Louis Gray's been in Paris, and presented at Le Camping to talk about the role early adopters and press can play in accelerating your business. In the presentation I used examples from its own blog and services he has liked, including +feedly, TweetDeck, Google Reader, FriendFeed, Toluu, Backtype, Socialmedian and others.

1. Raising Your
Visibility Seed Round
1535 - 1625h - La Seine B

2. Raising Your Visibility Seed Round
Louis Gray
Google
@louisgray
27 au 29 mars
2013

3. Louis Gray
Googler, Blogger, Dad of 3
●Manager of Google Developers Live
●Live streaming video platform for Googlers to
interact with developers globally
●Resume:
●VP of Marketing at my6sense
●Director of Corporate Marketing at BlueArc
●Author of louisgray.com
●Advisor to MyLikes, Teens In Tech, SocialToo
●Graduate, UC Berkeley (Poli Sci, Mass Comm)
●Dad of 3 kids age 4 and under

4. Raising Your Visibility Seed Round
The Role of Early Adopters and Finding Them
Succeeding With the Right Press Outlets
Making Your Service and Story Shareable

5. Early Adopters and Press: When?
27 au 29 mars
2013

6. Critical Points in a Product Cycle
Idea! First Code Beta Invites Public Launch!
Whiteboard Closed Alpha Enhancements

7. Critical Points in a Product Cycle
Idea! First Code Beta Invites Public Launch!
Whiteboard Closed Alpha Enhancements
Early adopters can be part of your development cycle. Invite the
trusted ones into your closed alpha, and encourage them to help as
you send beta invites. They'll find people much like them.

8. Critical Points in a Product Cycle
Idea! First Code Beta Invites Public Launch!
Whiteboard Closed Alpha Enhancements
The smartest companies use each phase of development as a
potential press cycle - from invites to launch to regular iterations. If
you're interesting, people will cover you, increasing velocity.

9. First Up: Early Adopters
27 au 29 mars
2013

10. The Early Adopter: Defined
Early adopters are risk takers and
recruiters. The best ones act as partners
to the developer, and can act as informal
marketing or PR, working to find new users,
and highlighting aspects of the product to a
wider audience.
Early adopters are compensated not by
money, but through early access to ideas
and people, and having a channel for their
own voice to impact the product.

11. What to Expect from Early Adopters
To Act as Initial Users and See Future
The ideal early adopter can visualise, with your help, what a
product will look like with a larger community, or more features,
and not be limited by what is there today.
To Find Bugs and Request Features
Early adopters will stress test your system and use it in a way that
you do not, and they should regularly tell you about what they find.
To Use Their Network to Help You
Early adopters will use their blogs, their social streams and real
life networks to help promote your story, and become part of the
story themselves.

12. 5 Stages of Early Adopter Behavior
Discovery
Collaboration and partnership. Launch phase.
Promotion
Followup pushes for virality, and public praise.
Engagement
Vindication and use.
Entitlement
Nitpicking and elitism.
Migration Source: http://goo.gl/Zz0jB
Moving on and recruiting others.

13. Finding Product Advocates
Know Your Own Product and Its Market
The better you can define your product, the
more narrowly you can discover the experts.
Know Your Competitors and the Space
Initial users, advocates and press covering
your competition or tangential products are
more likely to be interested in your story than
generic press.
Check All the Social Streams
Blogs are great, but Twitter, Facebook,
YouTube, Tumblr, Google+ and other
venues are where people are talking.

14. Some Products I Helped Debut
Backtype (acq. by Twitter)
Beluga (acq. by Facebook)
Feedly
FlickChart
Friendly (iPad app)
Gumroad
LazyFeed
MightyText
ReadBurner
SocialMedian (acq. by Xing)
TweetDeck (acq. by Twitter)

15. Other Products Evangelized Early
●Cadmus
●Fitbit
●Flipboard
●FriendFeed
●Google Reader
●my6sense
●Siri
●Spotify

16. Case Study: Feedly
Feedly, a start page/RSS reader, was referred to me from an
entrepreneur whose products I had previously covered. After four
months of incubation and early use, I reviewed their product and
helped provide ongoing visibility. Now they are seen as leader to
replace Google Reader with 500k+ subscribers last week.

17. Case Study: FriendFeed
The lifestreaming aggregation
service launched at the end of
2007, founded by ex-Googlers.
After 4-5 mo. of minimal growth,
the company sparked to high
visibility and traffic in early '08.
By 2009, they were part of
Facebook, acquired for tens of
millions in pre-IPO shares. How?

18. Case Study: FriendFeed
"What’s FriendFeed’s secret? How did it pull off what thousands of
other online services dream about? Is FriendFeed simply a solid service
in the right place at the right time? Are its executives particularly tech
savvy or connected enough to get key people to try FriendFeed? Did it
hire a kick-ass PR firm?
Another thesis is FriendFeed was lucky to have found a real evangelist.
Perhaps the key piece in this puzzle is Louis Gray, a blogger based in
Silicon Valley, who quickly fell in love with FriendFeed, and created a
hailstorm of attention yesterday..."
-- Mark Evans, "What's the Caramilk Secret?" (http://goo.gl/SahrX)

19. Case Study: TweetDeck
I bumped into the TweetDeck app on Twitter before it had launched.
After trading emails with the entrepreneur, I wrote the first post and
was "tipped" to knew updates the day before they launched over the
next two years, giving two separate news cycles.

20. Case Study: TweetDeck
TweetDeck Founder Iain Dodsworth: "The blog post you wrote on
July 4th and the resulting mayhem essentially forced the private beta
wide open and TweetDeck went public." Source: http://goo.gl/wEKsZ

21. Five Ways to Attract These Early Adopters
1. Correctly target based on their existing activity and previous work.
2. Explain up front the stage of your product and whether this is
something you want them to keep private or can share right away.
3. Give them an explicit action or request, be it to open up an account,
or give the product a test.
4. Ensure the discussion is two-way, and make yourself the primary
recipient of feedback, so their voice is heard.
5. Provide a timeline of when you expect to launch, so they understand
the urgency.

22. Finding Your Way to First Press
27 au 29 mars
2013

23. First Press: What Are The Goals?
● There are many reasons to get
initial press, including funding,
recruiting, developers and users.
● To gain users, one should target
publications that know the market,
and speak in terms that make
sense to the end users.
● It never makes sense to bring the
same story to each publication, as
they are all different.

24. What to Expect from Initial Press
To Summarize Your Product & Opportunity
Most press authors, especially in tech blogs, write more than one
story a day, and don't have time to know your product especially
well. They can, however, highlight how you position yourself.
To Give Users a Call to Action
Even short articles covering your news will tell users what to do
next, be it to download your application, go to your website, or to
accept an invite to get on a waiting list.
No Bold Announcements, Some Skeptics
Press are typically gunshy about pronouncing winners on first
sight, and skepticism, barring record of success, is expected.

25. Five Storylines Making It Easier to Get Press
1. If you have a person of note participating in your company, with a
track record of success, or if the team members came from a
company with a successful exit.
2. If you have a top VC company participating, or came from a well-
covered incubator class, like YCombinator.
3. Piggybacking on a major trend that has already gotten press.
4. Doing something incredibly disruptive and magical.
5. Making an existing popular product even better.

26. Selling Your Story to the Right Press
Prepare Up Front
Getting your story right from the very beginning is an important
stage, so picking targets and your message shouldn't be taken
lightly. Research targets and pick your top 5-10.
Give Yourself Some Time
Pick a date to launch, and make the reporters' research and
interviews part of that time. Give yourself time for followup emails,
and more massages to the product from feedback.
Personalize the Message
If there is a personal connection to the reporter, that's the best
start, even if it's your network and you can cite a referral. If not,
use previous coverage and talk directly, not generically.

27. Case Study: my6sense Launch on Android
In Sept. 2010, my6sense brought
their app from iOS to Android.
Coverage was received in
practically every top publication.
Why? Application was made
available in advance for testing by
reporters, execs were available for
interviews ahead, and a specific
time was set to go live.
No bulk emails required.

28. What Does a Good Pitch Look Like?
A good pitch is personal and relevant. It can provide an update on the
product, what's requested and timing as well.

29. What Does a Good Pitch Look Like?
Given email and pitch volume, a clear subject line and smart intro with
tips for the author makes an action clear. Note headline, timing and
screenshots.

30. Easy Mistakes to Avoid
Sending it to the Wrong Person or Blog
Spam is spam, even if you have good intentions. Updating gadget
geeks on health tips or mommy blogs on CRM modules is
unprofessional, but it happens.
Spellcheck. Reread. Confirm.
Good products can fail with bad PR and marketing. Make sure you
communicate well, professionally, you address the person by the
correct name.
Conveying a Lack of Prep or Interest
Sending a note to many people at once, when they are BCC'd or
worse, CC'd and you see everyone else, is just asking for trouble.
Don't give so little attention to this critical piece.

31. Giving Your Story Legs
27 au 29 mars
2013

32. The First Day is Just the Beginning
Enable Users to Spread the Word
If product access is limited, provide a way for users to send
invites to friends, by email, or through invites via social services.
If content's shareable, make it easy to +1, Tweet & Like.
Continue With Fast Iteration
The launch of your app or service won't be the last time you make
news. With consistent high quality iterations, the original adopters
and press will follow on with new stories and it also provides
you with an option to tailor pitches to those who missed out.
Keep the Service Up, Avoid Mistakes
With luck, you'll have increasing demand. Make sure your system
can manage anticipated user load, press spikes. Don't make
news for the wrong reasons.

33. Early Adopters & Press Accelerate You
Business Takes More than Ideas and Money
Not every great product succeeds, and money doesn't yet buy
happiness, even lots of it. While infrastructure is set up for seed
funding and follow-on rounds, users and press are also critical.
Your Users Are Often Your Best Asset
The story goes that unhappy users tell more people than do happy
ones, but smart customer service and partnerships with evangelists
can bring your positive story to hundreds or thousands, via press
and social outlets.
There Are No Shortcuts
Working with press and users requires flexibility and acute listening
and coding skills. Effort and planning pays off.

34. Closing Time
Q&A Time - Open Forum
Reach Me Directly:
google.com/+LouisGray
louisgray@gmail.com
blog.louisgray.com
@louisgray
Also: Many royalty free images in the presentation are paid for from Dreamstime.com.