A great presentation on dealing with the tech bloggers by our good friend Roxanne Varza

1. Publicity & Presentation
Startupbootcamp - Madrid
Roxanne Varza
Editor, TechCrunch France

2. Outline
● Getting attention from the press
● Writing a good press release
● Communicating with the press
● Best practices

3. I. Getting attention from the press
Several possibilities
● creating "buzz"
● famous by association
● making an announcement
● other alternatives ("goodies")

4. Creating "buzz"
● an innovative way to get attention
● example: HOPA dry-erase girl (a hoax)
● http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/11/elyse-porterfield/

5. Famous by association
Tip from Julia Allison:
"Whenever someone takes a picture of
me, I always try to stand next to
someone famous..."

6. Making an announcement
● a launch, fundraising/investment, the opening of an office,
recruiting someone at Facebook, impressive statistics, a
new product with hot new features*"
● these all deserve classic press releases
*Avoid "announcing" new features every month, it annoys the
press/me

7. Other options/goodies
● A funny story (but don't abuse this)
○ Examples:
■ People renting goats as lawn mower on E-loue.com
■ A 9 year old child produces a professional magazine
using MadMags' platform...
○ Bad example: "a dog made a website using our product"
● Be part of a trend
○ wave of Q&A sites like Quora, social games,
YCombinator (great one for SBC startups)
● Mystery or something impressive
○ Example: Hipster, 10K sign-ups in 2 days without
anyone knowing what the product even was!

8. II. Writing a good press release
● Only for announcing something traditional or classic (hiring
someone from Facebook, announcing an investment
round...)
● Why I personally like press releases
○ especially useful for technical terms/expressions
○ summary of essential info that should be included
● But I do NOT want to simply republish a press release, I
need MORE info!

9. Always include basic information
● The official launch date
● Number of people on the team
● How much money have you raised? Is there an investment
round in the future or in process?
● Competitors (from USA, EUR, your country of origin)
● Business model
● Is there a mobile app? Integration with social networks?
● Stats? (Number of users, etc.)
● High-profile client names to include?
● Some new projects/features to come in the near future?
● Are you going international/to new markets?

10. PR Agencies
Good Bad
● A journalist can go to ● It can get complicated for
ONE person for info on organizing interviews or
several companies asking for follow-up
information after a press
release is sent
● PR reps never have ALL
the information on the
company and take longer
to get it (critical for a
blogger/real-time media)

11. III. Communicating with the press
The way in which you communicate
with journalists is MORE important
than the information you are
sending!!!

12. Before sending a press release...
● Know and select the right media and journalist
○ Example: Michael Arrington and I both write for
TechCrunch - except Mike hates France and I love
France. We are not going to write about French startups
the same way...
● Also, know how the journalist prefers to receive information.
This is usually VERY clear on the website of the publication
and is meant to save time!

13. The email inbox of a journalist/blogger
Death by email (I receive several hundred emails per day)
● Personalize: "Hello Roxanne..." gets my attention
● Pick a short but punchy email title

14. Tips for sending a press release
● Pick a good title for the email
● Personalize the email with the name of the journalist
● Send all information or elements in advance for better
quality articles
○ BE CLEAR if there is an embargo date/time
● Give exclusive information and be clear about it (journalists
love this)
● Communicate and coordinate with the others involved in the
press release (investors, partners, etc.)

15. Sending a press release
The particular case of a blogger:
● it is a real-time media publication
● it is an interactive media
Tips:
● Put all information into the body of the email
● Include links, videos, references to other articles
● Don't forget to send screen shots and a recent logo

16. IV. Best practices
● Following up with a journalist who hasn't published anything
● Corrections
● Competitors
● Social Media
● Top Secrets

17. When should you ask a journalist why
they haven't written about you yet?
● All journalists are bombarded with info
○ It is OK to ping the journalist to verify they want to write about
your topic
● The journalist may not like your product or company or isn't
at ease with the subject
○ Ask the journalist but do not insist - this can lead to bad press
(see below...)
● It is also possible that the content isn't in the editorial line of
the publication
○ Example: not all iphone apps are TechCrunch material

18. IV. Best Practices
● When should you ask a journalist to make a correction?
○ You can ignore typos
○ Correct (politely!) information that is incorrect
■ A competitor or a founder's name
○ Feel free to update the journalist from time to time
(sometimes they can modify the article with new info)

19. Competitors
TALK OPENLY ABOUT YOUR
DIRECT AND INDIRECT
COMPETITORS, IT'S BETTER
FOR YOU!!!
● Helps a journalist understand your product better
● If you can be compared to someone like Google, Facebook,
Groupon, Zynga, etc...GO FOR IT!!

20. Social Media as a news source
● Social media platforms are a new source of information for
journalists
○ Facebook - activity on Fan pages can be news
○ Twitter - sometimes tweets can be news worthy
○ Quora - interesting replies to questions can lead to
stories

21. Top secrets
● People say you should never trust a journalist...
EVEN IF YOU THINK IT IS OBVIOUS WHAT
TO PUBLISH AND WHAT NOT TO PUBLISH,
IT IS NOT. DO NOT TELL A JOURNALIST
ANYTHING THAT YOU DO NOT WANT
PUBLISHED. PERIOD.