5 ms·

"After watching 37s over the years, anyone who hires a PR firm today hasn't been paying attention." A PR firm is just a different path to the same destination,

"After watching 37s over the years, anyone who hires a PR firm today hasn't been paying attention." A PR firm is just a different path to the same destination, though most of them DO suck. Believe it or not, there ARE PR firms out there that chase a similar strategy to 37s. The 37s guys are awesome at PR. If you are not awesome at PR, then you can hire a firm. But yeah, if you hire a crappy firm that sends out press releases, you probably HAVEN'T been paying attention (and neither has the PR firm).

adamhowell 17y ago
True, there are probably a few. But I'm starting to believe that -- just like Craig Newmark and Fried suggest doing your own customer service (as long as humanly possible, Newmark still does it daily b/c he's crazy, I think Fried has hired a couple people to do the daily, easy-to-handle questions & problems) so that you "feel the pain" -- you should do your own PR, not just b/c it's cheaper, but also so you can sense what connects and what doesn't and give your small company/startup a human face as soon as possible.
iseff 17y ago
Surprisingly, a few years ago (2006), I received some mail from a PR firm who actually represented 37S. Whether or not they still use a firm, I'm not sure, but it's interesting to note that this success wasn't entirely built from their blog.
- j_b_f 17y ago
  Was it Blast Media? This old SvN blog post from Dec 07 talks about how they used them on a free trial: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/741-ask-37signals-10-ways-to-get-ink http://37signals.com/svn/posts/741-ask-37signals-10-ways-to-... another reference: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/307-what-do-you-want-to-know http://37signals.com/svn/posts/307-what-do-you-want-to-know How do I remember all this junk and not stuff that really matters?!
  - access_denied 17y ago
    Because deep inside you are interested in diciplines like PR. This stuff really matters; to you.
  - j_b_f 17y ago
    @access_denied - wow, that actually makes me feel better. One other thing I wanted to point out was that it's not as if this came naturally to these guys; they have worked really hard for a very long time to get where they are.

adamhowell 17y ago

True, there are probably a few. But I'm starting to believe that -- just like Craig Newmark and Fried suggest doing your own customer service (as long as humanly possible, Newmark still does it daily b/c he's crazy, I think Fried has hired a couple people to do the daily, easy-to-handle questions & problems) so that you "feel the pain" -- you should do your own PR, not just b/c it's cheaper, but also so you can sense what connects and what doesn't and give your small company/startup a human face as soon as possible.

iseff 17y ago

Surprisingly, a few years ago (2006), I received some mail from a PR firm who actually represented 37S. Whether or not they still use a firm, I'm not sure, but it's interesting to note that this success wasn't entirely built from their blog.

j_b_f 17y ago
Was it Blast Media? This old SvN blog post from Dec 07 talks about how they used them on a free trial: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/741-ask-37signals-10-ways-to-get-ink http://37signals.com/svn/posts/741-ask-37signals-10-ways-to-... another reference: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/307-what-do-you-want-to-know http://37signals.com/svn/posts/307-what-do-you-want-to-know How do I remember all this junk and not stuff that really matters?!
- access_denied 17y ago
  Because deep inside you are interested in diciplines like PR. This stuff really matters; to you.
- j_b_f 17y ago
  @access_denied - wow, that actually makes me feel better. One other thing I wanted to point out was that it's not as if this came naturally to these guys; they have worked really hard for a very long time to get where they are.