By Mark Macias
Technology has sent the giants falling like dominoes.
Blockbuster Video, Tower Records and others – destroyed after they failed to adapt to technology.
Asset management has remained primarily immune to any major disruptions from technology but that could change soon.
In September 2015, Macias PR hosted a hedge fund and private equity forum where we brought together industry leaders to discuss some of the emerging trends and threats they are seeing in alternative assets. One of the panelists detailed how cyber security is a potential tech disruption to fund managers and predicted it will hit the small and medium sized funds hardest.
But there is another potential disruption that could hit the alternative asset industry. It’s a legislative disruption, called the JOBS Act, which drastically changes the way fund managers find new investors.
I meet hedge fund managers all the time who say they don’t need publicity. But when I ask them: would you want your fund to appear in a Wall Street Journal story? All of them say yes.
One-on-one introductions with investors won’t go away, but now that the JOBS Act allows funds to market themselves to investors via the media, suddenly smart fund managers can reach thousands and even millions of targeted investors with only one news story.
Keep in mind, I’m not talking about advertisements. I’m talking about news stories that appear inside the influential financial publications, like the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and Institutional Investor Magazine.
Here’s an infographic that takes a closer look at why PR is positioned to disrupt the financial industry.
I like to give PR tips on our Facebook page. Earlier this month, a tech startup entrepreneur inspired a post after she said she spent 30 minutes on the phone with a New York Times reporter, but her business was never mentioned in the final story. She never identified a media narrative. It led to this post:
PR Tip of the Day: A great narrative is important when dealing with reporters, but your pitch must always include enough intrigue that the media can’t do the story without you as the expert.
On a macro level, this is similar to what we are seeing right now with VP Joe Biden’s potential entry into the race. Will he run or won’t he run? The suspense is putting Biden in the center of the narrative, which if he decides to run, will give him an advantage with his media campaign.
Macias PR was named the 2015 “PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA” by Finance Monthly. The firm was founded by Mark Macias – a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. Macias is a weekly contributor with CNBC.com and author of the communications book, Beat the Press: Your Guide to Managing the Media, which has been featured in the NY Times, Fox Business, NY Post and others. Macias PR has run media campaigns for tech startups, financial groups, service providers, nonprofits and politicians.
By Mark Macias
Sometimes you just get lucky.
As a business owner, I am extremely lucky to work closely with the CEO of one of the country’s oldest lending organization. Every time we speak, I learn how to become a better business owner, entrepreneur, publicist and person.
Earlier this week, this CEO led an inspiring speaking series where he explained how he uses “magic” to sell in his boardroom. Not the kind of magic that deceives people, but the kind of magic that allows people to believe in you and your product.
We may not realize it, but if we want to grow our businesses, we must inspire others to believe in our products or services. Tech startups, young entrepreneurs and even experienced business owners must continually prove to potential customers or clients why our expertise will take their business to a higher level. We must also convince journalists to believe in our tech startup or business if we are going to succeed with media placements.
As a former Executive Producer with NBC in New York, I needed to believe in a story before I approved it. Now, as the owner of a PR firm, I need to get other journalists to believe in our clients if we are going to succeed in our media campaigns. And after listening to this inspiring speech, I am going to sprinkle a little “magic” as we try to sell our stories to reporters.
So what is this magic that this CEO shared with his audience made up of business owners, entrepreneurs and sales people? Click here to read that story I wrote for Digital Journal and to watch a video excerpt from his speech.
Macias PR was named the 2015 “PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA” by Finance Monthly. The firm was founded by Mark Macias – a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. Macias is a weekly contributor with CNBC.com and author of the communications book, Beat the Press: Your Guide to Managing the Media, which has been featured in the NY Times, Fox Business, NY Post and others. Macias PR has run media campaigns for tech startups, financial groups, service providers, nonprofits and politicians.
By Mark Macias
No one wants to prepare for a crisis but it’s something every business owner should have in the back of his mind. What happens when your company has a cyber security breach or a media scandal is surfacing? If you’re in asset management, what should a fund manager do when he gets an SEC inquiry letter?
All of those questions were addressed in a recent hedge fund and private equity panel, sponsored by Macias PR. Here’s a snippet from the crisis section of the panel.
You can hear more from this panel at the Macias PR Youtube Page.
By Mark Macias
I converse with business owners on a daily basis and the conversations inevitably lead to the various marketing strategies/trends, along with the ROI they bring. Surprisingly, there are many misconceptions of PR in the business community, including you can’t quantitatively measure the ROI of PR.
Our team put together this infographic that compares the ROI of two of the most popular marketing strategies: PR and Advertising. Everything is sourced for your own analysis.
Mark Macias is a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. He’s also a weekly contributor with CNBC.com and author of the communications book, Beat the Press: Your Guide to Managing the Media, which has been featured in the NY Times, Fox Business, NY Post and others. Macias consults small and large businesses on how to get publicity. You can read more on his firm at MaciasPR.