Pinterest Bursts Onto the Scene

Pinterest has come out of nowhere to be the hot new story in social media.

For the uninitiated, Pinterest is a dandy way to share images you like on the web. You just download their little "Pin It" button and then select images you like, pinning them to "boards" on your Pinterest page.

What has made Pinterest particularly pin-teresting is that women 25-34 are the most active users of the site. It has quickly become a hub for fashion, beauty and housewares, and savvy brands have already launched Pinterest pages to get into the conversation.

And predictably, there is some blowback. Pinterest essentially lives off the images uploaded to the web by others, so the big question is: is Pinterest trying to build a business solely on someone else's intellectual property? On the other hand, so much of the web is about linking and sharing, where's the harm to any individual copyright holder of an image being shown on Pinterest?

We'll be discussing the way brands can capitalize on Pinterest on a Bulldog Reporter PR University webinar, and some of the possible speed bumps, on April 20.

Financial Services Firms Finally Making the Move Into Social Media Marketing

Banks, brokerages and other conservative financial services industry firms have been very, very slow to adopt social media marketing practices -- and for good reason.

The regulatory environment for financial services firms that sell their services to individuals and businesses is very strict, particularly around the kind of "loose talk" that is so common in social media. The companies employ very highly paid "compliance" officers, using trained and experienced corporate lawyers, whose job it is to say "no" to most of the kinds of marketing that unregulated companies use on a daily basis.

But to ignore social media marketing is to stay in the buggy-whip era when everyone else is moving to gas-powered cars.

How to get around the problem of strict regulation? One solid strategy is for financial services companies to create a library of approved content that staff members can tweet or blog or post on Facebook. Another is to use third-party software from players like Hearsay and SocialVolt that is built to allow Compliance to review social media posts before they go out. Firms such as Northwestern Mutual and Morgan Stanley are starting to test these sorts of initiatives.

But make no mistake -- this is still a difficult industry to move in to the social media. Scary example: it's not okay for a Facebook user to "like" a post by an investment adviser, as it constitutes illegal word-of-mouth marketing. I get the regulation, but sheesh, something is going to have to change, since social media isn't going away.

 

The Tech IPO Window Finally Reopens - Woot Woot!

Today's Wall Street Journal article about the Silicon Valley start-ups readying themselves to go public signals the reopening -- finally! -- of the IPO "window." It' about time! This has been the longest drought I've experienced since I got to the Valley in 1981, and it was historic by any measure.

The notion of a "window" is that there are good times and bad times to take a company public. It mainly has to do with the receptivity of capital markets investors to new issues by unproven companies. When they are in a buying mood, the window is said to be open, and vice versa.

The window has been all-but closed since about 2002 (it never slams shut, it just gets so small that only the strongest companies can get through, such as Google and more recently, LinkedIn). There was good reason, too -- 2002 was when the dying embers of Internet bubble finally went out, and lots of people were feeling burned and in no mood to buy shares of unproven, unprofitable web 1.0 companies (furniture.com anyone?).

Now, though, memories have faded, the appetite for new issues has returned and a handful of companies such as Splunk, Infoblox, Workday and ServiceNow are getting ready to test the waters.

If this first batch is successful in going public, you can be sure that many more companies will file in a rush to take advantage.

 

Will Apple Ever Create Another "Insanely Great" Product?

Amid all the tributes, hosannas and whatnot about Steve Jobs stepping down as CEO of Apple, this simple fact seems to have gotten lost: the only time Apple has developed and released hit products has been when Steve Jobs has been CEO.

Another thing: for now, Steve Jobs isn't going anywhere. He's still alive, as far as we know he is still involved in the company to the best of his abilities and energies, and I would guess that the last thing he will give up is offering his opinions and leadership regarding new product development.

But the sad fact is that Steve is likely very ill and may not be with us much longer. And then Apple will have to attempt to do something it has never successfully done: create and market hit technology products without Steve Jobs' guidance.

From the Apple II in the 1970s to the iPad in 2010, everything great that has come out of Apple has been shepherded to the market by Steve Jobs. Apple's track record after Steve was pushed out of the company by John Sculley in 1985 until his return as CEO in 1997? Zero hit products, death spiral, near bankruptcy.

Another fact to consider: Sculley was the hottest exec in the country when he took over Apple and has at least as much mojo as Tim Cook. Yet he couldn't deliver. In Cook's favor, of course, is that he has been deeply involved in Apple for years, unlike Sculley, who had no tech industry experience.

Meanwhile, during his exile Jobs founded Next Computer, which merely created the operating system that now powers the Mac, and built Pixar into the moviemaking powerhouse it is today.

Conclusion: Steve Jobs is a unique technology industry talent, and Apple has no track record producing hits without him. So we'll see how they do as the future unfolds.

peHUB Finally Has a New Editor: Jon Marino

More than three months after Dan Primack took his act over to CNN/Fortune.com, peHUB finally has a new editor: Jonathan Marino, formerly of SourceMedia's M&A Journal.

Marino introduced himself today to the 50,000+ subscribers of the peHUB Wire morning email with the following:

Hi everyone, I’m Jonathan Marino, the new editor for peHUB.com. To some of you, I am a familiar face--I spent the last three years covering deals, private equity and banking for SourceMedia's M&A Journal. Additionally, I have written about a range of topics for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Post and The Washington Examiner, including investigative reports and homeland security coverage. I’ll have all my contact info posted soon, but for now, reach me at jmarino99@gmail.com.

In the next several months, you'll be seeing a number of changes and enhancements to peHub.com and the daily Wire as we look to provide greater networking capabilities, more exclusive stories and more columns from experts and executives. I will also be reaching out to many of you to get ideas about how we can improve our service.

Side note: despite CNN/Fortune's assertion that Primack would broaden his coverage well beyond private equity to the public markets, there is very little sign of that so far in his coverage, which reads just like it did under ThomsonReuters.

Meanwhile, peHUB has suffered in Primack's absence, with its writers employing his quirky language (eg., "shameless plug," "Monday Mouth-off") but without his signature wit. Hopefully, Jon Marino will bring some new life back to what has been a great media outlet for private equity and VC news.

Charlene Li Previews Her Top Trends for 2011

[caption id="attachment_1342" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Charlene Li of Altimeter Group"][/caption]

Charlene Li, one of my favorite social media pundits, gave a speech at the PRSA International Conference this week and then gave a “press conference” to those of us (including me) who were designated “press” for the conference.

Li said that like most analysts, she is in the midst of developing her “outlook” report for 2011, and she gave us a preview in the press conference.

The two big trends Li is watching as the year winds down are:

1. the rise of “social data” and “social search” and


2. our evolving feelings regarding privacy and permissions in social media

On social data, Li is watching to see how all the volumes of data we are generating in social media are used. Marketers and others are quickly realizing that social media users are providing reams of valuabe information about brands, trends, likes and dislikes, but are just now starting to figure out how to gather and analyze it.

On privacy and permissions, Li sees us moving away from protecting our privacy and toward managing the permissions we give web sites and our contacts. She likened the transition to what happened when Caller ID was first introduced. Peoples’ first reaction was that it was an invasion of privacy, but after awhile, as they realized that it had value, it became more about giving people useful information that reduced life’s friction.

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Primack Up and Running at CNN.com

After a week off, Dan Primack has landed at CNN/Fortune's web site, more or less picking up where he left off at Thomson Reuters' peHUB. He started work yesterday and already has posted a slew of stories about Elevation Partners, angel investors vs. traditional VCs, and other VC/private equity doings.

Dan's daily email from his new perch, Term Sheet, has yet to start. You can sign up here.

For now, finding Dan's stuff is a challenge. He's working for Time Warner's CNN.com web site, which is a behemoth that includes content not only from CNN, but also from traditional Time titles such as Sports Illustrated, People, Money and Fortune. It took me a few clicks, but I will spare you the search and give you the address of his Term Sheet page: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/category/term-sheet/.

Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it?

I'm sure Primack will build this into a success over time, but for now, I think he has some work to do to stand out on this very crowded web site. For fun, just try going to CNN.com or CNN Money and see if you can easily find Primack and his articles.

peHUB and peHUB Wire Will Continue After Primack Leaves

Big news in the world of venture capital and private equity media and PR: Dan Primack, author of the peHUB Wire daily email newsletter and creator of its web site, peHUB, is leaving Thomson Reuters to create a similar offering for CNN Money's soon-to-be-revamped Fortune.com site.

Over the past several years, Primack has become arguably the single most important journalist covering VC and PE, largely through his excellent work first on the daily newsletter and then on the web site. Lots of people in the industry can pick a beef with Dan over the way he has portrayed certain news or his tenacity in covering things that they would have rather not had covered, but he has proven himself to be a thorough, dogged and very hard-working reporter.

Now he moves on to Fortune.com, where he will be covering not only VC and PE but also Wall Street and M&A through a daily email called "The Term Sheet" and a sister web site. He starts on Sept.7, the day after Labor Day.

While all the other coverage I've seen on the web has focused on Primack's move to Fortune and the CNN.com web site, my key question was about the VC/PE daily newsletter and the web site. Would they continue without Primack, who once wrote about creating the newsletter simply to raise a small amount of advertising money to fund a pet project, and has been both the brains and the brawn behind it ever since?

Larry Aragon, editor-in-chief of Thomson Reuter's Private Equity Week and VC Journal (the print/online pubs that spawned peHUB), emailed me that yes, they would both continue after Dan leaves next Thursday, though he did not identify who would be staffing them. They know they have some big shoes to fill, and it's not a slam-dunk that peHUB will be as strong, or as vital a read, as it is are now.

From a VC/PE media relations standpoint, however, this is great news -- Primack is going to bring his coverage of VC and PE over to the huge CNN.com web site, while Thomson Reuters will continue to have its offering.

Here's some other coverage on the web so far:

Statements from Fortune.com and Primack

Interview with Dan Roth of Fortune.com about Primack

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Do You Have a Designated Online Spokesperson?

It's a no-brainer that every company needs a designated spokesperson to handle media inquiries. But what about online communication? Who should represent the company on Twitter, Facebook and on blogs?

In a small shop, it's likely that the same PR person who handles media requests will also respond to online situations. But in larger organizations, it may be necessary to designate online "channel" spokespeople, who can keep up with the fast-moving flow of, say, a Twitter discussion.

That's what Southwest Airlines does, according to Ashley Pettit, a communications analyst with the company, who spoke on a recent Bulldog Reporter-Thomson Reuters webinar that I moderated. A specific member of the PR team is assigned to be the spokesperson on each channel. I thought that sounded like a really good idea, one that all of us should think about.

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Two Innovative Ways to Use Texting in Media Relations

Here are two tidbit's from yesterday's Bulldog Reporter PR University audio conference on email/online pitching (which I moderated):

• Dave Satterfield of Sitrick & Co. said that he has texted reporters to answer questions and make clarifications  during major announcement events, while they were all in the room together


• The Vatican has been sending text messages to followers and the media since 2003. Kevin Dugan of the Bad Pitch Blog said one of the reasons was to reduce the possibility of Vatican-related hoaxes being picked up by the media as legit.

NY Times' Brad Stone Moving to Bloomberg Businessweek

Brad Stone, who's been with the New York Times as an SF-based tech reporter for a few years after being Newsweek's tech reporter, is leaving the Times to join Bloomberg Businessweek.

Video Investor Relations is Here to Stay

There is no one way to communicate with investors anymore, especially not public market investors. You've got to use all the commonly accepted forms of communication if you hope to reach anywhere near 100% of your target audience.

To that end, don't forget video. Lots of companies are already doing video releases about their financial results -- enough so that Investor Relations magazine just wrote a story about it. And they were kind enough to quote me in it. So here's my quote and here's a link to the whole story.

Jon Greer, managing director of San Francisco’s Jon Greer Consulting, an investor communications and media training firm, is more blunt. ‘I don’t think you’re ever going to see video shot by IROs themselves in investor communications,’ he predicts. ‘Go polished; it doesn’t have to cost a lot.’

Greer concedes ‘there’s a lot of learning to be done’ by PR and IR people. They should know about video fundamentals and be able to select vendors but they should stick to spokesperson training, such as doing mock shoots with professional cameramen.

Despite Media Upheaval, Business Journalists Are Optimistic About Their Futures

A surprising study out of the Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University reports that business news journalists remain surprisingly optimistic about their jobs and careers, despite the upheaval and radical downsizing going on in the media industry.

“I found a shocking amount of optimism, grit and determination in those findings,” said professor Tim McGuire, who retired in 2002 as editor of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. McGuire is the Frank Russell Chair for the Business of Journalism at ASU’s Cronkite School.

Specifically, McGuire was surprised that almost a third reported an increase in pay over the past two years and that seven out of 10 business journalists say they are more or just as satisfied with their jobs as they were five years ago. Almost three-fourths plan to stay in journalism for the next five years.

Post on the Reynolds site here, including a slide deck about the study.

Post on McGuire's blog here.

CNBC's Jim Goldman Jumps Over to PR; Jon Fortt Moves From Fortune to CNBC

Burson-Marsteller has named CNBC Silicon Valley bureau chief Jim Goldman as the firm's new U.S. Technology Practice Chair. According to Burson's release, Goldman "will now look to help companies develop strategies to bridge old media traditions and new media opportunities. Goldman will be based in San Francisco and report to U.S. President and CEO Pat Ford and Global Chair of the Technology Practice Jennifer Graham Clary."

Jim's a great guy, but I think he's going to have a steep learning curve. In TV, he's been used to covering the big players -- Apple, Google, Yahoo, Oracle -- and telling big stories about them, such as Apple's iPad and Oracle's multibillion dollar acquisitions. One of the harshest realities of PR is that most of the clients are not nearly as newsworthy as those household names. The job of the PR person becomes to create some black magic that makes them newsworthy.

Jim, I wish you luck. Please feel free to give me a shout when you get to the City if you need some help making the transition.

***

Update: TechCrunch reports that Fortune's Jon Fortt is taking Goldman's place at CNBC.

How to Work With "Online Influencers"

What's an "online influencer?" The phrase sounds lofty, and is meant to describe someone who is actively involved with sharing information on sites like Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

But according to Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, there's a simpler definition that works just as well: "someone who shows up." In other words, in today's connected world, all you really have to do to distinguish yourself is to be active in online communities.

And how do you "work" with them? Simply, you engage them, Rainie says. You connect with them, let them know you have seen what they are writing/saying/posting, and offer your input, feedback, point of view or additional information. That's really it.

Rainie, who is a terrific speaker, was the guest today on a Bulldog Reporter audio conference. One of his big points is that we are now in an era of "networked individualism," in which people find connect and support from all types of sources and not just their friends and neighbors. That means that business, institutions and brands can be as connected to people as they want to be, serving as "friends," allies, conversationalists, and information sources.

Some other insights:

• Pew is very interested in the next wave of location-based apps, such as foursquare, that represent a melding of the information-based Internet with GPS technology, or as he put it, geo-knowledge systems.


• Pew is also working on research into how the Internet has changed all manner of institutions, and how teenagers are living their lives in this connected world.


• Asked to look into the future, Rainie said the biggest change is likely to be a "smarter" web, in which the computers become even better at interacting with us based on our preferences and other factors.

VC and Private Equity Fundraising is Very Tough This Year

It's no secret in the world of venture capital and private equity  that it's not easy right now to raise new money to invest in portfolio companies. But at the PEI Investor Relations and Communications Forum last week, I picked up some interesting datapoints from Alexander Leykikh, a partner with Atlantic-Pacific Capital, a placement agent [meaning they raise money for private equity and venture capital funds for a fee]

He said that VCs and PE fund managers had been expecting a 25% reduction in the money committed to their funds by institutional investors, but that in reality, investors are cutting back by more like a 50% reduction. Furthermore, he added that only 75-80% of limited partners (investors) are re-upping.

Dan Primack on peHUB reported some data today about one fund that certainly seems to bear-out this trend. He reported that Polaris Venture Partners, which last raised a $1 billion fund, initially reduced its target for its latest fund to $500 million, but has since lowered it again to $400 million, and according to a regulatory filing, they've only raised $233 million it to date.

PR Honcho Turns Venture Capitalist With High-Profile Firm

This doesn't happen every day: Margit Wennmachers, head of tech PR firm Outcast Communications, has joined Andreessen Horowitz as a partner.

That's "Andreessen" as in Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape and developer of the first successful web browser.

Kara Swisher got the scoop. She reports: "At Andreessen Horowitz, she’ll focus on bringing marketing expertise to the firm and its portfolio companies, starting in September."

I've pinged Margit with my congratulations and a request for an email interview about her new role. Stay tuned. Here's said Q&A but with Connie Loizos of peHub: http://www.pehub.com/74430/from-pr-to-vc-a-qa-with-the-newest-partner-at-andreessen-horowitz/. Key comment:

What does “partner” mean? Will you be evaluating deals? Will you, at some point, begin taking board seats?

Right now, Ben and Marc are the founding partners, and the only GPs and investing partners. I have a principal role in the firm in that I get to look at all the deals and go to pitch meetings and provide my feedback, but they’ll certainly make the final call and they’ll take the board seats in [those] cases where they take a seat.

To Get Coverage on Bloomberg, Show Them the Money

Bloomberg News is all about money and deals, so for private equity and venture capital firms, the watchwords are: show them the money.



[caption id="attachment_1239" align="alignleft" width="120" caption="Dan Colarusso"][/caption]

That's a paraphrase from the illuminating one-on-one session with Dan Colarusso, U.S. Managing Editor of Bloomberg TV, who was interviewed at the PEI Investor Relations and Communications Forum by Emily Mendell, VP of Strategic Affairs & Public Outreach for the National Venture Capital Association.

"We're not try to cover venture capital in a traditional sense," said Colarusso. "We want to get to exits, real business, Bloomberg style -- show us the money."

Other insights from Colarusso:

• They are in the middle of remaking Bloomberg TV. They've hired staff from NBC, FOX and CNN, among others. "We're trying to be television - we're in 50 million homes, broadcasting 13 hours, 6am-7pm."


• They are arming print reporters with handicams to put stories directly up on Bloomberg TV


• The larger Bloomberg strategy is to take their great newsgathering army, get information and distribute through 4-5 different pipelines. There are now 152 Bloomberg bureaus around the world.


• He looks at footnoted.org, siliconalleyinsider, paidcontent.org

****

Next up was an interview with Dennis Berman, deputy bureau chief for money and investing of the Wall Street Journal. It was less nuts-and-bolts and more philosophical. Berman said of private equity that he would like to see less arrogance, more humility and that he would like to see the industry directly addressing the conflicts of interest that can come up. For instance, working with management to take companies private and promising them significant ownership stakes in the new company.

"There's a culture of privacy and secrecy in private equity that doesn't create the benefit of the doubt that you would expect," Berman said.

He also said that the Journal is much less interested in covering venture capital than it used to be. "We're covering it the way we were in 1999. There's not that much interest in it."

Spoken like a true Manhattanite. Memo to the Journal: we here in California are VERY interested in venture capital!

ABS Capital Has Embraced Social Media - Have You?

ABS Capital is a growth equity investment firm with more than $2 billion in capital under management. Unlike many venture capital and private equity firms, it has fully embraced social media and is currently working on a new web site to make it even easier for Internet users to connect with the firm and its portfolio companies.

Stephanie Carter, head of marketing and communications for the firm, spoke today at the PEI Investor Relations and Communications Forum.

Carter said most of her social media efforts have occurred during the past year, after she brought in a 25-year-old intern who worked her way into a full-time job and who is "reverse-mentoring" Carter.

The firm has a Facebook page and encourages its partners to have their own pages. In recognition of the fact that some people research the firm on LinkedIn, Carter has worked with partners to update their LinkedIn profiles even if they themselves don't use the service.

ABS uses Google Analytics to track traffic on its web site, and one of the key discoveries was that most visitors spent only three minutes on their site looking for information about the partners or portfolio companies. So the ABS web site is being redesigned to make it easier to find that information, with less emphasis on developing written content about the firm that few visitors were reading.

ABS is focused on later-stage investing, so it is constantly interested in connecting with company CEOs, senior executives and board members. By being active in social media, Carter said that ABS is telling these people, "wherever you want to meet us, fine."

What's perhaps most remarkable about this case study is that ABS Capital is not using social media because it has a particular interest in Internet companies or social media as an investment. It is using social media because it recognizes that it's a valuable business tool to help it achieve its objectives.

Limited Partners Want More and Better Communications From General Partners

It's not unusual for the general partners of venture capital and private equity firms to take their investors, known as limited partners, for granted. One reason may be structure: once the LPs have committed to invest, they are contractually bound to do so for as long as a decade or more. Another may be that LPs have traditionally been fairly passive in managing their investments and relationships.

Like a lot of things in the economy, the LP-GP relationship is changing, particularly in the area of LP relations. LPs are getting more demanding, of both the time and attention of their general partners.

I'm at the PEI Investor Relations and Communications Forum in New York, and this is one of the biggest topics of discussion.

"LPs appreciate having you ask 'how are we doing,'" said Mark Barnhill of Platinum Equity. Barnhill added that LPs appreciate having access to investing partners, and keeping them fully informed about developments at the fund and at the fund's portfolio investments.

The last thing LPs want is to be surprised, or to hear about something from someone else before hearing about it from their GPs.

Bottom line: communicate, communicate, communicate. Keep your LPs informed before, during and after you take their investment. In these times, when LPs have an infinite number of private equity options, you can't go wrong using communications as a relationship-building tool.