At WebInno tonight there’s a panel on bootstrapping PR. You can get the bios of the panelists and an overview of the event here. Some overall pointers on how to get attention. Quotes are direct, stuff without quotes are my summaries.
Bob Brown:
“CEOs need personality”
Journalists are becoming cognizant of page views.
Peter Kafka:
“Get a referral from someone I trust”
Entrepreneurs are better off without a PR firm, you can tell your story better than a 3rd party.
“Use your blog to put out your view of the world”
Know when to adapt if the reporter is not interested in your one talking point – staying on message will not always work
“Embargos are dead” he tweeted an embargoed release today
Scott Kirsner:
“Meet in person, don’t get introduced by your PR guy”
Dealing with multi-channel reporters – talk to them about where it will be published – online, print, is any of it off the record?
This is retail not wholesale
Exclusives are worthwhile
Wade Roush:
“Don’t write stories and send them to reporters”
Pick the reporters that are relevant to your space and start a relationship with them
Blogging helps complete the picture of the entrepreneur and can be useful to reporters
Only 4 Real hooks for him – Raised money, Change in leadership, change in direction, new product
Keep in mind that exclusives are shafting everyone else
Mike Troiano
“Treat reporters like people”
Mike was busy moderating so he didn’t spend any real time commenting.
There was one question from the crowd asking why PR firms were not represented. David said it was because they wanted a panel of first person accounts from the reporters. I think a key point on whether or not you need a PR firm is your ability to tell your story effectively. You either want a PR firm that has existing relationships with the specific publications or channels you need to get into, or to help you craft your message if you are not a passionate and effective storyteller.
Congrats David on a great event with a huge crowd.
p.s. – Plug for my own stuff for webinno attendees – If you are interested in marketing and PR tips check out Marketing Over Coffee
4 replies on “Bootstrapping PR – Live from WebInno 23”
Thanks for the coverage, John. Nice meeting you last night.
John,
I wish the panel had spent more time on how entrepreneurs who are bootstrapping can do good PR on a budget, rather than talking about how bad PR is and how CEOs should speak directly to them (challenge: have CEOs and execs call the reporters directly without PR counsel, for a month or until they beg us to stop).
There are ways to do it and good advice for entrepreneurs– and I agree with Bobbie Carlton (who asked the question) that having PR represented on the panel would have helped round things out more.
There I go, agreeing with people again.
[…] worth much. In a roomfull of PR folks, you can imagine what happened next. As John Wall of Ronin Marketer described: There was one question from the crowd asking why PR firms were not represented. David […]
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