
PR 101 for engineers - craigkerstiens
https://medium.com/@aneel/pr-101-for-engineers-7cd116cc5347#---0-233.ret21dbpx
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austenallred
I tried to turn getting press into a method that reads like a programming
tutorial, and it turned out like this: [https://medium.com/startup-grind/how-
to-get-press-for-your-s...](https://medium.com/startup-grind/how-to-get-press-
for-your-startup-the-complete-guide-b79c57318113#.ks48826ah) it's had pretty
universally good reviews, including from TechCrunch writers, etc.

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kmf
Thanks Austin, this is a huge help! I'd love to see more posts in this style
re: marketing–I'm shockingly bad at pitching and selling my own stuff. Anyone
have any suggestions?

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austenallred
I wrote a whole book in this style. [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-
ultimate-growth-hacki...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-ultimate-
growth-hacking-guide-secret-sauce-marketing--2/x/14399717#/)

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vonnik
Aneel makes some good points. Most PR firms serve large companies, who can
afford to wait for reporters to come to them. Startups need an active outbound
strategy that's focused on reporter needs, and those needs revolve around
satisfying their fact-checking editors and readers who want a good story.

I was a reporter for years, and I used to talk and write about it:

[https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzcEIIxKcYncbUk2ZjRHS1hmQUk...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzcEIIxKcYncbUk2ZjRHS1hmQUk/view?usp=sharing)

[https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzcEIIxKcYncOHd4VTBrU29ObFE...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzcEIIxKcYncOHd4VTBrU29ObFE/view?usp=sharing)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAWZBdLVj24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAWZBdLVj24)

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codebeaker
I wonder how the heft of larger PR companies fits with #3 “ Sourcing Mass
Media News“[0]

\-- [0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent#Five_fil...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent#Five_filters_of_editorial_bias)

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simonebrunozzi
I was at AWS for 6 years. Believe me if I tell you that Amazon's PR is very...
unique, at least in the IT industry.

I shared some of my stories here, a while ago: [https://medium.com/simone-
brunozzi/f-ck-you-vs-thank-you-b25...](https://medium.com/simone-
brunozzi/f-ck-you-vs-thank-you-b254f482e7b6#.tg3laxkn6)

(and of course I could do that because I am no longer employed by AWS - I left
in 2014).

Happy to hear your comments about it.

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softawre
Interesting blog post. Hope you learned an important lesson - DON'T "FRIEND"
WORK PEEPS HIGHER UP THAN YOU.

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jarjoura
One small piece of advice for anyone following along, make sure you have
measurable retention before you reach out to the press. They will inevitably
get you a huge boost in downloads and/or traffic, but if you don't have a
sticky product, this will have the reverse effect of driving away customers
that will be almost impossible to recover.

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shostack
It is interesting how many products flame out with a bad initial press
reception. That can be hard to recover from. But it even happens with big
companies (see Google Glass).

That said, I think there is a balance, and getting that sort of feedback early
on for what is typically a pretty small investment of time and energy in terms
of PR can be immensely helpful. It can be a defining moment of understanding
product/market fit, especially if you get any negative press that spells out
exactly what you're doing wrong.

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metafunctor
Negative press rarely spells out exactly what you're doing wrong, though. It
can be helpful, sure, but PR is not a good tool to discover product/market fit
for two reasons.

First, it is way, way too slow to iterate. Second, the press is not your
customer.

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shostack
While I agree the press is not your customer, I disagree that it is too slow
or doesn't spell things out.

For starters, if the press doesn't like your product, odds are they will give
some hints as to why. They may not spell out exactly what you should change,
but they should give some hints as to why they are not happy (and it may not
be what they say you should change).

In terms of speed, odds are you aren't going to get a massive press hit right
off the bat. It will probably be some industry/niche blogs, local
publications, etc. You only need a couple to start observing trends, and from
there you iterate. Roll out the improvements, test it, and hell, even reach
out to the reporters and ask if they like it better. It may get you follow-up
press, and even if it doesn't, hopefully you'll get some useful feedback.

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user5994461
PR = Public Relations

That'd be nice if the title could be edited.

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paulddraper
Yeah. I came here to read about pull requests.

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Animats
Are there supposed to be pictures in the text, or is this just really bad
layout?

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intransigent
They are supposed to be captured from a twitter feed.

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LyalinDotCom
As someone that works in the gray areas between dev teams, press, marketing
and PR I can confirm there is good advice in this post so do read it.

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MeteorMarc
Huh, I expected some useful information about making pull requests ...

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deepnotderp
Lol same

