Hack PR for Your Startup With These 5 Tools Creative publicity tricks will empower you to gain the exposure your company needs.
By Andrew Medal Edited by Dan Bova
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Apparently, you can hack anything these days. I just read an article that taught me 9 Hacks to Making a Sandwich Faster. (Don't ask why I read it, it just sucked me in. Plus, who doesn't want to eat anything sooner?)
Press is cool because you never know who's going to read or see it. The right press can do wonders for your startup. You can use it to generate mass exposure, leverage it for more press and to build company credibility.
I have some friends that landed on TechCrunch, and through that press, they were able to land a seven-figure investment from a very notable venture capitalist in the Valley (this is obviously the exception, not the norm).
Related: 5 Helpful Pre-Launch Resources for Online Startups
Here's a quick hit list of five tools to help you hack startup press:
1. Submit.co
I found this product while cruising Product Hunt. Submit.co has organized a mass database of places to submit your startup, while providing the actual submit page/link for many of the publications. Fantastic.
2. ANewsTip.com
Simply finding the right journalist that covers your space can be a daunting and time-consuming process. A News Tip has alleviated that process for you by creating a way to search journalists based on their tweets. For example, if you type "IoT" in the search bar the results will yield journalists who cover the Internet of Things. Pretty nifty.
3. Pitchengine.co/tiny
Tiny Pitch is a killer product created by the good people at Pitch Engine. Tiny Pitch allows you to compose a pitch from your email, on any device (phone, tablet, etc.) and it'll turn it into an engaging Tiny Pitch for you to share with your contacts and social networks for free. It's honestly one of my favorite new products and super effective for all types of press creation.
Related: 3 Tips for Writing Unforgettable PR Messages
4. FounderSuite.com
Nathan, the founder, is a great guy and has built a very helpful product. FounderSuite is a robust and simple-to-use platform for startups. Sometimes simply organizing and tracking press, journalist contacts and everything related to acquiring press is a timely process. FounderSuite helps resolve that. Additionally, the product suite is valuable for capital raises, ideation, startup documents and anything related to building and managing your startup.
5. ProductHunt.com
I know some of you are thinking, actually, Product Hunt is not a tool for getting press. But Product Hunt has become such a valuable tool for exposure, users, etc. that I would beg to differ. Press these days comes in all different types of forms, and I'd gladly trade a number-one spot on Product Hunt vs. any of the traditional press sources. Plus, this is my list.
Bonus: Don't discredit Reddit. It has helped drive more exposure and traffic to some of my projects than any other source I've used.
Press is great, and these tools will help you execute your strategy. But press should never be substituted with good "ol fashioned "real value" for your users or customers. Nothing can replace building a product or service that provides tangible value, solves a real problem and is something that your users or customers can't live without. Chances are if that's what you're focused on, you'll end up on the top of Product Hunt anyway.
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