The folks at PR Machine point to an interesting report from the International Association of Business Communicators that says CEOs really drive the PR machine in small organizations.
We certainly find that to be true here at PAN. A number of our clients are early-stage companies and in nearly all cases they're lead by frenetic, driven personalities with passion for their business. It's only natural that their enthusiasm should be directed toward the people they want to influence that are closest to them--what the report describes as "community."
A community in this case can mean anything from the immediate physical neighborhood surrounding a business, say if you're marketing a restaurant, to indy music buffs if you're losingtoday.com. In every instance PR counsel should note the CEO's vision and set their plans' objectives by it (tempered and/or enhanced with their creativity and professional experience, of course).
Other attributes of small(er) business PR:
- PR is part of at-large outside relations, rather than a separate, distinct dicipline;
- is driven by gut instincts
- is network-based; CEO's use their contacts to build momentum, rather than one-off events (an 'event' in this case is any form of outreach, including news releases)
- PR becomes formalized once the business has grown beyond 20 people