Publicity & presentation (english)

Publicity & presentation (english)

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  Publicity & Presentation Startupbootcamp - Madrid Roxanne Varza Editor, TechCrunch France
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  Outline ● Getting attentionfrom the press ● Writing a good press release ● Communicating with the press ● Best practices
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  I. Getting attentionfrom the press Several possibilities ● creating "buzz" ● famous by association ● making an announcement ● other alternatives ("goodies")
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  Creating "buzz" ● aninnovative way to get attention ● example: HOPA dry-erase girl (a hoax) ● http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/11/elyse-porterfield/
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  Famous by association Tipfrom Julia Allison: "Whenever someone takes a picture of me, I always try to stand next to someone famous..."
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  Making an announcement ● a launch, fundraising/investment, the opening of an office, recruiting someone at Facebook, impressive statistics, a new product with hot new features*" ● these all deserve classic press releases *Avoid "announcing" new features every month, it annoys the press/me
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  Other options/goodies ● Afunny story (but don't abuse this) ○ Examples: ■ People renting goats as lawn mower on E-loue.com ■ A 9 year old child produces a professional magazine using MadMags' platform... ○ Bad example: "a dog made a website using our product" ● Be part of a trend ○ wave of Q&A sites like Quora, social games, YCombinator (great one for SBC startups) ● Mystery or something impressive ○ Example: Hipster, 10K sign-ups in 2 days without anyone knowing what the product even was!
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  II. Writing agood press release ● Only for announcing something traditional or classic (hiring someone from Facebook, announcing an investment round...) ● Why I personally like press releases ○ especially useful for technical terms/expressions ○ summary of essential info that should be included ● But I do NOT want to simply republish a press release, I need MORE info!
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  Always include basicinformation ● The official launch date ● Number of people on the team ● How much money have you raised? Is there an investment round in the future or in process? ● Competitors (from USA, EUR, your country of origin) ● Business model ● Is there a mobile app? Integration with social networks? ● Stats? (Number of users, etc.) ● High-profile client names to include? ● Some new projects/features to come in the near future? ● Are you going international/to new markets?
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  PR Agencies Good Bad ● A journalist can go to ● It can get complicated for ONE person for info on organizing interviews or several companies asking for follow-up information after a press release is sent ● PR reps never have ALL the information on the company and take longer to get it (critical for a blogger/real-time media)
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  III. Communicating withthe press The way in which you communicate with journalists is MORE important than the information you are sending!!!
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  Before sending apress release... ● Know and select the right media and journalist ○ Example: Michael Arrington and I both write for TechCrunch - except Mike hates France and I love France. We are not going to write about French startups the same way... ● Also, know how the journalist prefers to receive information. This is usually VERY clear on the website of the publication and is meant to save time!
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  The email inboxof a journalist/blogger Death by email (I receive several hundred emails per day) ● Personalize: "Hello Roxanne..." gets my attention ● Pick a short but punchy email title
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  Tips for sendinga press release ● Pick a good title for the email ● Personalize the email with the name of the journalist ● Send all information or elements in advance for better quality articles ○ BE CLEAR if there is an embargo date/time ● Give exclusive information and be clear about it (journalists love this) ● Communicate and coordinate with the others involved in the press release (investors, partners, etc.)
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  Sending a pressrelease The particular case of a blogger: ● it is a real-time media publication ● it is an interactive media Tips: ● Put all information into the body of the email ● Include links, videos, references to other articles ● Don't forget to send screen shots and a recent logo
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  IV. Best practices ● Following up with a journalist who hasn't published anything ● Corrections ● Competitors ● Social Media ● Top Secrets
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  When should youask a journalist why they haven't written about you yet? ● All journalists are bombarded with info ○ It is OK to ping the journalist to verify they want to write about your topic ● The journalist may not like your product or company or isn't at ease with the subject ○ Ask the journalist but do not insist - this can lead to bad press (see below...) ● It is also possible that the content isn't in the editorial line of the publication ○ Example: not all iphone apps are TechCrunch material
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  IV. Best Practices ●When should you ask a journalist to make a correction? ○ You can ignore typos ○ Correct (politely!) information that is incorrect ■ A competitor or a founder's name ○ Feel free to update the journalist from time to time (sometimes they can modify the article with new info)
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  Competitors TALK OPENLY ABOUTYOUR DIRECT AND INDIRECT COMPETITORS, IT'S BETTER FOR YOU!!! ● Helps a journalist understand your product better ● If you can be compared to someone like Google, Facebook, Groupon, Zynga, etc...GO FOR IT!!
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  Social Media asa news source ● Social media platforms are a new source of information for journalists ○ Facebook - activity on Fan pages can be news ○ Twitter - sometimes tweets can be news worthy ○ Quora - interesting replies to questions can lead to stories
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  Top secrets ● Peoplesay you should never trust a journalist... EVEN IF YOU THINK IT IS OBVIOUS WHAT TO PUBLISH AND WHAT NOT TO PUBLISH, IT IS NOT. DO NOT TELL A JOURNALIST ANYTHING THAT YOU DO NOT WANT PUBLISHED. PERIOD.