MO.com features Grasshopper - PR vs. Social Media

Mike: Hey everyone, it’s Mike Sullivan from MO.com. Thanks for being with me. Joining me today is Stephanie Bullis of Grasshopper. Now I know that you’re used to hearing Jonathan Kay come out, and we’ll touch on where Jonathon is in a bit. But I’d like to welcome Stephanie, and she has a PR background. We’re going to talk a little bit about PR. Before we do, Stephanie would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself?

Stephanie: Sure. So my name is Stephanie Bullis, and I’m the Ambassador of Buzz here at Grasshopper. Obviously, people who are familiar with your site will probably recognize that title and our company. My former colleague, Jonathan Kay, who has now moved on to some bigger startup endeavors, has left me in charge and running the show of all things buzz here at Grasshopper.

Prior to joining Grasshopper, I worked at a PR agency in Boston where I focused mostly on enterprise software, pharmaceuticals, and some startup clients. So I have a communications degree, a background in PR, and just a general love for people.

Mike: Stephanie, from a PR perspective, you’ve kind of seen both sides of the fence. So you’ve been in a PR firm, working for companies, and now you’re in-house as the Ambassador of Buzz for Grasshopper. Can you tell me from seeing those two angles, is there a preferred approach? Is one better than the other?

Stephanie Absolutely. I mean, it’s definitely a question that I get asked a lot, and there’s no clear cut answer to it either. Everyone is different. I think agencies are great at what they do, and I wouldn’t be where I am without agencies, and sometimes I do think they get a bad rep. For startups, I don’t think that they’re the answer, at least right off the gate. For a company like Coca-Cola, you’d be silly to not have an agency. But for a small company that’s just trying to get on the radar, trying to get their first, say, 100 customers, the last thing you need is an agency that wants $10,000 a month in a retainer and will give you kind of just their lower level people that will get you one or two hits and call it a day. It’s definitely more beneficial to have someone in-house that kind of feels the passion of your company and can really tell your story.

Mike: So let’s take the angle of let’s suppose you’re a business and you’re looking to hire someone to come in and be on your staff and focus on PR for the company. Are there things that we should look for when hiring for this type of role?