By Hazel Butters

May 8th, 2015

By PromptBoston

April 1st, 2015

The Prompt Byte: April 1, 2015

The Prompt Byte: April 1, 2015

	The how-to newsletter from Prompt PR		London 22 Upper Ground Eighth Floor London SE1 9PD Boston 745 Atlantic Ave Third Floor Boston MA 02111
	Welcome… Welcome to a mid-week edition of the Prompt Byte! We hope you’re soaring through the days productively. Today, spare a few seconds to learn what you’ll need to ask for in your upcoming crowdfunding campaign and when it’s right to use an apostrophe. Also keep reading if you’ve ever wondered exactly what a PDF is and why the format exists in the first place. Here for the answer to last week’s Geek Speak? It was said by actor and writer Al Boliska. Got it right? Then go grab yourself a treat and don’t forget to let us know your guesses this week. Oh, and have a great week! Hazel Butters CEO Prompt PR Twitter: @PromptLondon and @PromptBoston Facebook: Prompt London and Prompt Boston How to work out how much to ask for in a crowdfunding campaign The main point of crowdfunding is, well, to raise funds from a crowd. So you would think that every team heading towards a crowdfunding launch would have carefully done its math. However in our experience this isn’t always true. Every crowdfunder seems to know their financial goal, but the supporting calculations are rarely as strong as they should be. Some things to consider: It’s important to be very clear not only about how much money you need, but also why you need it, how you will justify the figure to potential backers, and how you plan to spend their money to reach your mission Be very clear about your vision. You need to communicate the core of your ambition so that potential supporters understand precisely which part of the world you want to change and how you intend to achieve it Have a good mix of rewards or perks, and make sure these support your goals. Don’t have too many rewards and don’t do that ‘annoying wedding list’ thing by which you either (a) only have an overwhelming array of cheap low-priced items, or (b) only have options for the big spenders (fridge-freezers, hand-engraved crystal glasses from Paris, grand pianos…) Give insight and details into any operations and finances to date. What have you raised or created so far? How have you spent and managed that money? And how has this past investment helped you to get closer to your mission? Don’t over-ask, however tempting. Because you are fully committed to your campaign you might almost feel like you have to ask for as big a bucketful of cash as possible. But over-asking can make potential backers wary Calculate all the costs of any rewards and add in at least a 20 percent buffer. We’ve seen campaigns slip up on the sudden unexpected costs of a backer event – even on t-shirts If you are offering rewards or perks that must be physically mailed out, be very deliberate and clear about who is paying the shipping costs. If it is you, then be sure you have a buffer for any unexpected changes in delivery charges. For example, we worked on a project with physical perks in which the first items sent backers required an additional piece to be shipped out – at the vendor’s expense Calculate every single manufacturing cost. If you are going to manufacture after crowdfunding, you may be working off estimates, so add in a further 20 percent buffer to ensure you are ready for any nasty surprises Have stretch goals at the ready. Factor these in at the planning stage, so if/when you reach your campaign goal, you are not left scrambling to plan Melius Prompt works in technology hubs on either side of the pond, so we’re always keen to get to know more about the innovators on our doorsteps in both Boston and London. Each week, we’ll interview a local startup to learn more about the technology and inspiration that can be found at home. Recently we chatted with RJ Irving, co-founder and CEO of Melius. This Boston-based startup develops an application that collects your basic financial information and identifies inefficiencies to help improve your money planning for the future. 1) Tell us a bit about Melius. Melius helps financial advisors with the front-end of their business. Most of the technology built for the financial space is geared toward making existing businesses more efficient. The trouble is that most people cannot build a business. That is where we come in. Melius is a simple tool that advisors use with their prospects to educate them about the building blocks of a strong financial plan. Built into our tool is a direct link between advisors and prospects to accelerate the on-boarding process. Most other fintech companies start with the idea of replacing the advisors all together. Melius is designed to enhance the human relationship, not replace it. Read more, here. Scanner Pro 5 Until you actually try and do it, you probably think that you’ve got scanning covered on your smartphone or tablet. Just take a photo, save it and mail it right? But actually doing this for multiple documents in a slick business-class way is another story entirely. The day you actually need this to go well and you find yourself hovering over a scribbled Moleskin on the ‘T’, you’ll remember that you could have bought Scanner Pro5 for less than three bucks. Developed by Readdle, the creators of PDF Office, Scanner Pro 5 transforms your device into a fast and capable scanner that quickly turns any paper document into a PDF ready to upload, mail or send to Dropbox or Evernote. It even does all the tricky edge-detection and geometry stuff for you – very handy for all your crumpled expenses paperwork!		Its versus it’s Ah, yes, the all too familiar confusion of its and it’s. The error is incredibly common and crops up in places one would never imagine, including many corporate websites and brochures. So how do you avoid a mistake that’s so easy to make? Well, it’s easy: Use it’s only when it is a contraction and you mean ‘it is’ or ‘it has’. But always use its and not it’s to mean belonging to it – the word it never takes on an apostrophe when it gets possessive. It’s hard for anyone to buy anything off you if they don’t (a) know you, (b) like you and (c) trust you. One of the best ways that your prospects can get to know, like and trust you is PR. That’s why we think that PR should support sales, and we know that great PR is sales-led. We’re always keen to share our views on PR and how it should support and drive sales. So we are holding a free 50-minute webinar on Friday April 3 at 11am ET (4pm BST) called: ‘How to drive technology sales with PR’. We’ll repeat the webinar (again, live) on Friday April 10, again at 11am ET. Please register at: http://bit.ly/technology-PR-sales (April 3) or http://bit.ly/tech-PR-sales-April10 (April 10). PDF “On second thought, let’s not go to Camelot – it is a silly place.” Unless of course, you happen to be John Warnock, co-founder of Adobe Systems. Back in 1991, he outlined a document file format that he proposed to be independent of hardware, operating systems or application software. His idea was to make sharing documents easier for users amid a computing scene that was becoming increasingly disparate and fragmented, and relied upon people to use the same systems as each other if they wanted to share information in anything like its original state. Back then Warnock called his fledgling system Camelot, but two years later it was released as the PDF, or Portable Document Format. And 22 years later still, it endures as an enormously popular and accessible specification – particularly for scanning or digitally archiving paper documents. “One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.” Without the help of Google, can you identify the voice behind this quote? Tweet us at @PromptBoston and @PromptLondon if you can. We hope you find our newsletter an interesting read. For any feedback on our newsletter, or to discuss how we can help you with your PR, marketing, social media/blogging initiatives, copywriting or surveys, please contact us using the details below. We are always delighted to hear from you. London 22 Upper Ground Eighth Floor London SE1 9PD Boston 745 Atlantic Ave Third Floor Boston MA 02111 info@prompt-pr.com | www.prompt-pr.com
	Copyright Prompt Communications 2015. All Rights Reserved.

By PromptBoston

March 23rd, 2015

The Prompt Byte: March 23, 2015

The Prompt Byte: March 23, 2015

	The how-to newsletter from Prompt PR		London 22 Upper Ground Eighth Floor London SE1 9PD Boston 745 Atlantic Ave Third Floor Boston MA 02111
	Welcome… Happy Monday! Welcome to the Prompt Byte. This week we share thoughts on how to plan the distribution of a press release (hint, try to give your PR team more than 10 minutes’ warning); the difference between further and farther; the original meaning of BASIC and introduce you to a digital lost-and-found platform called Rejjee, based in Boston. Enjoy, and as always, happy reading! Hazel Butters CEO Prompt PR Twitter: @PromptLondon and @PromptBoston Facebook: Prompt London and Prompt Boston How to time a press release “We have something new and the press release is going out tomorrow.” It’s a phrase to make any PR consultant shudder. Yes, if it’s merger-and-acquisition news, or an announcement that simply has to be created and shared with no-excuses urgency, then this is not just permissible but a necessity — and every good PR person is equipped to turn around an important announcement in a limited timeframe. But if the announcement relates to something more standard: a product that has been in research and development for months or years, a business partnership, news of a new customer sale or implementation, research or survey work that has been compiled, then WHY the need to suddenly throw the news out without taking the time to plan when and how to share it? As a rough guide, we like to have any news scheduled in a rolling news pipeline, and to have a press release for deliberate pitching at least two weeks before it going to be released ‘in the wild.’ Longer is better, but we realize not frequently possible, and we certainly can and do work with less. Yes, there are differences in pitching to press in Europe and the United States. There’s a whole different way of working with embargos on both continents, and different press expectations on handling news. Today many vendors are simply too reliant on just ‘throwing releases on the wire’ and taking Google alerts, syndicated links and temporary online hits as ‘coverage.’ They are not deliberately planning news and miss the opportunity for it to be genuine, relevant and compelling to target press — and that’s a wasted release. You deserve more from your company news. So, take the time to make your announcement shine and ensure it reaches the right journalists, in the right way, and at the right time. Rejjee Working in technology hubs on either side of the pond, at Prompt we’re always keen to get to know more about the innovators on our doorsteps in Boston and London. Each week, we’ll interview a local startup to learn more about technology and inspiration that can be found at home. Recently, we chatted with Gary O’Neil, founder and CEO of Rejjee — a crowd-sourced lost-and-found platform set to revolutionize the way you find and replace your most prized possessions. Tell us a bit about Rejjee. Rejjee is in a category all by itself. We register, report and then replace stolen or lost goods through the use of a smartphone application. We are the first digital platform in lost and found that brings the added bonus of matching users with replacement partners — ensuring that their lost or stolen goods will be returned to them one way or the other. We work closely with insurance companies, law enforcement and retailers and the platform is free to use for retailers and the community. There is also a public incident-mapping feature — so you can report a stolen item in real time and alert others in the area. Unlike other finder applications, this is not a battery-driven device vulnerable to technology or process mishaps. It is a complete free SaaS system anybody can use. You can even use Rejjee to find your lost puppy. Read more, here. Network Toolbox This app really is ridiculously cool — if you like that sort of thing. Sure, you’ll need to have spent some hard hours/years sniffing networks and pinging endless silence to really appreciate Network Toolbox. But if you were that soldier then wow, this is like a normal civilian discovering Facebook or FlappyAngries or whatever on their phone for the first time. Get this. For less than five bucks (or four quid) you can analyse local and public networks from your phone. That includes IP and port scanning, rich device and domain information, ping (of course!), FTP/SSH/SFTP client, socket analysis, trace route, spider, Bluetooth detection, SHODAN and Morpheus search integration — too many techy things to throw a screwdriver at, basically. Do you KNOW how much this stuff cost in the 1990s? Well do you? Blimey.		Further or farther? Leading grammatical sources including Oxford English dictionaries increasingly refer to ‘further’ and ‘farther’ as interchangeable synonyms. It’s certainly the case that ‘farther’ is rapidly falling out of common usage, and that ‘further’ can now be used in any context without fear of ridicule or misunderstanding. However there remains an historical distinction between the two words, and sticklers for grammatical accuracy will still strive to discern between the two in specific contexts. Strictly speaking then, it is preferable to use ‘farther’ in relation to physical distances: “Is the mountain farther away than the river?” “How much farther is it exactly?” This is pretty easy to remember because the word ‘far’ is right there in the word. In all other circumstances though, ‘further’ works just fine: “I’m no further in my understanding.” “Did you get much further with your research?” Normally, we utilize this space to bang our own drum, but our hands are getting tired. So we thought we’d let some of our public relations and copywriting customers do the talking for us this week. “In Prompt we feel we have found a public relations company that matches our own personality. Together we are goal focused and strategic, targeting relevant media audiences in key territories, and concentrating on very specific markets. Prompt has understood our ambitions to produce some excellent and metric-based results to date, including opinion pieces, interviews and coverage in core automobile, aerospace and manufacturing press.” — Rick Burke, aPriori You can find more testimonials here. BASIC Most people above a certain age will be somewhat familiar with BASIC. For many of us it was the first general-purpose programming language that we bumped into, while ’10 PRINT “HELLO WORLD” 20 GOTO 10’ was frequently the first ‘computer program’ that would-be techies ever wrote. But fewer people know, or have even considered, that BASIC was an acronym. It is, and it stands for ‘Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.’ The language originated at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in the early 1960s, to help students outside of scientific disciplines use and understand computers. It was immediately well-loved and extremely successful, shipping with all of the successful microcomputers of the 70s and 80s, becoming established in education systems around the world. It’s less popular today amid a great deal of more advanced competition, but is still significant in the guise of Visual Basic (fundamental in the development of .NET) and, going back to its roots, was recently made available by Nintendo on its 3DS and DSi hand-held gaming consoles. “Do you realize if it weren’t for Edison we’d be watching TV by candlelight?” Without the help of Google, can you identify the voice behind this quote? Tweet us at @PromptBoston and @PromptLondon if you can. We hope you find our newsletter an interesting read. For any feedback on our newsletter, or to discuss how we can help you with your PR, marketing, social media/blogging initiatives, copywriting or surveys, please contact us using the details below. We are always delighted to hear from you. London 22 Upper Ground Eighth Floor London SE1 9PD Boston 745 Atlantic Ave Third Floor Boston MA 02111 info@prompt-pr.com | www.prompt-pr.com
	Copyright Prompt Communications 2015. All Rights Reserved.

By PromptBoston

March 23rd, 2015

The Prompt Byte: Rising Stars – Rejjee

The Prompt Byte: Rising Stars – Rejjee

Working in technology hubs on either side of the pond, at Prompt we’re always keen to get to know more about the innovators on our doorsteps in Boston and London. Each week, we’ll interview a local startup to learn more about technology and inspiration that can be found at home.

Recently, we chatted with Gary O’Neil, founder and CEO of Rejjee – a crowd-sourced lost-and-found platform set to revolutionize the way you find and replace your most prized possessions.

1. Tell us a bit about Rejjee.

Rejjee is in a category all by itself. We register, report and then replace stolen or lost goods through the use of a smartphone application. We are the first digital platform in lost and found that brings the added bonus of matching users with replacement partners — ensuring that their lost or stolen goods will be returned to them one way or the other.

We work closely with insurance companies, law enforcement and retailers and the platform is free to use for retailers and the community. There is also a public incident-mapping feature — so you can report a stolen item in real time and alert others in the area.

Unlike other finder applications, this is not a battery-driven device vulnerable to technology or process mishaps. It is a complete free SaaS system anybody can use. You can even use Rejjee to find your lost puppy.

2. What does innovation mean to you?

My partner and I started in the ad world years ago. In that world, we use the word ‘creativity.’ Creativity and innovation are two words that run parallel; but innovation goes a step further — the step of usefulness. If you can merge creativity and innovation, you have something special.

3. Why is New England such a hotbed for innovation?

New England celebrates education beyond belief. It is a perfect place for innovation, because it is all coming out of our universities. The churn of students, professors and ideas is enormous — it drives us all.

The West Coast is sunny, but our development and innovation district is fantastic. If you were holding a light bulb as you emerged from the “T”, it feels as if it could be lit just from the energy in the air. You can’t replace that.

4. Do you have any concerns about the New England growth and innovation culture?

The biggest problem for everybody is money. We need to build upon the investor community — angels, VCs — all of that. And you need money to drive that. You have to feed the engine, and the energy is money. Money enables creativity. The investors we’ve spoken with have provided invaluable feedback, but the fact remains that West-Coast deals have more zeros than East Coast deals. It’s the only thing holding the area back.

5. What are some of the trends and challenges you’ve seen in the New England tech scene?

Of course, medical innovation is rooted here in New England. But, its also worth looking at what the younger generation is doing — social apps and their revenue streams.

The collaborative nature of the actual people in New England is fabulous. More collaborating is welcome by everybody in the technology community.

But, we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of what Boston can do. The 2024 Olympics would be an excellent stage to showcase this.

6. If you weren’t based in New England, which city and/or country would you want to be based in and why?

I would be in Key West. Of course, there is no innovation economy there … I’d just be sitting down with Jimmy Buffet, learning to love margaritas. To me, Boston is the only place to be. The churn, diversity, and the city itself is gorgeous — it has everything.

7. If you could meet any single innovator (alive or dead) over a coffee, who would you want to meet?

Jonathan Ive from Apple.

8. Name a piece of technology you’ve bought personally that you love — either recently or in the past — and why you bought it.

My smartphone. My MacBook Air. My Garmin multifunction display for my boat — it does everything. Though, I think the fish display is only designed to make me buy more Goldfish.

By PromptBoston

March 2nd, 2015

The Prompt Byte – Rising Stars: Riskified

The Prompt Byte – Rising Stars: Riskified

Working in technology hubs on either side of the pond, at Prompt we’re always keen to get to know more about the innovators on our doorsteps in Boston and London. Each week, we’ll interview a local startup to learn more about technology and inspiration that can be found at home.

We caught up with Andy Freedman of Riskified; a company dedicated to eliminating the security risks and inefficiencies in the world of eCommerce. The Israeli startup has recently opened a new Boston office and we’re here to find out why.

1. Tell us a bit about what Riskified is all about and how it got started. 
Riskified is an end-to-end risk management solution. We help more than 2,000 eCommerce merchants to prevent online fraud by reviewing, approving and guaranteeing their orders. We launched Riskified with a goal to build the world’s best eCommerce fraud team. We stop online fraudsters and allow merchants to focus on growing their business without fear of fraud.

2. What does innovation mean to you? 
Innovation is the ongoing process of solving real customer pain. It involves endless iteration, learning by doing, and constantly validating your product or service by maintaining an active conversation with customers.
3. Why is Boston such a hotbed for innovation? 
As an Israeli startup opening our first US offices in Boston, there are several similarities between our two vibrant startup communities. As well as boasting a wealth of talent, Israel and Boston also share a sense of passion and pride for their local ecosystem. Each community seizes every opportunity to collaborate, rejoice in success and be vocal advocates for startups on a global scale.
4. Do you have any concerns about Boston’s growth and innovation culture?
I think it is natural to fear that successful Boston startups will be lured away into other markets on the promise of greater exposure and financial gains. However I believe that a key driver for the incredible growth we are seeing in Boston is a shared sense of pride in making Boston a global powerhouse across a wide-range of industries.
5. What are some of the trends and challenges you’ve seen in the Boston tech scene?
Having spent time living in both Palo Alto and Tel Aviv it has been fun to watch Boston’s emergence as a consumer technology powerhouse, alongside traditionally strong industries like SaaS, biotech and robotics. I look forward to seeing Boston continue to attract tech companies of all stages from other global communities – like Israel, Europe and Asia – and continue to expand our international reputation.
6. If you weren’t based in Boston which city and/or country would you want to be based in and why?
I may be a bit biased but Tel Aviv, hands down. Despite the massive weather upgrade (it will be in the 70s and sunny all next week), the number of game-changing products and services being built in such a small country is inspiring to be around.
7. Name a piece of technology you’ve bought personally that you love – either recently or in the past – and why you bought it. 
I finally started using my Cuisinart Food Processor that was given to me as a wedding present almost 4 years ago. Now I’m addicted. I’m looking for any recipes to try, so if you’re reading this and have any suggestions, I’m all ears!

To learn more about Riskified, browse their site or follow them on Twitter.

By PromptBoston

February 16th, 2015

The Prompt Byte – Rising Stars: CoPatient

The Prompt Byte – Rising Stars: CoPatient

Prompt works out of technology hubs on either side of the pond, and we’re always keen to get to know more about the innovators on our doorsteps in Boston and London. Each week, we’ll interview a local startup to learn more about the technology and inspiration that can be found at home.

This week we hear from Rebecca Palm, co-founder of CoPatient; a system designed to help enable patients to manage and minimize medical expenses.

Please tell us more about CoPatient and how you got started.

It all started while my co-founder Katie Vahle and I were working at AthenaHealth. We consistently noticed that people weren’t paying their medical bills on time. Through research we found that people were actually just confused and skeptical about what they owed, and had no resources to guide them. Together we left Athena to create a technology driven, patient-centric solution. Just like that, CoPatient was born. CoPatient acts as every consumer’s trusted advisor for healthcare bills. We review and negotiate bills on each consumer’s behalf and typically find errors or overcharges on 80% of the bills we review.

What does innovation mean to you?

I think of innovation pretty simply. It really is just solving a problem in a new way to make a positive difference.

Why do you think Boston is such a hotbed for innovation?

We have so many highly rated institutions in the area bringing top-level intellectuals to the city. Mayor Marty Walsh is also making great efforts to support innovation and the success of startups. I know that he is appointing a ‘startup czar’ to help entrepreneurs thrive, and is also in the process of implementing a cross-departmental Office of Analytics to bring big data to city operations.

Do you have any concerns about Boston’s growth and innovation culture?

My biggest concern about growth and innovation in Boston is that the infrastructure and cost of living is prohibitive, making it hard for younger people to live in the city.

Describe some of the trends and challenges you’ve seen in the Boston tech scene?

Collaboration and community learning are very hot topics right now. Our office is located at WeWork, which is a co-working office space community. It has been described as a ‘physical social network’. Places like this are becoming more and more common today, allowing startups to collaborate, lean on each other and develop an entire community. In a cutthroat world, that is a great backbone to have.

If you weren’t based in Boston which city or country would you want to be in and why?

Hands down it would have to be Chicago. It offers so many of the same benefits as Boston, but on a larger and yet more affordable basis. It is also a major transportation hub, making it incredibly valuable.

Name one piece of technology you’ve bought personally that you love – either recently or in the past – and why you bought it.

While today it is considered outdated and old, I really loved the very first Nav System for my car. I remember that for my first job, I was constantly traveling and had to buy these massive foldout maps. Getting my hands on that little computer just changed my whole world.

To learn more about CoPatient, check them out on Facebook and Twitter.

By PromptBoston

January 8th, 2015

The Prompt Byte: Rising stars – ARTReader

The Prompt Byte: Rising stars – ARTReader

Working in technology hubs on both side of the Atlantic, we’re always keen to know more about the innovators on our doorsteps in Boston and London. Each week in our newsletter – The Prompt Byte – we interview a local startup to learn more about technology and inspiration that can be found at home.

This week, we garnered some great insights from Mark Loughran, creator of ARTReader – an appthat will enable you to read faster, work harder and be smarter.

1. Tell us a bit about what the app is all about and how it got started.

ARTReader was born out of the idea that digital reading could be improved. The existing speed-reading apps out there all made a strong focus on increasing Word Per Minute rates and nothing else. I wanted to see a program that was variable and responded to the changes of the user. Rather than something that improved speed, I wanted a program that simply helped the reader stay focused and engaged. By adding controls for speed and position that could be adjusted in real time, it started to take on the feel of playing a videogame as you read. Reading feels like it can be benefitted so much by data and I didn’t see it out in the market. The idea bounced around in my head and then while through hiking the Appalachian Trail I met another hiker who was interested in working with me. A year passed before we started work with the aim of creating a reading app that could help everyone. We’ve had to work remotely which has its benefits and detriments, but has been a great partnership.

1. What does innovation mean to you?

To me innovation is simply doing the grunt work that others won’t. The risk element involved with applying resources to an idea that may or may not be profitable. Before I began I seriously considered the question of why didn’t my idea already exist? For the entrepreneur, I think there is a personal rejection of the established hypothesis. At some point all the spreadsheets and MBA’s said it wouldn’t work or wasn’t cost effective, and the innovator is the one attempting to validate a contrarian hypothesis.

1. Why is New England such a hotbed for innovation?

Having grown up here, I think a lot of it comes from the Puritan work ethic and the winter. People in Boston know how to work hard. Between the education and financial competitiveness, you don’t find any lazy entrepreneurs, and the same goes for Angels or VC’s. A good idea doesn’t cut it in the Northeast, you need to prove you can execute. Out west there seems to be more of a prospector’s mentality, and NYC has some pretension to it. The second factor is the winter or rather the harsh high cost of living. If you don’t make it in Boston, you can’t just float, you have to keep moving. The successes of Boston’s innovative companies are usually not ground breaking, but practical, built on solid foundations and backed by sober investors. What we lack in imagination we make up for in feasibility.

1. Do you have any concerns about New England  growth and innovation culture?

Too much a fear of making a mistake over missing out on an opportunity. This applies both to the culture at large, but on a micro level to finding talented people. I can’t blame anyone just graduating for not taking a steady paycheck right out the gate, but that’s usually the best time to try out a startup. The big companies snatch up talent and incentivize them to stay; it’s hard with a limited budget to convince talented people of taking a chance. Especially when the winter comes, no one wants to be left without heat so to speak.

1. What are some of the trends and challenges you’ve seen in the New England tech scene?

The trends I’ve seen most recently involve the resurgence of hardware-based startups. Considering all the phenomenal engineering minds and programs out here it is to be expected, but for a few years prior it felt like all the press and attention was going towards social and healthcare. Now there’s a major focus on building things and companies that make improvements on real products. The marriage of software and hardware in its new form, the Internet of things, is going to bring some really cool innovations in the next decade

1. If you weren’t based in New England, which city and/or country would you want to be based in and why?

Boulder, CO / Denver, CO. The culture out there is amazingly enthusiastic about changing the world both culturally and practically. The cost of living is lower, and there’s definitely a sense of secondary entrepreneurs; people who work and collectively contribute to their efforts before or after work and on the weekends. The last time I was out there, I met a group starting a business renting out a house as an office, and the cost had me jealous about my own rent. It has that early silicon feel to it, people brimming with potential. The downside was seeing how much of that energy being spent on Ping-Pong and other activities.

1. Name a piece of technology you’ve bought personally that you love – either recently or in the past – and why you bought it.

To this day, the original iPhone I bought still feels special. The whole smart phone thing coming together in the touch screen medium, looking like a miniature monolith, made me feel like I was surfing the cultural crest of the wave. To have access to the worlds information in your hand is still having ripple effects through culture that will continue for the next 20 years. I can remember using my iPhone for the first time and really feeling like the Star Trek era had begun.

By PromptBoston

November 8th, 2013

Impromptu: Our latest tech-filled newsletter hits inboxes today

Impromptu: Our latest tech-filled newsletter hits inboxes today

It’s Friday and, unless you’re in the thick of technology, PR and copywriting like us, you may have missed some interesting stories this week. When the busyness of daily life takes over, it’s not always easy to stay up to date on the latest and greatest in technology news – which where we come in.

Impromptu subscribers can sit back, relax and enjoy their coffee breaks with our award-winning newsletter, distributed directly to inboxes every other Friday, and get caught up. Never again will you be the lunk at the bar on a Saturday night who had no idea Google had a mysterious barge hanging out off the coast of Maine.

This week, Promptoids Hazel, Dave, Sinead, Jackie, Max and Sam delve into India’s mission to Mars, the big Adobe hack, bitcoins, green-tech news, media happenings on both sides of the pond and the storage disk designed to endure a million years.

Still haven’t signed up? Don’t worry – we won’t let you miss out. To view this week’s edition, simply click here. While you’re at it, be sure to follow this link and get registered. See you again in two weeks!

Would you like us to cover something specific? We’d love to hear your Impromptu feedback – tweet us at @PromptBoston and @PromptLondon.

By PromptBoston

March 18th, 2013

Prompt’s content marketing Monday tip #7: Partner up!

Prompt’s content marketing Monday tip #7: Partner up!

Most marketers know all too well that one of the biggest challenges of great content marketing is developing that great content.

There is always high demand for compelling content, and while we would naturally recommend partnering with a professional PR and content creation agency such as ourselves, we know that outsourcing isn’t always an option for everyone. However, we also realize that internal bandwidth in any expanding businesses is generally limited, and any wishes you may have for a few more hours in the day – or for a time machine – are probably falling on deaf ears.

So where to turn? How about to other like-minded businesses? Partnering up for the exchange of ideas and content will not only expand your ideas and your audience, it should also prove a fun thing to do. At the end of the day, business is about exchanging ideas and opportunities, and you should never be too shy to collaborate.

For example, we’ve been working with MarketMeSuite, a company that we met just by chance – a benefit of working in a space like the Cambridge Innovation Center, located right in tech-savvy, booming Kendall Square. We really liked the company, its product and its vision, so we got to know them better. We talk about the markets we both work in, areas that interest us, and trends that we both see.

Recently, we decided to work together on some mutually-benefiting content. We completed a post for MarketMeSuite’s blog, which we called ‘Tweet The Press: Prompt’s Guide to Twitter Media Relations’. Our new friends shared our post with their audience across social media and their newsletter, and we posted a really great article from them on our blog, shared it over social media, and published it in our own Impromptu newsletter.

From experience then, here are a few tips on how to create the perfect content marketing partnership:

1. Find a good partner. Think of people and companies that you like, respect and are sure would be fun to work with. MarketMeSuite has a really engaging team with great ideas, so we knew it would be enjoyable, and mutually beneficial
2. Think about what you each bring to the table, including content ideas, company visions, ideals and audiences. You need to make sure that any content you are developing is relevant to your partner’s audiences. Yes, it’s an opportunity to expand horizons, but not to alienate
3. Set deliverables. Just like any business partnership, it’s best to have it all agreed and laid explicitly. If you think that you’re writing something for a partner’s newsletter but your partner doesn’t plan on including your content, then you’re going to run into problems. Keep things clear from the outset
4. Consider how to approach numerical goals: This is business, so it’s not out of the realms of possibility that one party may be thinking strictly in terms of the number of unique views, downloads or even sales queries your reciprocal arrangement might generate. Be clear and realistic – if you’re just starting a content partnership then you need to get content out there, see what the reaction is and then determine your next steps
5. Be collaborative. Brainstorm and share ideas, look for overlap
6. Have fun. These are great opportunities to exchange fun ideas, new ways of thinking and to engage with someone new. Have fun with it!

By Media Team

October 5th, 2012

Apple addiction: A direct effect from its marketing strategy

Apple addiction: A direct effect from its marketing strategy

As a content creation, copywriting and public relations firm working with numerous technology companies, we constantly keep up with the latest innovations in the digital world. Lately, Apple has caught our eye – in a very strategic manner.

Every time Apple releases a new product, Apple addicts and newbies alike line up at the nearest Apple Store, some even camping out for days, to be the first to get their hands on the latest and greatest product. It’s become a cycle we’ve grown all too familiar with.

While sitting in the office the other day, this was mentioned and it got me thinking. I bought my iPhone over a year ago, after using a BlackBerry Curve for two years. I am now 99% team iPhone (my only complaint being the battery life).

The company’s approach is simple: Apple is always very hush-hush about its product debuts. A buzz is created around new technology, and weeks or months later, Apple announces the date for a launch event, where it will announce the date of availability and pre-order specifics.

Take for example the iPhone 5, the most recent addition to the iPhone family. Blogs and tech sites had been talking about the iPhone 5 for months, with Apple keeping tight lipped about the whole thing. On Tuesday, September 4th, Apple finally sent emails to the media inviting them to an ‘invitation-only event’, news that many had been waiting for.

The event and teaser invites secured endless amounts of Apple coverage, which then created a mob of people waiting outside the Apple Store for hours on release date (pictures were tweeted out from both @PromptLondon and @PromptBoston). Seems like simple cause and effect, right? No, it’s just Apple’s genius marketing strategy (business owners take note).

For the latest technology news, marketing strategies and Apple updates, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter here.

By Media Team

June 15th, 2011

Prompt's newsletter turns heads at the International Academy of the Visual Arts

Prompt's newsletter turns heads at the International Academy of the Visual Arts

It’s official — Prompt’s weekly online newsletter, Impromptu, is award-winning! Check out the press release here.

After recently celebrating our 300th issue and Impromptu’s sixth birthday, we were thrilled to be recognized by the International Academy of the Visual Arts with an Award of Distinction in the academy’s 17th annual Communicator Awards where Impromptu was awarded for “exceeding industry standards in quality and achievement in interactive online advertising or marketing for a newsletter”. We couldn’t be more proud!

The Prompt team works together each week to produce a compelling read that goes out to subscribers each Friday. We like to think of it as a nice way to usher in the weekend with our views on the latest tech news, general goings-on and even different country perspectives from members of the company’s teams based in the UK and the US (think Morris Men, royal weddings, NASCAR, and tea drinking…).

If you already subscribe, then we hope our tone speaks for itself on just how much each member of our team enjoys contributing to the newsletter each week.

If you haven’t jumped on the Impromptu train quite yet, then why not subscribe today? Swing on over to http://www.prompt-the-crowd.com/newsletter-sign-up/ to sign up now!

Interested in learning how newsletters can add value to your company? Get in touch with us at info@prompt-communications.com to learn how the Prompt team can work with you to increase sales and marketing effectiveness while supporting lead generation and working to build and sustain rapport with your key audiences.

By Media Team

June 15th, 2011

Prompt weekly newsletter, Impromptu, wins Award of Distinction at the 17th Annual Interactive Design Award competition

Prompt weekly newsletter, Impromptu, wins Award of Distinction at the 17th Annual Interactive Design Award competition

— Free weekly online newsletter recognized for exceeding industry standards in quality and achievement —

Boston, MA – June 15, 2011 – Prompt Communications, a PR and communications agency specializing in innovative markets including sustainability, technology and healthcare, has received a 2011 Communicator Award from the International Academy of the Visual Arts. The Award of Distinction recognizes Prompt’s weekly newsletter, Impromptu, for “exceeding industry standards in quality and achievement in interactive online advertising or marketing for a newsletter”.

Prompt’s mission is to enable marketers and entrepreneurs to increase their sales and marketing effectiveness. The team works with a range of clients from start-ups to household technology names to ensure they communicate effectively and authentically with core audiences online and offline through PR, media relations, copywriting, webinars, market and industry analysis, social media, video content and customer reference programs.

Impromptu is a free weekly technology and marketing newsletter that recaps some of the week’s technology and marketing news stories, as well as country perspectives from members of the company’s team based in the UK and the US. These perspectives include personal views on Morris Men, royal weddings, NASCAR, and tea drinking; stark transatlantic differences in the meanings of words such as ‘quite’, ‘homely’, ‘boot’, and ‘hire’; and phrases that simply don’t translate well, from ‘wheelhouse’ to ‘I should coco’.

Circulated every Friday, the Prompt team has consistently delivered the newsletter to its subscribers for over six years. The Prompt team that produces Impromptu also designs, writes and produces email newsletters for Prompt’s client base, adding to lead generation efforts and supporting vendors’ sales cycle.

Hazel Butters, CEO of Prompt Communications explained: “Newsletters are a great way to stay front and center of prospects’ minds and to directly and authentically communicate the expertise, sense of culture, understanding of a market, and products and services offered to that market. Sometimes we speak to vendors who tell us they couldn’t possibly create a regular newsletter, which I think is nonsense – in technology there is so much happening that there are plenty of opportunities to offer opinion, demonstrate what your customers are doing, showcase partnerships, and talk about innovation. Whether it’s daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly, as long as the content is compelling, you track what people read and click on, review and use that feedback, then newsletters are a great way to build and sustain rapport with prospects, customers, employees, suppliers and business partners.”

Hazel concluded: “We’re extremely pleased that Impromptu has been recognized by the International Academy of the Visual Arts. We recently celebrated a milestone of six years and our 300th issue of the newsletter, and we look forward to covering all the technology changes that the next six years will bring. The Prompt team really enjoys working individually and collectively on creating the content for each issue, and we’re proud to see this work recognized as a model of how regular communications can help companies build and sustain rapport with key audiences.”

To subscribe to Prompt’s Impromptu newsletter visit http://www.prompt-the-crowd.com/newsletter-sign-up/.

For more information about Prompt, visit http://www.prompt-the-crowd.com today or email info@prompt-communications.com to schedule a free PR and comms consultation with members of its Pan-European or US-based teams today.

Twitter: @PromptLondon and @PromptBoston
Blog: http://www.prompt-the-crowd.com/blog

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About The Communicator Awards

The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program honoring creative excellence for Communications Professionals. Founded by communication professionals over a decade ago, The Communicator Awards received over 6,000 entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest awards of its kind in the world.

About Prompt Communications

Prompt is a communications agency that enables marketers and entrepreneurs to increase their sales and marketing effectiveness. Specializing in innovative markets including sustainability, technology and healthcare, Prompt helps its clients communicate effectively and authentically with core audiences online and offline through PR, media relations, copywriting, webinars, market and industry analysis, social media, video content and customer reference programs.

Founded in January 2002, Prompt Communications has European offices in Chiswick, London and US offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California. Prompt’s current and former clients include Adeptra, Adobe Systems Incorporated, Aperture, Barros Technologies, Corizon, Dell Compellent, Foviance, Genesys Telecommunications, GenSight, Grouptree, IBM, jovoto, KANA, Oracle Corporation, smartFOCUS and Webtide.

For more information, visit www.prompt-communications.com