Case study: In good company by Rachelle Money, 22 July 2008

SEO is about the off page factors as well as the on page factors - small businesses usually neglect the former. Getting external sites to write about you, especially top news sites, can do wonders for your inbound links and as a result improve your search engine rankings. Here’s how one company got top rate media coverage.

It’s been one of those days all week for Adelaide Fives, one half of the founding partnership of In Good Company Workplaces in New York. The phone hasn’t stopped ringing since the New York Times featured her company in their business pages, unexpectedly throwing it into the limelight. Having just appeared on Fox News and successfully secured another television feature, Fives is reeling from what has been a roller coaster ride with the media.

Fives comes across as a sparky young woman in her phone interview and she's buzzing with excitement over the recent attention she and business partner, Amy Abrams, have been attracting.

Setting goals

In Good Company opened its doors in September 2007 offering women productive and flexible workspaces to hire. Within six months their ‘community’ of female only entrepreneurs grew to over 120 members. As the year came to a close, Fives and Abrams made a list of goals for 2008; one of them was to feature in the New York Times, and in February they achieved that, despite never having had any experience in PR or marketing.

“We felt that what we were doing was very press worthy and that there were a lot of stories to be told around our business,” says Fives.

“We got in touch with Marci Alboher (journalist for the New York Times) and she was polite and said that if we were of interest to her she would be in touch.

“For five months we stayed on her radar and invited her to events or kept her updated on what we were doing. We were conscious that we didn’t want to come across as too pushy, but it’s a fine line.”

Perserverance

Fives' and Abrams' patience looked as if it would pay off after Alboher called them to say she would be mentioning the company in a trend article on flexible workspaces. After a marathon two-hour interview and a photo shoot at the In Good Company offices, the story was dropped because a similar story had been published in the New York Times that week, which left Fives and Abrams deflated. However, their luck turned when Alboher contacted them the following week to say she wanted to write a feature on In Good Company for the business pages.

“We had gone through this roller coaster of being excited, being let down and then everything being back on again,” says Fives.

Over four days Alboher interviewed a number of the members of In Good Company, as well as investors and industry commentators for the article. The online publication also carried a link to each of the women’s websites.

Fives says they were “ecstatic” with the finished New York Times article. “We felt it reflected our business well and we were flattered by her nice comments and our members comments too, so we felt touched by that.”

Consequences of good media attention

Just as Fives and Abrams sighed with relief that the article had been well received, the phone began ringing with inquiries from women wanting to become members, demanding realtors asking them to join their client list, and calls from people looking for advice on how to launch their own flexible workspace companies.

The huge amount of interest raised some interesting dilemmas for the In Good Company team, explains Fives.

“We have met a tremendous number of women and had a lot of interest from people who want to do something similar. That’s been a little tricky because we have extension plans and although we are very collaborative sometimes we can’t because we can’t give away our business model.

“We have had to change some of our practices, so now we have a more intense screening process for new members and ask more questions when we take inquiries or have people come meet with us.”

Although Fives doesn’t know exactly how much more traffic has come through the site, she confirmed it was “a lot.” She has an interesting perspective on traffic, saying that she is more interested in the number of people who contact her who are appropriate for the business.

Negative exposure

After the New York Times article was published, Fox News invited Fives, Abrams and Ann Lansing (a designer who uses the workspace) to appear on a business bulletin.

Unfortunately the male presenter accused them of running a feminist company which was “right up there with bra burners”. Fives and Abrams, coolly explained the concept of having a community workspace for female entrepreneurs and described why it had grown in popularity. Eventually the gray suit decided to ditch his bad cop routine and ended the interview by saying he thought they had a great idea on their hands.

A live television interview broadcast is daunting even for the professionals. Fives said she kept calm by showing little emotion, and by not letting the interviewer know she was annoyed.

“He asked me why women are different than men. Well, I don’t really feel qualified to answer that, so I thought how can I answer this question without looking stupid, but at the same time not getting into a conversation that’s not interesting.”

Fives and Abrams stuck to their message and came across as extremely professional and articulate. They have since continued to reap the rewards of their coverage in the New York Times with more local media outlets covering their story.

“I haven’t stopped since the article was published so this is a really exciting and positive time for us,” says Fives.

Getting good media coverage – Adelaide's top tips

1. Decide what is newsworthy about your business. It’s not enough to say you have a great service.
2. If you are a service provider sometimes it’s easier to be quoted as an expert. Think about how you can pitch that.
3. Do your research. Identify appropriate and approachable local media first and then identify who within that newspaper would be the right person to speak to.
4. Reach out in a professional and open way and not in a ‘salesy’ way which can come across as too pushy.
5. Tell the journalist why you are interesting. You can’t say ‘here’s a list of things about me - find out what’s interesting’, that’s not going to work.
6. Stay on the journalists’ radar but again, don’t be pushy.

Click In Good Company Workplaces to read the whole of their press coverage.

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