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INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | | JULY 21, 2000 NET JOURNAL By Scott Kucirek Publicity's Domino Effect A story mentioning your business — any story — can lead to many more
 I've learned a a fundamental rule about publicity: One good story leads to another. Before I get too far, I should be clear that our company has been very fortunate to receive a fair amount of press. As our public-relations manager says: "The PR gods have smiled on zipRealty.com."Luck or not, two weeks ago we had one of our strongest story runs. Over a 10-day period, we were featured in USA Today's Business Section (with a large photo), covered in a Red Herring story about online real estate, and quoted in a Wall Street Journal article discussing the recent Presidential approval of digital-signature legislation. Let's take a quick look at how these came together. The chain of stories that led to the USA Today feature started six months ago when we were interviewed by Realtor Magazine, a property-trade standard. It ran a good piece and later published a longer story on online real estate brokerages and how these companies work. This second interview was very straightforward with all the basic questions. By the time it ran, I had almost forgotten we were going to be mentioned. The piece was informational by nature and featured many of the new players in our market. Overall, it was a good story for the industry, but definitely not a home run for us. GOOD CONNECTIONS. Yet, any press is good press. It just so happened that the finance writer for USA Today was looking to do a piece on how people could save money on their home purchase when he came across the second Realtor Magazine story and decided to contact us. At these moments, it pays to have a great PR staff and a relationship already developed with a good PR company. Luckily we do. Anastasia Garrison, our PR manager contacted our PR company, Connors Communication, and together, they went to work sending out our press kit and answering the writer's questions on the emerging e-brokerage business. After some initial conversations, they scheduled me for an interview with the writer and briefed me on the specifics of the key discussion points. The interview went smoothly, and USA Today asked to be able to photograph an agent with one of our zipMobiles. Score! A photo is worth a thousand words, and we thought this would help make this piece that home run we were looking for. After the interview, I passed the writer back to Anastasia and Connors who did all the hard work of following up, arranging the shoot, and answering any final questions. The story was scheduled to run on a Monday. Anticipating a surge in business, we geared up some staff to support it. When Monday came, I opened the paper to discover that the story did not make the paper. After a few phone calls, we learned that the story was now slated for Thursday, and we geared up the extra staff again. This misfire is typical of PR pieces, since writers and editors determine story priorities, not advertising dollars. Luckily, on Thursday, the story ran, and it was great. Within days, the Red Herring piece and Wall Street Journal mention also appeared (they each had similar long builds), and together, they resulted in additional business and even more story interest. And, as I said, one good story leads to another, and we love additional interest. Note: As a follow-up to my last column's poll, I would like to thank all those who took time to reply. I asked readers to help decide how we should respond to a call from another online real estate company exploring investment or merger possibilities. I asked your thoughts on whether we should make an offer for the company, wait and see, or pass on the deal? Readers favored choice 2 -- wait and see. In fact, that's the option we pursued. However, follow-up calls to that company have gone unanswered, signaling perhaps that they have an imminent deal in the works. See you in two weeks.  Scott Kucirek is president and co-founder of zipRealty.com, an online real estate brokerage. The company's Internet site and online real estate agents let people complete the entire purchase or sale of a house via the Web. The company's Web site is www.zipRealty.com, and you can E-mail Scott at Scott@zipRealty.com.  | | |
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