This section pertains to the separate, yet interdependent, fields of public relations, analyst relations, and investor relations, which could be grouped together under the moniker of "influencer management."

If you have any questions, comments or would like to contribute to this page, please feel free to contact me via tracy.shouldice@cognos.com.  My thanks to colleagues Anil Dilawri and Brooke Somers, who contributed to the content on this page.

What is Public Relations (PR)?

The Startups.co.uk Web site provides this broad definition:  "Public relations, according to the Institute of Public Relations (IPR), is about reputation.  The result of what you do; what you say and what others say about you.   The PR practice is defined as the discipline that looks after reputation with the aim of earning understanding and support, and influencing opinion and behaviour.  It is planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain good will and mutual understanding between an organization and its public – i.e., a company's staff, suppliers, shareholders, customers, etc."

What is Analyst Relations (AR)?

Analyst relations is a collection of strategies, programs, processes and activities, usually undertaken by a technology/service vendor, to engage industry analysts and leverage two-way communication between industry analysts and vendor stakeholders.  Industry analysts are extremely influential in technology buying decisions, particularly those made by large enterprises.  They also provide a lot of timely and relevant insight to a vendor as it assesses the product/technology/market landscape toward formulating strategic product-market decisions.

What is Investor Relations (IR)?

Investor relations is a strategic management responsibility that integrates finance, communication, marketing and securities law compliance to enable the most effective two-way communication between a company, the financial community, and other constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a company's securities achieving fair valuation.

PR-RELATED WEB SITES & ARTICLES

Sam Whitmore’s Media Survey

http://www.mediasurvey.com

Sam Whitmore’s Media Survey site is an incredibly helpful resource, for PR professionals at any level. Most of the content is password protected, but membership is fairly inexpensive.

Some of the most helpful site features include:

• Regular teleconferences with publication editors like Eric Lundquist of eWeek, David Kirkpatrick of Fortune, Stephanie Stahl of InformationWeek, and Ben Elgin of BusinessWeek. Editors give helpful tips on how to pitch the publication most effectively (and how not to!), discuss the trends they are covering, and provide helpful “state of the market” overviews. These teleconference are archived and can be accessed on demand. A helpful resource is the article on “How to Pitch a Point” by Stephen Wildstrom of BusinessWeek.

• The Vital Stats Gallery – this helpful section provides at-a-glance updates on ad stats, letting PR professionals know which publications are “hot right now” and which ones are seeing declining revenues, which may lead to consolidation of channels or cancellation. It also provides segmentation on readership for publications, splitting out publications aimed at C-level audiences, or IT or consumers.

• Media Talk Shop posts regular alerts about media on the move, new sections or blogs, cancelled sections, and general media market overviews. This section is interactive and members can post comments or discuss with others online.

• Analysis of Industry Analyst Media Share: For all you high-tech PR professionals, Media Survey regularly provides analysis and updates on which industry analysts are garnering the most media mind share in publications. This is a quick and easy way to figure out which analysts are considered trusted media sources for stories and can help bolster your campaign, or which ones are simply “guns for hire”.

The State of the News Media

http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/

For PR professionals who work mainly with US media, this site provides an in-depth overview of American journalism. There are a couple of content areas that are particularly interesting, including the major trends section, the ownership section, and the content analysis sections posted for each media channel. The content analysis, broken down by newspapers, web, network TV, cable TV, local TV, magazine and radio, reports on trends as they pertain to each medium, quality and originality of reporting based on the source, as well as how effectively the medium reaches the public.

For each medium, researchers have produced original research and aggregated existing data into a comprehensive look at many of the pressing issues facing the news media. There is a Charts & Tables area that houses over 100 charts based on statistical data – this is helpful for obtaining at-a-glance information on varying topics like Average Circulation of Daily Newspapers, Per Cent of Daily Newspapers Owned by the Largest Newspapers Groups, Per Cent of Internet Users Who Access News Online, and Perception of Internet News Reliability.

Overall, this is an extremely detailed and helpful site. Information can be read in-depth or displayed in the aggregate and is useful in gaining a deep understanding of how the influencers operate.

Article:  How Many Hours, How Many Months?

Source:  Mplans.com

http://www.mplans.com/dpm/article.cfm/133

This article is a tactical, but very helpful guide for any new PR professional. It is especially helpful for corporate PR professionals who might be looking to outsource PR campaigns to agencies or consultants. Although there is no standard, this provides helpful guidelines on how long certain activities should take, how to plan launch campaigns, and how to determine whether a campaign should be outsourced or kept in house. When dealing with agencies or consultants that bill on a per-hour basis, this might help the corporate PR staff in planning resources and budgets.

Analyst Relations is a fairly niche-oriented profession; as such, there are only a few good places on the Internet to find information on the world of AR.

Knowledge Capital Group (KCG)

http://www.knowledgecap.com/

From the KCG Web site:  "The Knowledge Capital Group Inc. (KCG) is the global leader and foremost authority in Industry Analyst Relations.  KCG is the first and only firm that was founded and run by former industry analysts with deep practical business experience in sales, marketing, and executive management.  KCG’s balanced insight into the Analyst Relations business is built on this width of perspective ....  KCG combines decades of domain expertise and thought leadership in enterprise software and industry analyst relations with deep practical experience in vertical specific markets to deliver the strategy development, positioning, and actionable advice to quickly improve differentiation, reduces sales cycle times and give sales forces the tools they need to close deals."

KCG is one of the only survivors of a niche market that emerged during the tech boom – AR advisory service providers.  KCG provides advice to AR professionals, toward the goal of optimizing the efficiency and effectiveness of their clients' AR programs.  Among KCG's offerings are:

• a very useful, free monthly newsletter (the "AR Insider" – you can subscribe at the KCG site)
• analyst benchmarking and audit consulting services
• AR effectiveness and measurement consulting services
• certified AR professional training courses
• for clients, a recruiting assistance service that matches AR professionals to job opportunities

From all accounts, the one-day training course in particular is well worth the money and time invested.  KCG is known for its frank, pragmatic advice – if you're an AR professional or are considering becoming one, this is the place to start your info search.

New!  Lighthouse AR

http://www.lighthousear.com

http://www.analystequity.com

While Lighthouse isn't "new," this UK-based firm now appears to be establishing a beachhead in North America and are hoping to give Knowledge Capital Group a run for their money.  A quick glance at their client list leads me to believe that they are not as well entrenched as KCG. 

Lighthouse's value proposition is very similar to that of KCG:  consulting services to AR teams, analyst profiling & targeting, benchmarking and effectiveness audits, and the like.  But they also offer services such as competitive positioning development and vaguely-defined "product evaluation reports" (from the site, it appears that the latter comprises facilitation of third-party review of a vendor client's product). 

Lighthouse also portrays itself as adding value because of its international profile, profiling itself as "the only global industry analyst relations consultancy, with experts in the US, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region."  Based on the profiles of Lighthouse's principals and analysts, I would agree.

Lighthouse, like KCG, has a newsletter and various papers that can be accessed (once you register with them, of course).  They also offer a blog called "Analyst Equity" that is edited by Lighthouse principal Duncan Chappel.

Analyst Views

http://www.analystviews.com

This site may offer an affordable alternative for smaller companies that cannot afford subscription services to the top-tier analyst firms.  It appears that this site consolidates syndicated research from hundreds of analyst firms and offers them based on a subscription fee.  The site currently claims to house over 55,000 analyst reports on diverse topics.  They also issue a weekly e-newsletter and produce monthly "consensus reports," which are summaries of analyst opinion on various hot topics.  Worth checking out, although I do not subscribe myself and therefore cannot comment on content quality (literlly all site content is fiercely guarded by user ID and password).

Analyst Strategy Group (formerly SageCircle)

http://www.analyststrategy.com

This firm's business model appears to be the same as that of Knowledge Capital Group ... with good reason, because the former incarnation of this firm, SageCircle, was KCG's primary competitor before SageCircle imploded in 2003.  It looks like the founders have regrouped, however, and something is rising out of the ashes.  I'm not seeing ASG's presence anywhere, but the folks at SageCircle did provide useful commentary and AR best-practice advice when I subscribed to their services in 2002 and 2003.

Tekrati – the Industry Analyst Reporter

http://www.industryanalystreporter.com

http://industryanalystreporter.com/T2/Analyst_Relations/AnalystBlogs.asp

From the Tekrati Web site:  "Tekrati Inc. is the leading news source covering high tech industry analysts and firms.  Tekrati monitors, profiles and reports on over 325 industry analyst firms worldwide.  Ongoing news coverage includes industry analyst research, business announcements, events and opportunities for research participation.  Through affiliated online Web sites, Tekrati also provides materials that help analyst relations specialists and technology company representatives gather actionable information on specific industry analysts to prepare for briefings and other encounters.  By bringing together rich, online resources, Tekrati enables IT, telecom and semiconductor professionals to connect in meaningful ways with the global industry analyst community."

This site is more of an analyst tracking service than a source for best practices, training etc.  However, some of the site content is quite handy, such as the "Analyst Café," which is a mini-portal of AR-specific topics including analyst firm news and a collection of analysis & best-practice articles collectively called, "Tekrati Tips."

Recently, Tekrati has established a very handy site that lists all known analyst blogs ... a good way to find out what's going on in the head of those analysts who track your space.  URL for the site is above.

Analyst Spotlight with Barbara French and Sam Whitmore

http://www.industryanalystspotlight.com

This is a joint effort between the Sam Whitmore Media Survey (profiled in the PR section of this site) and Tekrati (profiled above).  They offer two Web events a month that provide insight into the world of AR and influence.  They also archive some past events.  The site is currently thin but hopefully will evolve with time.

National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI)

www.niri.org

NIRI is a professional association of corporate officers and IR consultants responsible for communication among corporate management, the investing public, and the financial community.  NIRI has over 4500 members in 36 chapters around the United States.  NIRI sets the highest standards in education designed to advance the practice of investor relations and meeting the growing professional development needs of those engaged in the field.

NIRI is a US based association for IR professionals.  A yearly conference provides a good opportunity to meet and collaborate with others in the IR field.  NIRI provides a great website that provides users/members with seminars, workshops, and even a bookstore to help take your IR game to the next level.

Investor Relations Netsource

http://nomm.com/ir.htm

Investor Relations Netsource is a Web site provided courtesy of Rein Nomm & Associates Inc.  They are an IR consulting firm based in the US.  The site provides the basics of Investor Relations.

This site acts as a good central repository for a variety of IR information, materials, and resources.  You can find everything from the definitions of certain financial terms to the basics of developing a formal IR program.  This is a good site for those who are new to Investor Relations.

Canadian Investor Relations Institute (CIRI)

www.ciri.org

Similar to NIRI, the Canadian Investor Relations Institute (CIRI) is a professional, not-for-profit association of executives responsible for communication between public corporations, investors and the financial community. CIRI is dedicated to advancing the stature and credibility of the investor relations profession and the competency of its members.

CIRI has a yearly conference where peers can meet to collaboration with one another on IR related matters.  The conferences are also a good opportunity to meet with vendors who serve the IR community.  CIRI also has regional meetings throughout the country so that members can gain perspective from peers within their respective locale.