This is a deck created by.

1. PR for Startups
Robyn Hannah
Socializer
@robynhannah
CONFIDENTIAL 1

2. Agenda
• Branding Stuff
• Media Stuff
• Ideas and Stuff
2

3. Branding and Messaging
CONFIDENTIAL 3

4. Branding and Messaging
“The average American is exposed to about
3000 advertising messages a day.”
-Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists by Michael Brower, PhD, and Warren Leon, PhD
How are you going to cut through the noise?
4

5. Mission Vision Values
• Mission: Why does this company exist? “With this
product, users will… “ “We enable companies to…”
• Vision: Crazy lofty, world-changing aspirations “I have
a dream that one day…” (We usually keep this
internal)
• Values: How you make choices and decisions? What
is your core competency? “This is a product company,
not a services business, so we can’t spend time
building out pricing for client strategy sessions.”
5

6. Be an expert on you
• Know your story and how to present it.
• Know your direction- even if it’s changing rapidly.
• Have a clear vision and be able to present it well. (Get
your cocktail party pitch straight)
• Be consistent across all touch points of
communication. And hammer it in!
• Know your space.
• Understand the landscape around you. Where do you fit
in? Who are you chasing? Why are you going to beat
them? What’s the market need?
• Know your audience, where are they? What are they
reading? Who are their influencers and how can you
get to them?
6

7. Define yourself
7

8. Media Stuff
CONFIDENTIAL 8

9. When it comes to media…
• Do your homework (ie STALK THEM)
• Abuse your networks for introductions
• Be normal and humble. (No Ron Burgundys!)
9

10. When you’re sending a pitch…
• Keep it simple
• You are not as cleaver as you think. Avoid Douche Bag status.
• Drop the buzz words
• Your “Disruptive, intuitive, game-changing, world’s first
solution from innovative proven performers” is going to sound
like hype.
• Give them something good
• Can this be an exclusive? Can you offer a free trial to users?
• If you’re sending out information on embargo- write it at
the top.
• Read this and be terrified: http://proprtips.com/
10

11. Media stuff
• Take advantage
• There are eleventy billion bloggers. Go make friends.
• New stories are the best stories
• You’ve launched, funding, milestones (100m registered
users, rad new product, amazing new hire, etc.)
• Thought leadership counts, too.
• Use Social Channels.
Consider: What are your goals, who you want to read
about you? Identify the pubs you need to be in by their
audience
11

12. Shut up
• Don’t talk before you’re ready, don’t create
buzz too soon.
• You only lose followers when you’re talking.
• Don’t be a spammer.
• We’re excited for you, too. But don’t sound
like an Amway rep.
12

13. A Few Ideas
CONFIDENTIAL 13

14. A Few Ideas
• Go-Halvsies
• Find partners with a larger network of a similar
audience and work together.
• Trade email marketing opportunities or blog
posts. Ask partners to tweet about you. And
return the favor. Get blog contributors.
• Use your product to drive awareness.
• Find a hook- At YSI, every one who got a file,
learned they could send a file. At PunchTab, we
have a product bloggers can use. Hotmail had a
footer on EVERY email.
14

15. A Few Ideas
• GET SOCIAL
• Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, FB, Linkedin, Tumblr,
Foursquare, YouTube… (BE CONSISTENT)
• Engage! Respond, ask questions, answer questions,
retweet, comment… Pay attention. (BE CONSISTENT)
• Have a POV
• Offer original content AND curate content
• Newsjacking (You’re not above it)
• Know the trends and have some thoughts
• Don’t be the Cobbler’s kids!
• If a journalist goes to your site, is your best foot forward?
15