Cece Salomon-Lee
Cece’s blog, PR Meets Marketing explores the intersection of PR and marketing. Cece has 15 years of public relations experience working with start-up and established organizations in enterprise software, SaaS and digital entertainment.
What companies have you worked for in the past?
I began my career starting out as a translator for Ogilvy PR in Taiwan, transitioning into public relations. When I returned to San Francisco, I continued looking at public relations, working at Niehaus Ryan Wong and Blanc & Otus. Working in a PR agency gave me tremendous exposure to different types of companies from technology start-ups to established organizations in enterprise software, SaaS and digital entertainment. After working in agencies, I decided to get more in-house corporate communications and marketing experience. Most of these companies are technology start ups in streaming media or virtual meeting/events technology
You shared with me that you worked for Ogilvy, Taiwan . How did your experience in Asia enhance your skills ?
Working for Ogilvy Taiwan was a great experience to help me understand cultural differences in the workplace and in business. This is extremely useful when you consider how global our personal and professional worlds have become. And technology is only fueling this globalization.
How to contact companies you aspire to work with
I’ve found LinkedIn to be extremely helpful in this situation. I can view my connections and see who is connected to whom. The different levels of connectivity allows me to determine the strength of relationships and reach out to individuals for introductions and referrals accordingly.
I also find being a member of a group helpful. In many cases, members allow other members to contact one another. I would caution that you be direct and transparent as to why you’re contacting someone from a group. It’s important to know who you’re contacting and why.
How NOT to contact companies you aspire to work with
Some companies are using nontraditional ways for recruiting, such as Twitter and blogs. By doing your research beforehand, you can discover new inroads into the company and tailor your approach to that company. Personally, I think this is one thing that many people neglect to do.
What was the most rewarding project you’ve worked on?
There have been so many rewarding projects that it’s difficult for me to select one over another. One memorable project is the work I did for a mobile start-up company. We were launching the company’s GPS software service at DEMO, which highlights top technology companies and innovations. The project required a lot of coordination and prep work to ensure that the 5 minute demo went flawlessly. I worked with the executives on their presentation, insisting that they rehearse it several times beforehand, as well as coordinated with my team on press outreach. The company received excellent press coverage and was selected as by The Tech Museum of San Jose for an award.
While a lot of work, the project went well for the client and that’s all I can ask for!
Pr and Marketing; for one you need the other. Can you support this statement with an example ?
My perspective is that public relations is an integral part of the marketing function. Marketing provides the overall messaging and branding direction for the company with PR supporting those efforts. This helps to drive the marketing objectives.
However, no matter how positive the PR messages, the company has to back up these claims with quality products and services. For example, until it’s tire recall in 2000, Bridgestone touted the quality of its tires. By ignoring complaints about its tires, the company created a situation that turned into a PR nightmare.
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