Catch 22 – Startups and PR

I was invited to speak on the panel at January’s Ultra Light Startups event in Manhattan. The ULS audience tends to be tech startups, though occasionally I’ll meet someone from a Health 2.0 startup. I have yet to meet a biotech startup there, though the content is instructive for all. January’s panel will focus on marketing and public relations.

A few months back I had written this note to myself but I couldn’t find the source, so I can only take partial credit. The issue with startups and PR is that it can become a Catch-22 cycle.

As a startup, it can be a challenge to get any journalist to pay attention, but because you’re a startup, you need the PR since PR is probably the only kind of marketing you can afford. These days, the classic PR business model is broken and nearly anyone can get attention using social media if you do it right and work at it diligently with patience.

Once you understand that, getting attention becomes almost mechanical. You start by developing a hit list of stakeholders, then you work the list.

If you’re a web startup there are dozens of sites dedicated to websites in beta. If you’re a biotech startup, you find the journalists writing about your disease category, you develop a list of associations, physicians, venture capitalists focused your disease category. You research your market and find out which entrepreneurs, media outlets, web sites, blogs are interested in speaking with startups.

Then, you build a marketing campaign aimed at your early adopter journalists, presenters and bloggers. You follow them on Twitter.com and ask to join their networks on LinkedIn. You use press releases (maybe even use David Meerman Scott’s New Rules of PR strategy), articles and you network. You go to events and meet people in person. You work hard to get their attention and respect.

Finally, you don’t rush the process. It takes a while to cultivate relationships, to create demand and these are relationships that you’ll want to keep as your company goes forward.

Innovatrs.com has a 6-step process that summarizes the above.