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How To Get Media Coverage For Your Startup: A Complete Guide

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Re: How To Get Media Coverage For Your Startup: A Complete Guide

#21

Post by kappaknight »

horsehead wrote: post #17

Ah, a post I can comment on with authority. I'm a local reporter with a heart for tech. Perhaps I should blog a little more about getting media coverage for young (and not-so-young) entrepreneurs. At least for local papers (and probably TV too), if you're not local, don't bother with emailing them. They'll pretty much disregard your email altogether (You probably WOULDNT be surprised by how many emails we get in a da…

Do tech reporters also come here to try and get the scoop on new projects before they become mainstream?

Re: How To Get Media Coverage For Your Startup: A Complete Guide

#22

Post by nikcub »

davemel37 wrote: post #4

ShoeMoney wrote a great post about getting press... A must read if you are serious about getting press... http://www.shoemoney.com/2010/09/14/getting-press-for-your-w...

> Last night, one of my really good friends sent me a email and asked me if I could call up Mike Arrington over at TechCrunch or Pete Cashmore at Mashable to cover their new iPhone application.

> (Trying hard not to sound like a dick) I basically told him that is not how it works.

That is exactly how it works. A huge number of stories that bloggers write come from a small number of sources.

The best way to get published it to become a source and a connector, or to know one. It isn't that different to how getting an investment works - It is about being a participant in the ecosystem.

If you have been written about by a blogger or reporter before don't be afraid to introduce other startups to them that you find interesting - most good bloggers will press you on doing this. This is how people become sources and connectors.

Re: How To Get Media Coverage For Your Startup: A Complete Guide

#23

Post by horsehead »

kappaknight wrote: post #21
horsehead wrote: post #17

Ah, a post I can comment on with authority. I'm a local reporter with a heart for tech. Perhaps I should blog a little more about getting media coverage for young (and not-so-young) entrepreneurs. At least for local papers (and probably TV too), if you're not local, don't bother with emailing them. They'll pretty much disregard your email altogether (You probably WOULDNT be surprised by how many emails we get in a da…

Do tech reporters also come here to try and get the scoop on new projects before they become mainstream?

Well I can't speak specifically for news orgs or reporters. But in my humble opinion, if they're in the tech news industry and they're not checking HN at least once a day, they're not doing their job right :D

Re: How To Get Media Coverage For Your Startup: A Complete Guide

#24

Post by horsehead »

nikcub wrote: post #22
davemel37 wrote: post #4

ShoeMoney wrote a great post about getting press... A must read if you are serious about getting press... http://www.shoemoney.com/2010/09/14/getting-press-for-your-w...

> Last night, one of my really good friends sent me a email and asked me if I could call up Mike Arrington over at TechCrunch or Pete Cashmore at Mashable to cover their new iPhone application. > (Trying hard not to sound like a dick) I basically told him that is not how it works. That is exactly how it works. A huge number of stories that bloggers write come from a small number of sources. The best way to get publis…

I think he means just knowing a person with connections doesn't guarantee you coverage. No reporter worth hissalt will do a story just base on "who you know." the product, and story has to be solid on its own. A contact might mean your product certainly makes it to the reporter rather than getting lost in emails.

But yes, reporters do have to have people who tell them about things that they might have missed otherwise ;)

Re: How To Get Media Coverage For Your Startup: A Complete Guide

#25

Post by davemel37 »

nikcub wrote: post #22
davemel37 wrote: post #4

ShoeMoney wrote a great post about getting press... A must read if you are serious about getting press... http://www.shoemoney.com/2010/09/14/getting-press-for-your-w...

> Last night, one of my really good friends sent me a email and asked me if I could call up Mike Arrington over at TechCrunch or Pete Cashmore at Mashable to cover their new iPhone application. > (Trying hard not to sound like a dick) I basically told him that is not how it works. That is exactly how it works. A huge number of stories that bloggers write come from a small number of sources. The best way to get publis…

This is actually exactly his point...The best way to get coverage is to nurture a real relationship with that reporter.

You are focusing on the self-serving part of this post, which is Shoemoney doesnt want and wont put his relationship on the line for your product or company...Especially because he gets a million requests just like that.

Sure, you can try to convince your friends who have the relationships to get you coverage, but your best bet, and the way your friends probably developed the relationship is by nurturing a real relationship with these reporters.

Re: How To Get Media Coverage For Your Startup: A Complete Guide

#27

Post by logicalmoron »

SAI, former VentureBeat reporter here, few observations:

1) What is Buffer? If I don't know what the company does, I'm going to pass it off to the tips folder and it will probably die in obscurity.

2) The "saw the post you wrote yesterday" is not the approach you want. I cover social games — be aware that I cover social games and make it relevant to that. Reading my last three posts is not enough to tailor a pitch, because we write about a lot of things and they aren't all necessarily on our beat.

3) Seriously, introduce yourself. Don't do it with a pitch — let me know who you are and what you do. We do Q&As all the time with companies that have no news. You are 100x more likely to get published if I know who you are, what you do and why what you are doing is important.

4) How does this relate to normals? Most Twitter users don't actually Tweet. This is useful to me, but not necessarily my readers — who are of utmost importance to me.

5) Know the publication you are pitching. Blind pitching everyone is a waste of time — if you are a social game developer, go for Inside Social, GamesBeat, TechCrunch, etc. Fast Company is not going to listen to you.

6) We have to rush through literally hundreds of pitches each day. Just because we phrased something differently than you'd like, if it is still factually accurate, you're going to upset a reporter if you try to nitpick on wording. I once encountered a PR person that was yelling at me because I didn't call an online deals site a "mobile platform" and, instead, an "online deals site."

7) Also, we do want to know what you think. Entrepreneur and founder input is valuable in just about any story. If some big news happens — Steve Jobs resigns, for example — let us know what you think. When Jobs passed away, the first person I heard from was Box.net's Aaron Levie, who told me it was such a gargantuan loss and he was basically his idol and what made him want to become an entrepreneur. That, in of itself, is a story because Levie is running a company with a val of more than $500 million.

8) Don't be afraid to have a personal relationship with reporters — we aren't going to screw you, because blowing a relationship is worthless in this industry.

I'll add more as I think of it.

Re: How To Get Media Coverage For Your Startup: A Complete Guide

#28

Post by horsehead »

larrys wrote: post #19
horsehead wrote: post #17

Ah, a post I can comment on with authority. I'm a local reporter with a heart for tech. Perhaps I should blog a little more about getting media coverage for young (and not-so-young) entrepreneurs. At least for local papers (and probably TV too), if you're not local, don't bother with emailing them. They'll pretty much disregard your email altogether (You probably WOULDNT be surprised by how many emails we get in a da…

"At least for local papers (and probably TV too), if you're not local, don't bother with emailing them." If you're not local then you need to find a user of your service that is local and base the story around them as the reason to write about it. Say before twitter was famous the story would be "After the fire in her hotel room, Megan stayed in touch with her family in Topeka by a new service called "twitter" which…

Yes there is a lot of truth to this. But you'll need more than just "so and so in your area uses it." in the sense tho that there has to be a local connection, you're right. But like I said before, there has to be a good STORY behind the pitch for coverage.

National Tech news blogs are a little different. They're going to focus on products and services. Local news outlets want stories the readers will like. (after all, we're in the game to keep readers, which is the bread and butter for our advertising rates).

Edit, now if your idea has a local business angle, pitch it as a business story. Also, logical moron above has excellent advice. I wholeheartedly echo his point number 6, the one about phrasing (I think it was 6)

Re: How To Get Media Coverage For Your Startup: A Complete Guide

#29

Post by derefr »

larrys wrote: post #15

While the OP raises some good points, the letter which got them mention (on Mashable) doesn't even talk at all about what "buffer" is. For example this paragraph ("paragraph one"): "We have some big news for you. With the new release of Twitter.com, we have just released a way to post retweets via Buffer right from Twitter.com at a better time. It works seamlessly via installing our browser extension. You will have n…

"What buffer does" is right there in the text you quoted:

> a way to post retweets ... at a better time.

Re: How To Get Media Coverage For Your Startup: A Complete Guide

#30

Post by pkh80 »

Does anyone else find the whole process of engaging the tech "media" a giant distraction from developing their core product and trying to engage real customers? Chances are if you have product that sounds "cool" to these companies you are going for a market that you are unlikely to win.

You are are far more likely to be successful targeting a business that is outside the consumer "cool zone". The consumer markets are so heavily saturated there's little chance for new products to really be noticed, and individual consumers aren't as profitable as targeting businesses unless you are lucky enough to be the next Facebook (you aren't.)

Unless your product customer is likely to be a hacker/geek/tech biz type that would read Mashable/Techcrunch/RWW/etc.. Don't waste your time trying to get coverage there, instead find reliable channels to talk directly to your customer and route them to your service.

Find heavy's in that vertical and appeal to them, especially ones that have a lot of influence (online or IRL.) Find blogs that match your vertical and get them to cover you, they will probably be happy to do it, and they probably will send you more link juice because they don't post 100+ articles a day.

Unless your PR is sending you real SEO heavy links, and/or putting a giant dent in the collective consciousness of your potential customer base, its worthless.

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