PR tips for start-ups

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Sparked by an article by Brain Solis on TechCrunch entitled “PR Secrets for Startups” there’s quite a healthy debate going on at the moment about if start-ups, more specifically web 2.0 start-ups, need professional public relations support. My personal answer to the question is …. it depends. Start-ups certainly do need professional PR and marketing advice, but how much and how it is delivered depends on each individual company.

I’ve helped really small start-ups, funded by the founders on a shoestring, by turning down the limited budget they’ve offered me and providing a one day workshop for a lot less so that they can do some things themselves. But for many this isn’t going to be a practical option, because the CEO and founders are never going to be experts and have a lot of other things to do and it’s impossible to do them all well yourself.

Ironically one of the best posts about why Web 2.0 start-ups need PR is by Loic Le Meur, in his post arguing that they don’t! Many of the PR tips that Loic offers are exactly what a professional PR person would do/say/advise.

Not a secret #1
who cares about stories, you can get traction and users if you have a good product

No **** Sherlock. Any competent PR person would tell you that it’s the product that matters - you can’t polish a turd. And of course the users/customers/community comes first, just as any good PR person would advise you.

Not a secret #2
Do not pick a PR person, be the spokesperson of the company

Loic thinks the best person to represent your company, is you - the CEO. And he’s right, which is why he cites Steve Jobs and Richard Branson as his best known examples. But guess what, behind both Jobs and Branson you have good PR people. Loic advises “Get training”, now who do you think should deliver PR training? Hint - see my reference to workshops at the start of this post.

Not a secret #3
Participation is NOT marketing

Well perhaps it’s not marketing, but participation in a community is exactly what public relations is and always has been. Don’t fall into the trap of equating PR with just doing media relations and targeting journalists, that is a tiny part of what your PR consultancy should be doing for you.

Not a secret #4
There are no “targets” either, we’re just people, not an audience!

“Just throw yourself and your product in the conversation and you will see who shows up, who is interested or not in what you are doing.”

But who’s going to do the throwing, and more importantly the listening and responding to the conversation? That’s just one area where your PR agency can help.

Not a secret #5
Who cares about the launch day and date.

Not entirely clear what Loic is on about here, other than perhaps trying to say that timing is everything. PR isn’t a science or an art, but both. This means that sometimes doing the wrong thing works and doing the right thing doesn’t. But that means experience, expertise and professionalism are even more important, just so you can increase your chances of things going right. You can lose battles, but still win the war (with the right support).

Not a secret #6
Do not see bloggers and journalists as target either, they will ignore you

“Take bloggers. Everybody tries to pitch Scoble and Arrington. They are tired of the same formatted boring pitches that come to them exactly the same.”

Exactly, which is why 99.9% of the time they would be the wrong people to pitch, even if they are “friends”. You simply need to have conversations with people who are interested in what you’re talking about. That means far more listening than talking. That’s what a good PR consultancy will do.

Not a secret #7
Do not measure success and traffic from PR

“Do not be obsessed by numbers and results, it is long term relationships that matter.”

No s**t Sherlock. There’s a hint in the name that public relations is about relationships.

Others weighing in on the debate are Shel Holtz (who explains PR is so much more than just pitching stories), and Stowe Boyd (who half agrees with Loic, but still thinks most start-ups need PR).

UPDATE: Tom Murphy talks sense (as usual), Robert Scoble jumps in to show he still doesn’t know what PR is (why is it that when Scoble talks sense, he talks a lot of sense, when he doesn’t - well you go figure, maybe we should all stick to what we’re good at), Todd Defren looks at targeting.