A friend asked how to do PR for HIS BIIIIG LAAAAUUUUNCH!
My version:
Email the tech and media bloggers you know cover the space
Offer them live demos
Promise to tip them when you drop the news
Tell them where you will be demoing/launching
Have a vimeo waiting that’s cool
Have screenshots that can be grabbed on your site
Have a blog post that drops at the right time for reporters who do not cover you in advance to crib from
Dangerous move. There were some very smart people on the CC.
I got gazomped by this better version from a really smart friend:
PR is an art.
1) Prepare the blog entry but don’t publish until the day of the launch.
2) You definitely need a press release and put it in a newswire. I
would recommend www.prnewswire.com.
3) In addition, I would try to get an exclusive with one of the big
ones that cover product launches: Techcrunch, Mashable, Gigaom,
TheVerge, ReadWriteWeb, AllthingsD. You need to engage with them by
telephone to share the vision, where the idea came from, etc. They
will ask some screenshots, logo, and the press release (to have
material). So have everything ready.
4) The rest of the traditional media outlets (WashingtonPost,
BostonGlobe, NYTimes, USA Today, etc) can publish about the launch up
to one week after the launch. So remember that the job is not done the
day of the launch. You need to use the momentum.
5) The day of the launch, send a blast email to all your friends
telling them how happy you are to launch XYZ and include a link to
the press coverage (Techcrunch, etc) or blog entry (in case that no
one has covered it) and ask everyone if they could help sharing in
their social media channels (twitter, facebook, and linkedin)
If you engage with a PR consultant or agency, they will be able to
pitch to more publishers in 3) and 4), and they already have the
contacts of the right reporters. So basically they give you more
channels to pitch. But this could be expensive ($10K+/month, for a
minimum engagement of 3 months). The advantage is that they have
plenty of contacts and they can stay focused on pitching. It is like
working with a recruiter (vs. trying to recruit yourself).
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