2. Ann is a Executive Director and co-founder of Red Social WW and has over 6 years of strictly online publicity and social media experience as a freelancer and at online agencies. She has worked at social media agencies such as M80 Social Media Marketing and ThinkJam PR as Online Publicist. Previous campaigns she has worked on include Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Warner Brothers, CNN, and Unilever. Ann has a B.A from UCLA and a M.A. in Strategic Public Relations from the University of Southern California, where she completed a Masters Thesis on social networking and blogger outreach for brands. Her current roster of clients include Mass Mutual, Smucker’s and Bayer. Bio
3. Matias is Executive Directorand co-founder of Red Social WW and has over 7 year of public relations and social media experience at agencies such as Atomic PR and Manning Selvage & Lee. Previous PR campaigns he has worked on include The Trust for Public Land, General Motors, Hotwire.com, Heineken, Polaroid, Pioneer Electronics and the HD-DVD Group. Matias has a M.A in Strategic Public Relations from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in journalism from San Francisco State University. Bio
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5. Part of a larger trend of current interest to that type of media (e.g. cloud computing)
10. Being borne out of an existing relationship with an editor/producer at previously mentioned publicationsSo with these hurtles, how do you even get noticed? Easy: JT PR
11. “Top Dawg” While 99% of start-ups have no affiliation to large brands or Justin Timberlake, there are still ways to get noticed. Piggyback on your top competitors media coat tails (even if your company isn’t a direct competitor) Media wants to only talk “top dawg”, which is difficult to do Solution: Industry expert Strategy: Find an issue that the major player in your industry is facing, position yourself or your CEO as an “expert” and “shop” him/her around to the press by offering an analysis of your competition/industry, 4) if possible, offer data - but own the data
12. TVN Entertainment- In the mid-2000’s was a midsized VOD company, competing directly with large multinational cable subscribers. Unable to get mainstream media placements due to their lack of programming and lack of direct consumer awareness, we saw that Comcast, their biggest and most well-known competitor was going through major changes due to market threats from Redbox and Hulu. TVN Entertainment offered their President and COO to discuss the implications of Redbox and Hulu on Comcast, which resulted in the following story: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/vod-chief-comcast-will-survive-in-face-of-tvcom-hulu/13543 Case Study
13. “Go trendy” Journalists prefer to talk about a relevant current trend because it sells By finding a bigger trend piece, you can introduce your startup to the media and the public Solution: Ride the wave of a big trend Strategy: 1) Find hot button issue/trend articles, 2) reach out directly to writers of these articles with information about your startup and why it’s relevant to the trend
14. DiggersList.com, a start-up website that allows consumers to sell old and gently used construction and home material to other liked-minded consumers. Challenges: DiggersList site at the time was poorly designed and limited to just a fraction of the US market. Opportunity: DiggersList happened to be entering the market right when the US economy was in a downturn and home foreclosures were at their highest, hence we offered the media a “next step” plan for people in foreclosures (e.g. selling their things on DiggersList) http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dont-try-these-improvement-projects-at-home-2010-03-01 http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/ConsumerNews/cheap-easy-ways-winterize-home-save-money/story?id=12028662&page=2 http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/new-site-to-buy-and-sell-remodeling-supplies Case Study
15. “Do their job” With massive layoffs in media, the research departments have been thinned out, leaving journalists to find their own data. Thankfully, they are more than happy to have someone else do the work for them. Solution: Contact a journalist who covers your relevant field and ask them if they are in need of any statistical data. Often they will be happy to have you help them dig for data.
16. Hotwire.com was having trouble breaking into the media landscape and was rarely quoted by media Opportunity: Hotwire has a large array of data related to the travel industry. Hotwire decided to begin offering its travel industry data to journalists. Examples: Hotwire created a “monthly hotel rate report”, which would give its company internal projections of what hotel prices would be for the next month in markets across the United States or would offer data related to Christmas air travel. http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/12/14/daily5.html http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2009/12/14/daily7.html http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/travel/18pracbargains.html http://blog.budgettravel.com/budgettravel/2008/09/could_hotwire_help_you_save_on.html Case Study
17. Social Media!! Bloggeroutreach Nichebloggers General bloggeroutreach Brandambassadors & sponsoredposts FTC regulations– howtowatchout(http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm) Facebook & Twitter Facebookads – lowcost Contests – watchoutfor FB promotionalguidelines (http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php) Social media analytics – measuringyourreach Radian6 Trendrr Sprout Social Klout
