A Few Myths about Public Relations for Tech Companies

The following is a condensed version of an April 24, 2018 TechCrunch post.

MYTH 1: Hiring a PR consultant waste of money for most startups.

Good PR gets you noticed. With traditional media viewership down and media ingestion fractured, it’s actually more important now than it was before. However, you need to make sure that you can onboard and convert whoever finds your product or service. The issue with PR is that when your product is not ready or you don’t have your onboarding straight, you’re going to lose prospective customers.

MYTH 2: PR is not rocket science.

It’s not hard to get a media placement here and there, but only consistency leads to success. PR professionals know how to get consistent media attention. Public relations mastery takes time, dedication, passion, ongoing learning, etc., just like any other field.

MYTH 3: Public relations is not brand development.

PR is more than releases, events and media relations. Today a comprehensive and effective strategy spans channels, influencers, content, digital, traditional, analysis, etc. Strategy includes branding.

Most agencies and consultants specialize in one area and cover the bases in the rest (at Smart PR Communications we specialize in digital branding).

MYTH 4: A $10K a month agency, which will not do much more for you than a freelancer or small firm.

Larger public relations agencies have access to tools that are financially out of reach of smaller agencies and consultants—mostly because of economies of scale. The downside is that you are going to be spending somewhere between 50%-80% more. On the other hand, consultants offer personal service and consistency—you will likely have the same account rep that knows your business well, for a long time. When choosing a PR rep, you need to look at scope, experience, and other factors.

Read the full post here: http://www.publicrelationstoday.com/edition/daily-crisis-crisis-communications-2018-04-24?open-article-id=8136449&article-title=startup-pr-myths-busted--via-ny-tech-meetup&blog-domain=flacksrevenge.com&blog-title=flack-s-revenge