Startup and PR?

Hi again! On this week's lecture we discussed public relations (PR) and what it has to do with startups. To get things going and to set the mood here's a quote from the Bill Gates:

There's plenty of great quotes of PR quotes but this one was definitely my favourite. Source

So this week we had a guest lecturer Paula Gould talking about PR this week. She has had much experience working with both startups and PR so she was a great fit to the lecture series. Here are few of topics I would like to highlight about the issues discussed.

A great emphasis was put on the meaning of a story behind a startup. A good story is the greatest asset when doing a pitch for an investment. This was something that made me think back about the pitches I've seen in Shark Tank / Dragon's den episodes. I found myself always rooting for the entrepreneurs with the best stories. I think the power of stories should never be underestimated. Great stories have great power regardless of the medium. For example an ad which tells a great story is often very memorable. The same of course goes for movies and books as well. Stories are weird in a way since they have a tendency to get under our skin and influence us without us even realizing how great of an impact they have on us. I can truly see the value of a great story for a startup founder. If you got yourself a great story go out and share it.

So do you have a story to tell? Use it to your advantage! Source

 

I also really liked the very practical tips our guest lecturer gave us regarding research for PR. For example you should get to know how your competitors use social media and what are the common hashtags in posts related to your market. What do your competitors tweet about? You need to know your market fit, your competitors and how you are different from them.

We also discussed the affordability of PR. It was stated that PR is something you should build in your budget very early on. If you can't afford PR there are many ways around it. You just have to be resourceful. Use whatever means you have at your disposal to get some PR. Stunts were mentioned as one example. However, we were also warned about stunts. They have much potential and can be very effective if done right, but do it wrong and you'll just end up looking silly and causing more harm than good. It was also mentioned that PR can be simply done by scheduling some time to simply be active in social media such as Twitter or Facebook. And of course never forget to take advantage of your network of friends, family and fools to promote your idea. They are your best means of getting started with spreading the idea and getting traction.