Public Relations in Achieving the Goals of IT Startups

Startups that have a great product their customers love can benefit from Public Relations (PR) in more ways than one. Aside from the obvious benefit of publicity, entrepreneurs gain credibility. For a startup that hasn’t settled on a product customer’s love, press coverage can be a huge mistake.

The act of public relations has been thought of as a selfish one, where a publicist aims to get without giving in a vain attempt to secure media coverage for a client, merely building a relationship in exchange for a sought-after positive public portrayal of the client’s company.

PR professionals need to engage themselves and their work in a more refreshing manner. Instead of waiting to engage individuals at the exact moment you need something from them, try using a more proactive approach: start building relationships early on. There is incredible value in viewing the daily public relations of your startup as a two-way street.

To achieve the goals of a start up, PR agencies needs smart techniques. The focus of your PR plan of attack should be on making friends, not contacts. Consider the impression given when attempting to make dozens of contacts based on pitch emails or cold calls. Go ahead, state your case. Your efforts are just like everyone else’s: they lack authenticity. And they more than likely suggest that you’re really reaching to get coverage.  If you aren’t giving the impression that you would like to invest in a relationship, writers will not willingly invest in you or your startup. Just as you must invest in relationships with your customers instead of mindlessly pushing promotional social media content, you must invest in building genuine relationships with writers.

What doesn’t work for a start-up is sending cookie cutter emails to writers who are probably going to get annoyed. This happens a lot in the PR consultants in Delhi. Not surprisingly, word travels fast in the small world of tech journalism. The last thing you want to do is develop that reputation. For a startup founder, what works best is to concentrate on pitching to fewer writers in a more strategic, relationship-focused way.

By working hard to invest in others who, ultimately, will become vital to your company’s success, you are making real friends in strategic places (from whom you can ask favors). To build relationships, start small. You can begin by simply engaging via social media. Reply or retweet a tweet. Comment on one of their recent articles, always be brief, be genuine and to be the listener. Also never pressurize a writer. Remember that a ‘No’ is just ‘No’ sometimes. (We hope all the PR agencies, esp. PR agencies in Delhi, are listening?!)

Concentrating on the long-term goals of your startup is crucial. At the end of the day, we’re all just humans moving through life; and some of us are crawling, some are shuffling. In the startup world, we’re all hustling. Focus your energy on building mutually beneficial human relationships, rather than one-sided business relationships; your PR efforts will start to pick up the pace.

Investing in friendships with writers will bring you media coverage on major tech blogs more quickly and effectively than cold calls. It’s time to change the perspective of PR and put the “human” back into our relations.