Today we’d like to introduce you to Jim Farrell.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My background prior to public relations was weekly newspapers. I was the editor and publisher of several weeklies on the South Shore, which is where I had my first exposure to PR. As an editor, I received many inquiries from public relations firms on behalf of their clients. Some firms understood the news industry better than others, and when I launched PR First, I knew I wanted this company to be one that understands our news media audience. And we do.
We are a seven-person company, four of us have backgrounds in journalism and publishing.
What specifically led me to start this company? In 1998, I was the Manager of Public Relations at a direct marketing firm, when the company owners made the decision to shut down the PR department. Although they generously offered me a different position within the company, it was one of those “no time like the present” moments and in March 1998 I left to start PR First.
We will celebrate our 20th anniversary in March 2018. Our offices are in Hanover, about 25 miles southeast of Boston. We work throughout the Greater Boston area with clients across a wide range of industries, mostly B2B and professional service firms. We work with manufacturers, distributors, CPAs, banks, architects, office equipment and technology firms, commercial and residential real estate companies, and a few non-profit, social service agencies.
Many of our clients are located here in Massachusetts, although we do have clients in other states including Connecticut, Indiana, Illinois, and Texas. And a number of our Massachusetts-based clients are national in nature, so we work with media across the United States. We help clients with a number of PR strategies: from press releases to interviews, to the placement of guest “thought leadership” pieces, all with the objective of helping our companies gain visibility in the media and be seen as experts in their field.
Has it been a smooth road?
It’s been more smooth than bumpy, but every journey includes a bump or two along the way. It’s been an exciting ride for sure! We have a great team in place and we work with interesting companies across a wide range of industries. We planned the business around the idea of not being too dependent on any one industry but instead having a balance across many segments of the market. Overall, we are optimistic about the economy going into 2018.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the PR First story. Tell us more about the business.
Our PR firm helps businesses tell their stories through the news media — newspapers, magazines, websites, TV, radio and online. We begin with a client company by identifying what is “newsworthy” within their business. That includes new hires or promotions, a new office, awards they’ve won, community service work, a new product or service.
From there we develop and distribute ongoing press releases to the media in order to have our companies be the ones that are seen and read about on a regular basis. We also work with the news media to encourage them to interview our clients in their areas of expertise, and we look for opportunities to have our clients write “thought leadership” articles that showcase their knowledge. And we help clients take their placements and post them on social media.
What sets us apart from others is our strong backgrounds in news media and our previous work in the industry that we constantly approach on behalf of our clients. We understand the difference between news and advertising and don’t try to blur the lines. We recognize that both are important and that all forms of marketing should complement each other. We are good at identifying what opportunities within a company or organization are likely to be well-received by the media, and we concentrate our efforts there.
I am proud of the people I work with, who are fun, professional and self-starters. Our team includes Colleen Cimini, who is our Vice-President; Nicole Joy Hales, our Senior Account Manager; Sharon Nery, our lead writer and account manager; Arlene Anderton, our Office Manager, and Cara Cimini, who works with us in social media. My wife Susan, who was a career elementary school teacher, is our financial officer and keeps track of how our company is doing.
I am proud also of the great clients we work with — and what I genuinely enjoy are the chances we get to help our clients shine in the news media. Although we are very pro-active and plan months in advance, this is a very deadline-driven industry. Over the years, we’ve had more than a few calls from editors and reporters who may need a “last minute article” or interview from a client and were generally able to turn those opportunities around. The greatest compliments we receive as a PR firm is from our news media contacts who tell us “you understand our industry.”
Where do you see your industry going over the next 5-10 years? Any big shifts, changes, trends, etc?
The biggest change in the last two decades has been the migration to online content. What was once an industry which relied primarily on print and electronic media outlets (newspapers, magazines, radio, television) now offers additional placement opportunities across many online outlets and social media? Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram have become a key part of many PR campaigns, as have online channels such as YouTube.
What we see over the next 5-10 years is the introduction of more online channels, increased use of blogging and other online content opportunities to help companies boost their ranking on the search engines, greater use of social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter, and finally an uptick in the number of companies who use some form of public relations to help tell their stories.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://prfirst.com
- Phone: 781-681-6616
- Email: jfarrell@prfirst.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PRFirstNorwell/
- Twitter: @jimprfirst
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