Strategic Communications
& Personal Branding
UTSA / CITE
October 2, 2009

About
• PR guy for 25 years
• Social Media for the last 4 years
• Blogger with.... 4 blogs
• Journalist.... contributing columnist
“Express-News”
• Content producer

When I went to college
• No PC - we used a typewriter
• Research was done the Library
• No Internet
• No iPhone or wireless devices
• No digital camera
• Social Media did not exist

Today
• You can launch a company
• Gain global media coverage
• Create online communities
• Connect with potential business partners
• Create deal flow
• Get funded
• Build a company from your dorm or apt.

Today
• Introduce the mind-set of strategic
communications - w/focus on PR - into
your start-up
• Address social media into how it could
impact your start-up
• Discuss personal branding in helping
your start-up or your first job out of
school

The Basics
• Have a focused and current message
• Have an online press kit
• Write to and for your audience(s)
• Give yourself six months to see it work

Typical Start-Up
• Short on resources
• Lack of funding for PR and Marketing
• Focused on engineering
• Assumes that the world will find us....

You Need To...
• Have the right message
• the right people
• the right media outlets
• be persistent with outreach

Perceptions of Doing PR
• You have to
• know someone
• be an advertiser
• do a press tour

Process
• Strategy
• Messaging
• Planning & Programming
• Execution

Do Your Homework...
• Communications audit...
• your space
• your competitors
• companies you want to be like

Messaging Rules
• Be clear
• Be concise
• Tell the truth
• Back up your claims
• Differentiate from your competitors
• Disrupt their communications strategy

Messaging
• Use 3 - 5 key messages throughout
• Make them concise
• Make it memorable
• Make sure everyone in the company
buys into the messaging

Communications Matrix Analysis
Characteristic Competitor X Competitor Y Competitor Z
Message(s)
Position
Differentiator
Coverage

Press Kit
• Folder
• Backgrounders
• FAQ
• Management Backgrounder
• Press Release(s)
• Application stories

Basics of Media Relations
• Ask your customers/partners what they
read
• Read the media and see what they write
and about who
• Scan the blogosphere and join the
conversation

Recap
• Have a focused and current message
• Have a current and focused list of
contacts
• Write to targeted media
• Give yourself six months to make it
work
• Focus on a few wins
• Embrace social media

The Social Web

Two Core Principles
• #1. Does not substitute traditional PR;
complements and becomes part of your
overall communications strategy
• #2. Must tie to messaging, strategy,
metrics, business goals, etc
• end result is that you should combine PR /
Social Web to elevate communications
strategies and get measurable results

The Social Web:
• how do your customers / partners /
stakeholders / media, etc “socialize” in
relation to your company on the Internet

Going to the Social Web
• Complements PR efforts
• Gives your company or management a
human voice
• Impacts search results
• Lets you be “found”

static VS. active
Web Site
Brochures
Press Releases
Trade Show Booth

How I’ve used the power of social web to get
media coverage, gain credibility and
demonstrate thought leadership as a pro-
active consumer of AT&T’s three screen
service offering

trade business/financial broadcast radio

YouTube -great way to pitch the media

Re-purposing content...
Industry leaders
demonstrate
N-trig technology

Industry leaders demonstrate
N-trig applications & product
differentiation

How To: How I watch Internet TV - U-verse and Internet TV

Building an Eco-System Through
Member Participation

Thought leadership in VoIP Security

Part II
• Personal Branding...

Branding YOU
• Your brand is your best personal resume
• If you understand the power of personal
branding it will help you get a better job
when you finish school
• Branding really shows who you really
are

How I am branding Alan
• Social Networks
• Blogging I’m a mini
broadcasting
• Journalism
network
• Self PR
• Photography
• Videos

My brand qualities
• Expert in PR / Social Media
• Focus on technology
• Connected in Israel
• Track record
• Having fun
• Music stuff
• Human / Real

What about you?
• Student leader
• Innovator
• Collaborator
• First mover
• Entrepreneur
• Community builder

I “tweet,” engage in conversation,
give away information
follow me: @alanweinkrantz

My business blog demonstrates expertise and helps clients and
projects I am involved in “be found”

Consumer facing blog covering AT&T positions
me as an authority in triple play services in
telecom

Facebook connects me to
friends & business associates in
the U.S. and Israel

LinkedIn - business focused social
networking in the U.S. and Israel

Flickr photos....I always carry my
camera when I travel for fun or business

Monthly columnist for San Antonio
“Express-News” covering AT&T
and Social Media

I do interviews / reviews over at
Redbone Guitar Boutique

B.B. King, Tom Petty, The Who
in Concert

My “Conversations Series”
with San Antonio’s Social Media Superstars

Branding You!
• Join a few networks
• Determine what you want to
communicate about yourself
• Make sure you have an up to date photo
• If you are on social networks, make sure
you have an up to date profile

Be aware
• You are what you post...
• “got shit-faced last night at Fiesta”
• “going to Mexico this weekend to....”
• “Prof. Smith is an ass-hole”
• “looking to buy term paper on....”

Contact
• Alan Weinkrantz
• 210-820-3070
• www.alanweinkrantz.com
• alan@weinkrantz.com
• @alanweinkrantz - Twitter
• FaceBook, LinkedIn too!

Copy of presentation
• online today: alanweinkrantz.com
• Slideshare.net
• copy and share with others
• this is just what I believe and seems to
work
• your mileage may vary

Thank You
© 2009