Harness the power of PR and learn how to deal with the press. A presentation by Oussama Ammar, cofounder at TheFamily. See the whole post: http://bit.ly/1mGEzwo http://www.koudetat.co/

1. [Hack the Press]

2. [Hack the Press]

3. Good PR can be
a powerful tool

4. It’s great for acquisition,
BUT always a poor retention tool

5. How to do it right

6. Don’t just focus on
peers and investors
target users / customers!

7. Getting a tech blog to write about
you is important, but it’s only
the tip of the iceberg!

8. Write a (long) list of key publications, blogs,
etc. that cover the people you want to reach.

9. Customize Your Pitches
Take the extra time to craft custom emails for a small
list of journalists that you really want to cover your story.

10. Differentiate your message for each channel
Your customers don’t care about funding,
tell them about new product features!

11. Understand a journalist's
coverage area & audience

12. Do your homework and be
sure to differentiate yourself

13. But don’t bullshit them
A lot of entrepreneurs claim to be the “only”
ones doing X, Y, and Z, but it is rarely true

14. Know what's newsworthy
•
•
•
•
•
The startup's launch
!
The launch of a new product, feature or offering
!
The release of a compelling study or interesting data
!
The company's response to a current event
!
News of a high profile partnership

15. Have a concise,
value-driven message

16. !
Write a story
Press releases are usually long, full of
boring quotes and marketing jargon.

17. Access key journalists with social proof.
Help them do their job & build relationships

18. Journalist are busy people
Write *short* emails and get to the point!

19. Have useful assets available
●
A company or product description
● Photos relevant to the story
● Screenshots of the product

20. Send some materials (pitch deck, etc)
but don’t expect them to read it

21. Get them on beta / Using your product
Listen to and engage on their feedback

22. For the best: give them exclusive
(and meaningful) data
Give them an angle, interview, information,
quote, infographic that no one else has

23. Stay in touch! Update them
Build a relationship

24. Follow journalists on Twitter
and interact with them
Check out Muck Rack, a list of journalists on Twitter.
!
Use tools like HARO and NewsBasis to find and respond to reporter requests for sources

25. Go global!
It’s never been easier to get high
quality translations and to gain
access to international blogs

26. Other languages (beyond English & French)
Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Mandarin,
Russian, German, Japanese, Korean & Italian

27. Think about time zones

28. Engage with people commenting on blogs,
tweeting, posting on your FB page, etc

29. Create a list of Ambassadors:
People ready to retweet, share on
Facebook, leave good reviews, etc.

30. Get people with large
twitter and FB followings!

31. Make it simple for them:
Have sample tweets to copy & paste,
have a common hashtag for all, etc

32. Be a pro, have a pre-launch checklist:
Embargo* / timings clear to everyone,
servers ready, support team ready, etc.
* An embargo is "a request by a source that the information or news provided by that
source not be published until a certain date or certain conditions have been met"

33. Have a Q&A ready for you and the team
with key questions that will come up

34. Measure and improve
Analyse where traffic came from and what quality
that traffic had (i.e. conversion to active user, etc)

35. Decide whether a channel
was just bad or you need to
improve how you use it

36. Know when to take
“No” for an answer

37. Asking a reporter to write about
the same story over and over is
the best way to get ignored

38. Be date < your story
flexible!
Launch
getting attention

39. Good reasons to change your press date:
● Surprise announcement by Apple
● Natural disaster / events with 24/7 news coverage
● Your CEO / Key contact won’t be available
● Important event in your industry

40. All this can be done
without an agency!

41. TheFamily Press Hacking Framework
[ CONFIDENTIAL ]

42. You are Welcome to Join the Adventure
apply@thefamily.co!