Inevitably, as a startup founder you’ll need to respond to media coverage, as your business grows, in your effort to attract users, or to build a profile as an expert in your field. Or, like some founders, you may find yourself managing a media storm.

Some founders are wary and reluctant to do any media. Reality is, at some point, if you’re successful or want to become successful, you’ll need to get comfortable dealing with the media.

Having worked in PR for a large regional council, and now in my role as Editor of From Little Things, I’ve sat on both sides of the ‘fence’. Getting coverage is not always as easy as just picking up the phone. Ideally, you build relationships with a variety of journalists and bloggers and can target particular stories to them.

The pitch

Every startup pitches its story — to customers, investors, mentors. Getting your company in front of a journalist is no different. You need to understand what they’re interested in. It’s no good pitching a sports story to a political journalist. Don’t make the same mistake with your startup.

In the first instance, avoid sending a media release. Reach out with a few lines about what you’re doing and why it’s relevant. For example, at From Little Things, we want to share stories that help startup founders be better. So pitch us a story about how you got that intro to the person who invested in your company, what your most effective technique for acquiring customers has been, or how you went about convincing that awesome developer to join your team.

Getting organised

There are a few things to have organised if you plan on speaking with the media:

• Press shots and a media kit. Spend the money and get a photographer to take some snaps of you and your team. You’ll likely need head shots for plenty of other things: your pitch deck, your website’s team section and if you ever speak at events (a good way to build a profile). Make sure the images are in a range of formats and sizes. It’s good to put these in a Dropbox folder together with a brief company description, logos and product screenshots — create a press kit. Inc has some helpful advice on what to include. (Also Totem is a great product for creating and managing a full press centre online – Alan)
  
• Key messages. Think about your company pitch; what have you chosen to include in your five minute pitch deck, and why? Now, pull the key things about your business out and think how you can explain them succinctly. What’s your founding ‘story’, how did you come up with the idea, what are some other relevant angles for your business? Storytelling is an absolutely essential skill for startups, as entrepreneur Lyn Graft explained at SXSW.
• Preparation. It’s perfectly okay to ask a journalist what angle they’re looking at taking to help you prepare. By knowing if it’s going to be a story with tips on fundraising, or a founder profile, you’ll be able to better prepare. Our recent story on Ed Hooper’s travel hacks for startups came about after an unrelated interview about the Optus Innov8 fund. In passing, Hooper mentioned some of his tips on making the most of travel, and it sounded like it was useful information for other startups. He was happy to do another interview the following week.

What not to do

• Don’t waste a journalist’s time. If you’re reaching out to media, make sure you’re prepared and happy to answer questions about your business. There’s nothing more frustrating than being contacted by someone with an apparent story, then going to meet for an interview, and walking away with little more than a few pages of platitudes — ‘things are going well’, ‘we’re going from strength-to-strength’, ‘we’re growing but want to grow faster.’ This all comes back to preparing , and making sure you are clear on what angle a journalist is interested in. Here are some useful tips from journalist Jeff Haden.
• Don’t ask to check a story before publication. Well… be careful about doing so. A journalist is not your PR advisor, so don’t try and direct them editorially. If you don’t want something published, don’t say it. While some journalists are happy to check a story and make sure they’ve got the facts correct, others will think you’re questioning their ability — not a good thing. If you are going to ask, do it before the interview and agree up-front. Journalists are usually black-or-white in their views, as this post on the American Journalism Review reveals. If you’re really concerned or it’s a potentially touchy or controversial issue, ask for questions via email in advance so you have time to think before responding, or perhaps conduct the whole interview in an email exchange so you have a record of precisely what you’ve said.
• Don’t send the same press release to 200 journalists. Press releases clog up email inboxes and often aren’t relevant. In my cluttered inbox I often skip over press releases. A better approach is to reach out with a line or two about what you’re up to and why it’s relevant. Oh, and use a catchy subject line. Of course, it’s worth having a media release up your sleeve, which you can provide with some more detail, and some quotes to use. The best approach is to think like you’re writing a news story, and convey the who, what, where, when, how and why. The inverted pyramid is the best way to structure a media release — include the most important information up-front.

What’s worked best for you? Have you had any difficult media experiences? Share your tips with FLT.