The Luscious Rose

Four Lessons for Entrepreneurs from Working Two Weeks as Press

Although I am an entrepreneur, for the past two weeks I have also been active press as I covered parts of Ad:Tech San Francisco and Web 2.0 Expo also here in San Francisco. Having done this for the past two weeks as well as a few earlier conferences, I have learned a few lessons and would encourage all entrepreneurs to spend some time working as a member of the press.

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Lesson 1 - Know how your company is being marketed especially by your PR firm and people in general

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I was shocked by many of the ways in which I was contacted by PR people before Ad:Tech. Below is a real email I received, as you can see I don’t have to edit this to avoid naming the company, you will see why.

Subject: Please consider our press release

Best regards, Gaby

And that is literally it. The message had a .docx attachment, the press release in theory I guess, I don’t generally open word doc attachments from strangers. Oh and did I mention that Gaby sent this message to all the press at the same time, as one large to: list, so I now have the email addresses of many of the other press who were covering Ad:Tech San Francisco this year.

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Where do I even begin with how horrible this is.

Lesson 2 - Train everyone at your company and your PR agents on what you do and how to explain it quickly.

Quick does not mean five minutes of talking at me (no exaggeration, one CEO talked without pausing for five minutes as a response to the simple question “what do you do?”).

Quick means literally a few sentences, think escalator pitch not even elevator pitch.

Then, after you have explained briefly what your company does, be prepared to move onto what you are announcing at the show and be trained to listen to what people are saying and asking about and to respond accordingly. My badge, for example, clearly showed that I was press, yet not every booth person at either show noted that, some people just launched into their pitches without asking what I covered (better yet you should be prepared and know many of the media outlets covering a given event).

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But by everyone I do mean everyone. Whether or not you have a booth, if you have a presence at a show everyone there should be able to talk with people about what your company does. Have a consistent and clear explanation.

Lesson 3 - Offer hooks to people to interest them.

Before the show brief everyone from your comapany on what you hope to accomplish both tactically - i.e. number and types of leads - and more long term. Be sure to think through what you will do next to hook a given person you meet. Besides potential customers, don’t neglect the press, potential hires, investors, partners and others who could play a key role in your company’s success.

I am not a fan of being in “stealth” mode, however I grant that at times it is helpful for some types of companies.

If you haven’t yet announced (i.e. are in “stealth”) have something you can talk

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