Scott Kirsner, Adam Zand, Doug Banks, and Meg O’Leary
Curated by Chris Myles)
by Dan Bricklin, on Flickr (More Session Photos)
Blog posts related to the session
Generating buzz for your venture: 43 bits of free advice from entrepreneurs, PR peeps, and journos by Scott Kirsner
Understanding how to generate buzz is a crucial entrepreneurial skill — especially for ventures that haven’t raised jillions of dollars to spend on advertising or giant trade show booths. At last week’s MassTLC Innovation Unconference, a group of PR pros, journalists, social media experts, and entrepreneurs got together to collaboratively create this list of 43 ways to generate buzz in both traditional media and social media. It’s not a definitive list by any standard, and I don’t agree with 100 percent of it, but it collects a number of perspectives about how to get free ink for your company.
via boston.com
How-to generate buzz for your product/service by Joe Baz
Marketing “buzz” was definitely on people’s minds – about 60-70 participants attended this session, which was roughly triple the average session size. The session was facilitated by Scott Kirsner, Boston Globe columnist, Adam Zand, PR consultant, Doug Banks, MassHighTech publisher, and Meg O’Leary, InkHouse PR’s principal. They did a spectacular job of not only providing tips on 95% of their list, but keeping the audience engaged and encouraging participation.
From Left to Right: Scott Kirsner, Adam Zand, Meg O’Leary and Doug Banks. Photo Credit: Dan Bricklin
Here are my top five of the 42 tips, prioritized in order of importance:
InkLings@InkHouse: MassTLCL2 - 42 Ways to Get Buzz for your Venture
Meg O'Leary from InkHouse participated in the MassTLCL2 unconference on Innovation today on a panel offering 42 ways to get buzz with Scott Kirsner, Adam Zand and Doug Banks. And here they are:
Original Session Notes
From @dibonafide
From @joebaz
1. Know the Target!
2. Know what an exclusive means - be careful
3. Triage your press target vis a vis objective
4. News should be "new"
5. Make personal
6. Know your story first
7. ID a trend
8. What are you like (probably not unique)
9. Share competitor information early (customer ignorance doesn't count)
10. Hone key messages
11. Learn to write + talk
12. Provide options to journalists
13. Be human - not a corporation
14. Be careful on twitter + facebook - some people don't like solicitations
15. Don't spam a big list
16. Follow hash tags
17. Create supporting content - Youtube, B.roll demo
18. Contact info should be real (not forms)
19. Get all media - print, online video, TV, radio
20. Know deadlines
21. News is new:
product launch (not 2.3);
novelty (user features);
funding + M&A;
executive appts;
customer/user
22. ROI is a good thing
23. Enable your fans + customers to talk, on your behalf
24. Find influential twitter folks
25. Be an expert and resource
26. You often are never off the record, but can get accord
27. Have a great product - UX is key - fix customer issues and problems all the time
28. Remember media relations is just press release or
29. Control is ...
30. Take a stand: "ecommerce is dying"
31. Envision the headline
32. Share #s (even if private); percentages don't really help without context
33. User service partners (Angels, Banks, VCs, Academics)
34. Take good photos
35. Rookie mistake -> Be careful how it rolls out
36. Editorial calendar
37. What is a wire for you?
Costs $
Business wire
PR news wire -> PRWeb.com (doesn't reach journalists)
Market wire -> Get on google + SEO
Free:
RSS + PitchEngine.com (Very good wire!)
38. Inside look; Access - Walk in my shoes
39. Take your lumps - don't take it personally
40. It's a dialogue, not monologue
41. Timing - plug into trends (like #7) - Calendar
42. Be Fun!
43. BONUS: Tell the TRUTH!
Questions from the audience
1. What wires do the panelists read? Kirsner doesn't read wires. Instead, he gets news through his network. Doug (Mass High Tech) reads a variety of New England wires.
2. What about launching a product at a big event? It's too difficult to launch a new product at a big event, like SXSW. First, generate your own buzz and build a customer base, then go to big events and launch your event.
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