Before you pitch...

Be strong.  Show your strength with great writing and insights that will make you a source for the media.  Photo by me - shot at the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island, NY.  

1.   Make sure your company's blog is current and has helpful information that users (and journalists / bloggers / analysts) can benefit from.

2.   When you populate content, make it original content, and not a reciting of an article from Mashable, The Read Write Web, etc.

If you are going to recite these types of cites, then expand the content and add some insight.  Why this matters, why this is important, and what to do next.

3.  When you write, show some deep, original thinking.  If someone is going to write about you, make a good impression - before you pitch.

If they are going to find you, you want to illustrate that you'd be a great source for them and have something compelling to say.

4. More than just getting your product or platform covered, you should aim to become a source to the media that will pay off in other ways beyond the launch or a new tweak to what you think may be next.

Do the work. 

This really works.  

Time and again.

I am already getting a jump on 2012 New Year's Resolutions and trying my hardest to make them stick.

I'm adjusting tone, volume and sound to new opportunities in 2012.

Photo shot by me over at the best Guitar Store in Texas, Redbone Guitar Boutique.

Now, through the end of December, I am starting to clear the decks for new opportunities in the year to come.

1.  Opting Out

Unsubscribe to newsletters and user groups that no longer benefit you, or have worn out their welcome.  

I'm trying to get away from PR / Social Media / Content related sites and focusing more on innovation, emerging technology, and discovering new voices.  

2.  Not responding to every ask

It's ok to say no.  It's ok not to respond, or not respond immediately.

We all try to be helpful to each other, but some times, I get the feeling that many of think that just because we have someone's email address and need a favor, we can not only ask, but expect / hope for an immediate response.

The same goes with journalists that I pitch.  I know that not every pitch I make is going to stick, let alone get a response.  

3.  Managing expectations

When I do help someone, I also try to manage their expectations.  Helping is good, but if I am not in a position to take something on or get invovled in their cause is really ok.  This has nothing to do with money or getting paid for time.  It has to do with respecting the fact that not everyone is going to be gung ho about the stuff I am gung ho about and visa verse.  

4.  Building deeper on line relationships by listening more

I "listen" by reading, by following a stream, tracking someone's trip on Facebook, or hearing a person's voice when they are in pain.  If you listen hard enough to someone's writing, their photos, or the videos they may share, you can better understand their persona, and when the time / chance arises, connect in the real world.

I find this an effective way to stay engaged with the amazing people I am fortunate to meet as I travel on busines, for fun, or through the growing #140Conf community.  Keeping up from afar is a good way to see what my online friends are doing and re-engage when I see them at events. 

Yes, this really works and it has nothing to do with business.  It has to do with casting a wider net, and using social platforms to keep you eyes and ears open and be inspired by like minded people.  

5.  Returning the favor...

I can't help every startup on the world, but I think I have some good ideas and insights in how to effectively do some elements of PR that can, for the most part be done by yourself or your team.

I have no clue if this will, or will not lead to new business.  That's not my intent.  My intenet is to remain thinking like a startup because it benefits my regular clients that have funding and budgets to to work with me.  And even if there is a budget to work with, thinking like a startup keeps us all focused, hungry and lean.

This is half of my list.  My goal is to get to ten realistic, manageable and actionable resolutions.  I have twelve more in my head, but I need to sort them out and whittle it down to five.

So.....how about you?  

What's on your radar for making your life and the world at large a slightly better place?

No surprise here.. although press releases are more frequently shared on Facebook, shares on Twitter drive significantly more traffic back to releases than shares on Facebook.  Read the details here from CrowdFactory....

I work for journalists, analysts, and bloggers.  

Photo by me shot somewhere in West Virginia (c) 2011

My goal is to bring them really great stories, that come from companies with great technology, platforms and products.  

Behind those companies are great people who are passionate and really give a shit about delivering something disruptive, significantly better, possibly (but not not always) less expensive, that in all cases delievery a superb experience.

Yes, I work for journalists, analysts and bloggers.

My clients pay me (and the team I build) to do this.  

I think like a journalist, and provide content, information, data, case studies, end user profiles, access to the client and more.  

I work to help to increase the journalist, analyst, and bloggers of coverage because I've done my homework and prepared them for the best story they can cover.

When you work to serve the journalist, analyst, and blogger you get an inverse rate of success.  

It goes way up.

Time for A Re-Set

Re-set your thinking to not being about you or your company, but how you can help make the journalist, analyst or blogger more successful in their work, not yours.

Application stories are a powerful medium to tell your story.  It’s one thing to tout your product, platform, technology, solution, and it’s a whole other when your customers or partners can share its real world applications and benefits.

Photo shot somewhere in Iceland by me (c) 2007

 It’s Not About You 

Make your customer / partner the hero of your story, not you.  There’s tons and tons of great and way cool technology out in the world.  In fact, there’s way too much of it.  The way to best approach an application story strategy is to focus on how the customer applied and benefited from the application.   

Find Your Internal Champion

This is generally your direct customer - the person who is in charge of a team who is deploying your technology.  Best way to start is to ask.  Explain that you are trying to share their story in hopes that others can benefit from your solution as they have.  

Some customers won’t want to do this, as they may see your technology as a competitive weapon or having a leg up on their competition.  If this is the case, find a champion customer who this won’t be an issue with.

Get Permission

Getting your champion to approve this initiative is gets you half the way there.  

Publicly traded or heavily regulated companies will more than likely require approval from a legal department.  Some companies require a media relations person involved.  

In other cases, such as education, your mileage may vary depending on a school’s policy.  Security application stories can get sticky, since it involves, well - security.  You may have the best to way to keep the bad guys out of your network, but it may turn out to be an uphill battle to get your candidate story teller to share their story about how they used, and applied your solution.

Explain Your Intent

There are many applications for application stories.  These could be profiles of your customers on your site, for use in the reseller channel, and of course, for possible media coverage.

Particularly when it’s for potential media coverage, get the customer involved.  “We think your story belongs in ________, how about you?”  Even if you think you know where they story would be a great fit, ask your customer what they read, and in ranking order, where they think the story would be a great fit.  I am always amazed to see how insightful the end user’s point of view is vs. the mindset of a PR person like me. 

Empower Your Customer in the Process

When you approach your customer about doing an application story, explain to them that nothing goes live, nothing gets pitched, nothing sees the day of light, unless they approve it.  And even if you go through the entire process and there is a change of heart, assure them that they have a way out, and that the story simply goes away and never happened.

Shaping Your Story

Start off with the basics.... who are you, what do you do, what does your company do, what markets do you serve, where are you located, etc.  Then, get into the story.  What were you doing before, how did you pilot the program, who was involved, how long did the process take, what have your learned in the process, what’s made you more productive, more profitable?  

Beyond the Printed Word

Grab some video.  Take some photos.  Think like a Life Magazine or National Geographic story teller.  While your focus is on written content, support it with other media.  You don’t need a videographer or professional photographer to do this.  Hone in on your skills, or find someone inside the company who can help you produce the media.  Even if you don’t use the content today, you might find it useful for a user conference, investor pitch, or for great feedback to your R&D team.

Disruptive Is Good

In some cases, your offering may be a positive disruptor.  Maybe it helps companies transition from one way of thinking to another.  Perhaps you’ve helped disrupt, reinvent and even discover new ways to do things.   

Above and beyond any type of ROI or cost savings, maybe what you have to offer has helped a company enter new markets, kill off  a dying market space and reinvent it as something new.

Application stories keep you honest and on track to help you tell your story from the mind’s eye of others.

Are you reaching out to media, bloggers and analysts to pitch your startup's story and vision to?

Here's a simple way to do this:  make 5 pitches per week.  Download this form and modify it as you see fit.  Ask yourself the questions listed below.  The more you do this, the luckier you get.

Who Did I Pitch Today?

I follow lots and lots of people on Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and G+ for a variety of reasons.

Writing, posting, and linking original content on social sites is hard work.  It's time consuming and requires discipline to do this daily, or almost daily if you can.  Photo by me (c) 2011

I follow people for the purposes of business, fun, keeping up with friends and as a way to keep up people that I cross paths with on the Internet or at industry events and conferences, as well as to tracks movements and social sentiment.

Links to Other People's Work Is Certainly Valuable, But What About Yours?

In following these universes, I see only a handful of people on who post links from their original content.  

Generally what I see, are links to "how to" articles, or sometimes an interesting article or snippet about something that I might be able to use.  

Many times, I see the same article or piece of content being circulated and to me, it makes no sense, is a waste of time, and diminishes your value as a trusted source for content.

For all the time may take, it may be the most efficient use of your time, as a means to break through the noise, the clutter and sea of repeated information that's posted out there. 

I'm not here to profess that your original content will bubble every time, but if you practice this principle, it certainly increases your chance of doing so.

I am getting an increasing number of calls and emails from entrepreneurs in the San Antonio, Austin, and South Texas area about new technology startups needing PR (and some elements of social media) services.

Here's a few tips about how to approach me and here's how work with startups and what I look for...

1.  NDA - Non-Disclosure Agreement First

Today, I received a call from what I am sure was a well-intentioned entrepreneur who said he did not have an NDA and asked me if I had one I could send him.

You don't need a lawyer to get one.  You can download a free one here.

Bad sign.

If you take your startup seriously, and even if you don't really have anything proprietary, it shows prospective investors, partners, and service providers like me that you have something to protect and that you consider what you are doing to be very serious.

In this case, I really did not care if he had a NDA or not.  

Actually, it was a leading question.  I wanted to see how he would respond and how seriously he took what he was doing.  

I told him that my lawyer does not allow me to meet with startups without an NDA.

I see way too many things, way early and even if we don't do business, I make it a rule of thumb that we have an NDA in place.  

When he asked to send him an NDA, he was putting the burden me.  

Not good.  

I passed and wished him luck.

2.  Management Team

You can be 18, 22, or 90.  With tons of experience or none at all.

You can have another day job.

Or you could be doing this solo.  

I don't care. 

I just want to see who is involved, what their backgrounds are, and some sense of history.  If you have no history, it's really OK.  I just want to know.

3.  IP - Intellectual Property

If you have IP that is yours - be it patented or patents in the works, that's important as well.  It means you have some defensible strategy.  

No patents?  

That's ok too..... just bring it up in the context of your pitch, so I don't have to ask you.

4.  Funding

How are you funded?

Self funded.  Angel money.  Seed.  VC.

It's all good.  Tell me what you are doing for money and how you plan to get to next level to secure funding.

5.  Who Should Cover You?

You're reaching out to me for PR.

So, in a perfect world, who should cover your story?  Why?  What media / what mediums.

Think like a PR person and do some homework first.

6.  Make Your Pitch Realistic

"Our technology will revolutionize X...."

Uh... pardon me, but before you make a some outlandish statements like these, make sure you know what you are talking about.

Hint:  humility is a virtue.

7.  Yes, we have Beta's 

In an perfect world (there isn't one) it's nice to have Beta customers who we can talk to in order to get a realistic view of their world and how and why they like your technology offering.  

Do you have Beta customers?  

Big help in that department.

8.  What Happens When I Google You?

Are you on LinkedIn?  Facebook? Twitter? G+?

What will I find?  What will I learn about you - or rather what will I perceive about you?

Make sure that your social presence is up to date, accurate and reflects what you are doing.

9.  Sell Me On Why I Should Represent You.

You have every right to interview me.  

But don't forget, I am going to interview you as well.

I probably turn down most of the startups that come my way - not out of arrogance, or lack of budget, but because either I don't think you have a good enough story (yet) or you won't make a great, kick-ass client.

I want kick-ass clients who will listent to me, follow my advise, let me fuck up every now and then, and sustain a program so we can both be successful.

I don't work for you.  I work for the media, the industry analyst, the blogger and the thought leader who I think should know about you.  

If I bring a great story to someone of influence, my job is to help them be in the know and discover what is awesome about your technology, your company and the team behind the vision.

10.  OK.  Let's meet

If I don't know you, and you want to meet, I charge a basic consultation fee of $500 to meet or have a conference call.  

This generally lasts about 1.5 hours and even if we don't do business, you'll get my take on what you are doing, some good advise on PR, and a week or two later, you'll probably get another call from me, because now that you've made me aware of what you are doing, something will more than likely come to mind where the consult will be of further benefit.

Money aside, it also means you are serious about you're heading in a new direction where you might want to engage with a PR advisor such as myself.

I like to get the money thing on the table in advance.  I am happy to have a short phone call at no charge and see what's up.  

I don't prescribe until I diagnose. 

After that, my time, like yours, has value.

Best way to reach me is here. 

You're.....

• An Expert
• A Thought Leader
• A Visionary....

Who cares.

The world is full of very smart people with great ideas, amazing startups, and disruptive technologies.

If you're looking for a true differentiator in your startup's branding, try being human when you're online.

Photo of me by Jerry Hirsch.

Content development should involve your business development team.

As a technology company, you have technology partners that are part of your ecosystem.  Dance, collaborate, and swing.  Photo by me shot in front of the Apple store on 14th St in NYC.

Get your business development team on board to team up with your marketing team and your partner's marketing team as well.

If your partners are delivering new products or services for your platform in 2012, start now, not three weeks before you deploy.

When you beging to integrate your partner's messaging into yours, you suddently become a more valued partner.