Bootstrapped PR w/Social Media
We could have learned alot last week with the public launch of Cuil - a “secret” search engine run by ex-Google employees. Not because of their actual product which most have described as mediocre, but rather by their pre-launch PR campaign which had not only EVERY tech blogger in the sphere writing about them - but mainstream publications such as CNN or MSNBC.
For me I read all the tech journals so I generally watch all the launches and fails come and go, but this time I actually got a call my my MOM who saw on the evening news that this was the new Google competitor.
What does this all mean?
It means that the PR Firm representing CUIL did a damn good job.
What can we learn from this?
Get 33 million $$ in Venture Capital funding and hire the same PR firm
But really- most of what they did can be replicated to a certain degree. Now while these steps may not land you on the evening news, there are at least a few things everybody can do to get closer to this goal. How do we do this?
Social Media.
These are the steps
- Arrange a list of all the A+B+C list bloggers within your niche that you can find
- If you are in the internet-tech industry and don’t know where to start - then the Now Public list is a good place to start. Each of the people on this list will probably have thousands of followers on social media so a mention from just of few of them can send your news viral.
- So now that you have your list you need a PR release.
- For those that don’t know a Press Release is you essentially pre-writing the article for the blogger/journalist so they don’t have to do all the work. The more clear and easy your press release, the more likely they are to publish. Use bullet points to highlight key facts and competitors
- There are different strategies for writing a press release, but we can see that CUIL positioned itself as the savior come Google killer founded by ex-google employees.
- We can learn from this by establishing your Headline company in relation to an already well established brand. Something like “Epsi. Its Pepsi without the P”
you get the point. By doing it in this way we give the blogger and public a basis to create a ‘one line understanding of our product.’
- Getting the PR out -Now that we have our press release - how do we get people to write about it?
- Well since we probably now have a list of 50-100 different bloggers we want to approach - we need to be efficient about our contacts.
- Most bloggers will have email address’s published somewhere, but I can tell you that getting your message in their inbox and getting them to read and pay attention to it are 2 different stories.
- How to get the Bloggers Attention - Setting an Embargo
- This is the tricky part especially we are working in Bulk. Ideally you have spent the last year building up your contacts and social followings on Twitter and such - but for the sake of this article we will assume you know nobody.
- The most obvious way is to send the PR release to their email address. I imagine with A-List you will get about a %2 responce rate and B-list maybe %30 if that.
- A better way would first be to establish a line of rapport with that particular blogger. Usually a quick personalized email commenting on something on one of their posts will do the trick. The point is to get them to respond. Then on the 2nd or 3rd email when you know you have their attention - drop the press release on them. Much more interesting to write about news coming from a friend than a stranger.
- Other way is to connect with them on a social network - Twitter, Friendfeed Facebook etc.. Meaning that since these are NEWER forms of media that are less infiltrated by spammers - they will be less suspect of stranger contacting them.
- Promote their glory. A great man once said “Help others achieve their own glory and they will lift you to glory in the process.”
- Meaning make it clear when you set the news that it is hot and needs to be written about ASAP.
- The way to do this is set an Embargo on the news (an embargo is asking a blogger to not publish the story until a certain time/date - such as when you actually release the product)
- B-list bloggers will feel honored to play the embargo game. A-list will yawn, but placing an embargo means that the news ‘must be important’
- So by setting the Embargo you achieve a few things
- Create immediacy which does not allow them to put off writing about your story. Meaning the chances of them writing are increased ten-fold
- Makes it so that all the bloggers on the planet effectively publish a story on your product release at almost all the same time. This will then create what is known as the spill over effect
- Meaning if today some guy publishes and next week another guy and next week another - it is good press, but not HOT.
- You want them all publishing at the same time- because this will serve to exponentially HEAT up the news and there is a damn good chance you will then be picked up my mainstream news or elusive A-Lists. As they will not want to be left out of the coverage
To Review - Bootstrapped PR with Social Media
- Make a list of 50-100 Bloggers in your industry
- Ping them all to get them to respond so that you have their attention
- Write a great press-release that essentially they can copy and reword for their article
- Set a news embargo date - same for all.
- Watch it grow and multiply.
Rise of the Mentat Search Brain
The idea is that currently search engines are powered by giant AI brains - computers programmed to select the best of the links -based on numbers of inputs then covertly shaped and rated by their in-house teams. This is good to a certain degree and G is in the everlasting process of mastering this method
However it be not the only market. If we reference beloved F. Herbert, then we can discuss the Mentat model - Mentats being of course humans pumped up with various aroma in order train their brain to replicate the processes of the computers. This of course due to the nuclear development of AI which made computers hyper-intelligent but without the moral framework (read soul) in order to exist in harmony with humans who they viewed as inferior.
Coming back to this present reality; we can look at the natural evolution of search. Del.ici.ous has the right idea but too many dots (sic) in their name to be mainstream. (read this more ways than one) But their model being that humans select what is their favorite sites and mark them - the more humans that mark a site - the higher it shows up in the delicious results for that keyword search.
Take a search of my current home of ‘Thailand’ for example
Google computer results are the usual suspect of a Gmaps at the top of where is Thailand- along with some nice photos - then the official tourism site, wikipedia, cia factbooks, Bbc
All good and sterile results considering that ‘Thailand’ is a highly generic term and the user could be searching for anything.
But compare to the user generated results of delicious. There at the top we have a backpackers guide to Thailand - then we have a hotel reservation service which has been spammed in there through exploitation of human bookmarking.
After this we have links to Thai recipes, some random record label that happened to be tagged as Thailand, some photos and a guidebook.
All in all comparing the first page results of G to Delicious we see a few things
- G is assuming that by searching for ‘Thailand’ we are searching for generic factual information regarding this term. As a result this is what we get
- Delicious is returning results of anything that humans tagged as ‘Thailand’ with minimal sorting and AI via other factors. Since the majority of Delicious users are younger and mobile - thats how we get a backpackers guide on the first result as opposed to maps and wiki facts.
The point being that with D - the results are shaped by the users input - so the results are only as good as the other users within the system.
This leaves us to the major cross-roads between D and G. Overly objective versus overly subjective.
So where is the solution?
Well the solution is literally the 40 billion dollar question for the person or team that can come up with the right answer. Both models are perfect, yet flawed. The winner will be that who is able to take the best of both of these worlds and with the correct twist create the ultimate search and organization experience.
Without saying too much at this point, I have founded and been working vigorously for the past 6 months on a concept that will present the solution to the described problem. Within the next month we will be beginning a limited beta testing in which to perfect our system. I will need the best and the brightest of my readers to help with the testing.
Some traits that we will need
- Those involved on the front lines of the industry - pushing the web towards its natural (r)evolution. Those that play with the new toys as they are put forth, embracing the best and discarding the rest. Those who want to see a better web and have the experience and knowledge to give constructive criticism in order for us to achieve this way.
- People that are do internet marketing for a living and frequently do the directory, article, link-building thing. Even those of you are into OMG!!! Spam. Why am I asking? Because we need help to perfect the system to only allow quality links in our system. And who better to ask than those who work on the weaknesses everyday. (if you help I may even throw in some permanent PR6 backlinks
) - Common non-savvy users - The type of person that turns on their computer 3 times a week and reads yahoo news and checks the auctions on ebay. We need to test out usability and cleanness of interface
- Anybody who would have a little bit of time to use and evaluate the system to make constructive criticism. We will need 50-100 users for our first run and would hope that each would devote at least 20 minutes to evaluate a first impression and give us basic feedback. (of course if it is compelling you will spend days)
We can say that we will be ready early-mid June. If you can offer your help please send an email to me at
neyma (at) webgenome.com
and we will be in touch.
Milestones and You!
On any project, especially a startup, the use of Milestones can be an almost necessary way to keep track of progress and accountability.
A Milestone can be defined as a concrete task within the main project that will be completed by a certain date. In a software/tech development environment Milestones can include but not be limited to the following
- Completion of Specific function/Design or Page
- Deposit of new Funding
- Specific Product release version
A milestone is something that is planned for and then achieved
Many unsuccessful people will scoof at Milestones and say that
“Why do I need that, I have it all in my head.” Read more
Proof of Concept
Continuing in our Web 2.0 Series. Lets talk about proof of concept when it comes to a start up company.
Proof of Concept
The proof of concept stage is where the goal is to create some sort of working model of the product so that employees, potential investors and your relatives can see that this thing is actually possible. Another word for this would be the prototype.
So if we were designing clothes. Then to get to the Proof of Concept, we would have to go through a number of stages
- Idea- Its in your head
- Rough sketch - Down on paper and edited/collaborated in some form or another
- Design specifications - Again if we are designing clothes this is the formal drawing of what it should look like
- Prototype/Proof of Concept - For clothes this will usually be a single piece hand tailored by the designer to show what it will look like. For a web-dev project, it will be a buggy and un-skinned version that will be able to accomplish the basic functionality specified
More about what to expect (and not) in the Proof of Concept for a Web-Dev Read more
