Tested PR and Social Media Strategies for Early Stage Companies

1. How to #makenews
and Lead Your
Industry:
Tested PR and Social Media Strategies for
Early Stage Companies
Blair Broussard, Vice President @blairab
@ar_ _ pr #IDEAinstitute

2. Value of PR
@ar_ _pr
#makenews
REACH / BRAND AWARENESS
• Mashable
• 36.8 million unique monthly views
• 4.4 million Twitter followers
• TechCrunch
• 13.7 million unique monthly views
• 3.39 million Twitter followers
• Trade Journals
• 300 publications reaching hundreds of thousands of
professionals
IMPACT / ROI
• Credibility, credibility, credibility.
• 80% of business decision-makers prefer to get
company info from articles vs. ads.
• Ward off competition by increasing your industry authority &
leadership.
• Content marketing costs 62% less per lead than
outbound marketing.
• Increase your chances for VC funding!
• “The day after our startup was featured in The Next
Web, we had two VC firms from Boston call us to
begin discussions.” – AR|PR client and Atlanta-based
startup founder

3. What’s your dream
headline?
@ar_ _ pr #NOEW2014

4. Overview
• Prepare. Plan. Repeat.
• Getting Your Feet Wet
• Changing your PR approach
• Developing shareable content
• Don’t DIY Alone
• Let’s Chat
@ar_ _ pr #NOEW2014

5. prepare. plan. repeat.

6. Topic
Press
Release
The Game Plan
Social
Media
Byline Blog Webinar
Case
Study
Video E-Blast
MAY
500
Customer
Milestone
X X X X X
JUNE
Product
Update X X X X X

7. getting your
feet wet

8. start with your personal brand…
80% of a new company’s value is
its CEO.
Make sure your brand’s leadership is
active and authentic on Twitter &
LinkedIn.
Draft compelling leadership bios and
snap on-brand headshots.
Begin planning how to showcase
yourself as a thought leader (speaking
opps, blog posts, etc.)

9. Why
LinkedIn?
• Every second, two new professionals
join LinkedIn
• Largest professional network with
259 million users from 200 countries
• More than 3 million companies
have LinkedIn Company Pages
• Every Fortune 500 executive has a
LinkedIn profile
• 90% of Fortune 100 companies use
LinkedIn’s corporate talent solutions
• In 2012, over 5.7 billion
professionally-oriented searches
were conducted on LinkedIn

10. Completing Your Personal
Profile • Put your value proposition in your headline, not your title (e.g.
HealthIT entrepreneur and veteran mobile app developer)
• Add a professional headshot
• Include relevant keywords in your job description (i.e., Healthcare,
HealthIT, Mobile Health, etc.)
• Ensure your privacy
settings are set to public
• Put your most shareable
content first (you can
drag & drop each module)

11. Employee Listing
• Ensure each employee lists your company as his/her employer and
hyperlinks to the page.

12. • Add articles, slide presentations,
videos, etc. to add visuals and
engagement to your profile.
• See who’s viewed your profile and send a follow up note
• Update your status (at least weekly) with useful articles and
resources to show up more frequently in news feeds of your
contacts
• Add your LinkedIn URL to your email signature, business card,
etc.
Profile Engagement

13. Profile Engagement (cont’d)
• Audit your contact list & follow all clients, prospects and their
companies
• When you enter a new contact into your CRM, also follow them
on LinkedIn
• Ask for & give recommendations and endorsements to
increase your exposure on others’ profiles
• Participate in group discussion posts (incl., tradeshows &
thought leadership)

14. Profile Engagement (cont’d)
• Audit your contact list & follow all clients, prospects and their
companies
• When you enter a new contact into your CRM, also follow them
on LinkedIn
• Ask for & give recommendations and endorsements to
increase your exposure on others’ profiles
• Participate in group discussion posts (incl., tradeshows &
thought leadership)

15. • Twitter is the 2nd most popular social network in
the US
• 42% of Twitter users learn about products and
services via Twitter. (via Convince and Convert)
• 51% of active Twitter users follow companies,
brands or products on social networks.
(via Edison)
• 67% of Twitter users are far more likely to buy
from the brands they follow on Twitter.
(via MediaBistro)
• 70% of small businesses are on Twitter.
(via MediaBistro)
• 85% of followers feel more connected with a
small business after following them. (via Twitter)
Why Twitter?

16. Identifying & Engaging Key
Influencers
• Use Klout to identify top influencers
for certain keywords (e.g.
ecommerce, retail, makeup etc.)
• Find the Twitter handles for your key
media outlets and bloggers
• Search hashtags of keywords your
potential audience may use & follow
those users
• Create lists to organize and
showcase influencers
• Engage with the people on those
lists: reply, retweet & share

17. changing your pr
approach
@ar_ _ pr #NOEW2014

18. Search-friendly Press Releases
• Distribute releases via a wire service
(e.g., PRWeb).
• Include keywords in the heading and
subtitle that are relevant to your
business.
• Keep your headline at ~100
characters.
• Bring out the underlying value of
your announcement with your title.
• Link to everything! Your website,
social media accounts and other
pages that boost the
“newsworthiness” of your
announcement.
@ar_ _ pr #NOEW2014

19. Search-friendly Press Releases
• 80% of Internet browsers prefer videos over
images and text in press releases. (source: Real
Effect)
• Including photos in your press release
increases engagement by about 18% and
video by 55%.
• Images expand your audience up to 180%
and a custom mix of photos, videos and
multimedia content increases it up to 970%.
(source: HubSpot)
@ar_ _ pr #NOEW2014

20. Have a Kick Ass Video
and always share it with reporters
Media outlets are looking to
engage readers and keep them
on their sites for longer periods of
time to increase ad revenue.
As a result, they’ll often place
YOUR video on THEIR site
alongside editorial content.
@ar_ _ pr #NOEW2014

21. The Connected Journalist
• 59% of journalists use Twitter, compared to
47% in 2012 (source: Weber Shandwick)
• 92% of journalists are on LinkedIn, making it
the most used social media platform by
journalists (source: PRNews)
• 6% of journalists’ first option for researching a
story is to consult a brand’s website (source: Weber
Shandwick)
• On average, journalists visit 2.6 social media
channels for each article they research (source:
PRDaily)
@ar_ _ pr #NOEW2014

22. Start with a Media Database
• Your media list should
include:
– Reporter email addresses
– Reporter Twitter handles
– Media outlet Twitter handles
– Reporter LinkedIn URL’s
• Start your engagement with a personal touch
– Follow target reporters and media outlets on Twitter
– Connect with target journalists on LinkedIn and send a quick,
personal note
@ar_ _ pr #NOEW2014

23. Pitch Reporters on Social
Media
As reporters flock to social
media for story sources, cut
through the inbox clutter -
reach out to them on Twitter
and LinkedIn!
(Hint: A lot of them prefer this method)
@ar_ _ pr #NOEW2014

24. Make PR Reach Further
• Cross-post press releases and media placements on
your social media, blog & website
• Tag outlets/reporters on social media
• Share news stories in your email marketing
• Ask employees to share news articles to LinkedIn
and Twitter networks
• Hang media placements in your office
@ar_ _ pr #NOEW2014

25. developing shareable
content
@ar_ _ pr #NOEW2014

26. Creating Strategic Content
• Create Content Categories
• This will help you identify what users are
responding to
• Percentage of each category will vary
from network to network
• Establish a Content Calendar
• Helps you PLAN AHEAD
• Think about holidays, awareness months
etc.
• Can be weekly, bi-monthly or monthly or
whatever works best for you.
• Tie in real time postings as well

27. Community Management
Best Practices
• Tie your page to your brand: Picture,
Bio, Background
• Remember anything you post can be
seen by your followers as well those as
outside of your community.
• Use plain English/avoid jargon
• Create and identify your own unique
hashtag
• Create a customer service strategy and
social media policy to minimize liability
and retain your reputation

28. Community Management Best Practices
• Be Consistent and Respectful
• Have a strategy when it comes to
responding to all tweets
• Only delete a member’s post if it is
abusive
• Engage with your followers
• Say thank you, ask & answer
questions, respond to mentions
• Fill posts with pictures and videos
that will catch your followers’
attention (they show up in the
feed)
• Identify and follow keywords that relate
to your brand

30. don’t DIY alone!
@ar_ _ pr #NOEW2014

31. annaruthpr.com/startupPR
Startup
Packages
@ar_ _pr
#makenews
• Affordable
• Media lists of your target
reporters
• Social media strategies
• Press how-to video
• Press release & wire
distribution
• 1-on-1 consultation

32. Startup
Packages
The Launch Rocket package provided us with the
consultation and tips we needed to engage with reporters on
the phone, via email and even through Twitter. The day our
press release was distributed, we received 8,000 app
downloads within 24 hours - our biggest day yet. The
package even helped us land a feature in TechCrunch!
@ar_ _pr
#makenews

33. Questions? Let’s Chat!

34. Contact:
Offices in Atlanta Tech Village
and
Launch Pad New Orleans
855.300.8209 | arpr.co
annaruth@arpr.co
linkedin.com/company/arpr
facebook.com/annaruthpr
@ar__pr