you have a major announcement or release. That’s just not true. Your company should always be active building your public relations image. It is never too early for a founder to get out there and make their ideas known — it’s the best way to build your brand and reputation.
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Memory of an Imagined Future 33 X 48″ Collaged digital image and graphite on panel. $1200
What I Did Today. 27 X 33″ oil and graphite on 9 wood panels. Now framed. $500
Insurmountable. Oil and graphite on paper 18 X 18″ $575 Framed
Crumpled Into Sleep. 11.25 X 11.25″ Oil and graphite on paper $375 Framed SOLD
Ophelia. 14 X 14″ Graphite on paper. $475
Cover image: a collage I made from images I had shown in an earlier installation with a bit of supersize me presiding at this point just mocked up! (currently showing at 
I started with the above image because it represents me in the big world I think; out in my snail shell home; the Land Rover, exploring the backroads of Vancouver Island .
Then this one; a work in progress currently called Beneath the Above. (58 X 58″ oil on linen) I think with this image I was trying to show the humbling process of trying to imitate nature; ‘still struggling with this one but I have a new angle that I’m throwing at it for an upcoming show at 
…and really, who can compete with this kind of oneupmanship!
I think I then brought things back to basics with; what really does inspire us…
…and then some more of my shoddy attempts of some kind of ownership; because isn’t that what art is… painting the deer you didn’t catch on the cave wall and crying yourself to sleep!
These guys have got more than a deer to chew on. I’ve always had a bit of a thing for the aviation industry, I mean who doesn’t love all the shining potential of a new journey swaddled in technology. It’s all getting a bit old now but we manage to keep dressing it up.
On the topic of humans I followed this with another drawing; a common theme of mine; tables and chairs, not unlike discarded shoes they can always tell a bit of a story,
When I was a lad (Lancashire accent) we would go to the beach in Fleetwood (northwest England) and I would marvel at this building, probably wanted it too…Some kind of meteorological station I think. The theme of the Pecha Kucha was: “what inspires us”… I think this building got me thinking a bit.
Our planet is natural, our world has been designed by someone, well a few people to be un-exact; there are so many beautiful and elegant designs that a lot of us might just take for granted…just the stuff thats always been around. The Kikkoman soy sauce bottle for example.
…and then there’s always these minimalist masterpieces lying around all over the place for us to trip on.
I think at the Pecha… the images got a little muddled but I think this one was next and this might have been where I froze up… I mean , what is there really to say about a highway junction. Do they still call them spaghetti junctions? I think I shot this flying out of Calgary one rainy time. (looks like a new meat packing plant going in over there too)
A lot of how I shoot is done in a style I call “Drive-by Shooting” just hold the camera to the window and rattle off a few shots then see what you get later, one of the great benefits of digital… or is it? 2nd Ave and somewhere.
Often in my travels through daily life i see great inadvertent art, this is a sketch of some empty “drywall mud” boxes craftily arranged in a pile by our local dry wallers: “The Little Brothers”. I’m currently working this into a painting. (don’t let them know, they’ll probably want royalties) Said that like I actually sell paintings for stupid amounts of money, lol.
I’m torn between finishing this now or nipping out for a bottle of wine… ….It always impresses me how little, birds seem to need, they seem to spend quite a bit of time just flying around for the hell of it and to them weather, rain or shine is just weather. I think I titled this one ” Over Nowhere”
Early morning departure, Logan
When I fly, unlike birds, I carry all kinds of stuff; the usual devices, a couple of half decent cameras and the trusty Moleskine sketch book. I also often carry portable drum machines and other electronics that often raise a concerned eyebrow from the flight crew (oh, it’s just a drum machine…). I order a couple of mini wines, get a buzz on, pull out my Moleskine and become a poet..! Well…, I write successive lines of random thought in a linear fashion (Some of these ramblings can be found @ 
Every now and then I look out the window… The Arctic Ocean is a cold and lonely place.
It’s hard to fly without thinking of mortality, but even death can be beautiful.
There are dizzying myriad ways to negotiate this life, it’s hard not to be inspired. “Don’t Despair” could be a title for my last image but it’s just a drawing of an inspired young organic farmer making some extra bucks by modelling at a life drawing session.
