Companies like Facebook sometimes don't acquire companies per se.  

Be a good egg.  Make sure you and your co-founders develop your personal brands.

Photo shot at Carmel Market in Tel Aviv by me.

They acquire a team who's product, platform or service may or may not fit into what they are doing, but they know the collective smarts of the team could be a huge asset to them.  

It's called an acqui-hire.

As your startup gets traction, consider another form of traction:  not just the collective intelligence of your company, but the people, their personalities, and their personal brands.

Make sure you are branding yourself in a way that makes you even more valuable to the right company who's not just looking for smarts, but humans who can express their humanity. 

A startup's blog is a great vehicle for story telling, and being found by media.

Your startup's blog is a seat at the table for journalists, bloggers and industry analysts to discover and share your insights, expertise and knowledge on the market you are creating.  Photo shot at Geekdom, San Antonio.

It's also a great clue to a journalist, blogger or industry analyst that you have deep and original thinking and could be a great source for them on not just covering your company, but an industry trend that you are either creating or part of.

Here's some tips:

1.  If you are going to blog, do something more that overstate the obvious with links to articles from Mashable,  Read Write Web or TechCruch (unless it's about you).   Journalists can find that on their own.

2.  Build a story around what you are doing, not just what you are doing.  Share feedback from customers, what you are finding and how you are helping.

3.  Post content from conferences and trade shows you might go to.  Report on what you are seeing, who you are connecting with, and how your solution or platform fits into the world at large.

4.  Don't overstate the obvious.  If a journalist finds you, and discovers your blog, this is your first point of entry in raising the potential of possibly gaining media coverage.  Make a good impression with deep thinking and good writing.

5.  Post once a week.  At a minimum.  If you go dark for a month or two, it shows you're out to lunch.

I’ve been following my friend, Ryan Kelly’s company, Pear Analytics’ progress over the last two years in their approach of what I would call the democratization and self-empowerment of SEO.

While I know SEO is important, I’ve always had a problem with the notion that being forced to use certain key word, and sometimes certain phraseology, could possibly compromise the quality of my writing and more importantly, my voice.

New Year’s Resolution #1:  Being Found

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to improve my SEO and be found.  As a High Tech PR consultant I work in a very competitive field and wanted to improve my search results not only through better writing, but writing that could be found.

Pear Analytics offers a variety of services, and as a start, I tried their Keyword Research offering, which at $249.00 is a great value. For a little more, Pear can provide the keyword research, competitive analysis (reverse engineering your competitors rankings), and a full site audit on their Starter Plan for just $899.

Upon receiving the initial report (see 2 samples here), I also had a 30-minute phone consultation that helped me understand and focus what I should be aiming to write about in the context of key words.

While most of this turned out to be common sense, the real benefit of this particular service was that it shed light on a ranking of priority of search terms I should be using, and how, without compromising my writing style and voice, I could benefit from their research methodology.

30 Days Later…It’s Working.

I took my Pear Analytics Consultant’s advise and I’ve already seen a difference:  I’m on page one on certain terms, and in some cases page two;  a dramatic improvement of what I was experiencing before.

At the end of the day, this is a combination of common sense, good writing, and on-going publishing. 

 And therein lies the real challenge for many of us:  finding the time and having the focus to write quality, helpful, relevant and searchable content that can be found.

It’s the later where Pear Analytics came through.

Highly Recommended.

Artwork courtesy of Pear Analytics