What is Public Relations?
Public relations is one of the most misunderstood and poorly utilized resource in industry, especially technology start-ups. It is seen as a tactical function of marketing and, sometimes, a subset of advertising. It is often employed too late in a marketing program to be effective, generally blamed for the failure and rarely given credit for the success of those programs. This misuse and misunderstanding makes PR more a necessary evil than a valued part of the corporate effort. You're not sure what it does, you know are going to hate paying for it. But you know you have to do it, so lets do it as cheaply as possible and get it over with. As a result, few PR programs succeed, especially for start-ups. Most PR firms understand this situation and, for the most part, many have given up trying to convince entrepreneurs of how to do it right. They just try to do what the client asks, collect the money and move on to the next client. Personally, I'm one that isn't ready to gi...