Great tips for startups

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ReadWriteWeb has 36 great tips for startups.

One thing I’d add to that list: make sure you use every tool you can to help get your story out. The startups that have gotten the best reputation with bloggers have been the ones that show up to conferences and little events around town, do videos, Twitter, AND do everything that ReadWriteWeb talks about.

I disagree that startups have to announce at a conference, too. Sometimes that’s the WRONG place to announce a new product. Why? Well, at Demo there’s 60 people competing for our attention. The next week? Might only be four. Want to get to the top of TechMeme? It’s a lot harder during Demo week.

But, if you don’t do a conference you MUST execute flawlessly on the PR front. How? I’d visit personally 40 bloggers and hold them to an embargo. Make sure you get some video and photographers in there too. They make your story more complete.

Of course if you have an awesome product it really doesn’t matter. I’m freaking over the top about Qik.com right now. How did I learn about that? An accidental meeting in an Apple store. I’m sure that if they had a PR team the PR team would be really pissed. But I’ve been showing everyone and their brother Qik. If the others, like Seesmic and Kyte don’t get their streaming servers up and running soon they will lose me forever. That’s how strongly I feel about this company.

But most companies don’t have the utility of live streaming video off of a cell phone to do their PR for them. So, for most companies ReadWriteWeb’s advice is good and should be listened to.

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Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

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19 thoughts on “Great tips for startups”

  1. Think they missed a massive point on PR, blogging! I started blogging right at the beginning, everything I have learnt about publicity has come from the humble beginnings of writing a blog. It teaches you,

    * How to get your point across
    * Search Engine Optimization
    * Sales + Marketing
    * Networking
    * And most important – Planning!

    I get so many people now asking me advice on who they should hire to write their blog, and I always give the same answer, write it yourself or don’t bother.

    It has taught me so much about how to approach other bloggers/sites because I get approached every day for advertising/articles/opportunities and so I know what works on me and what doesnt.

    But apart from that RWW was a great article agreed with 90% of it.

    Like

  2. Think they missed a massive point on PR, blogging! I started blogging right at the beginning, everything I have learnt about publicity has come from the humble beginnings of writing a blog. It teaches you,

    * How to get your point across
    * Search Engine Optimization
    * Sales + Marketing
    * Networking
    * And most important – Planning!

    I get so many people now asking me advice on who they should hire to write their blog, and I always give the same answer, write it yourself or don’t bother.

    It has taught me so much about how to approach other bloggers/sites because I get approached every day for advertising/articles/opportunities and so I know what works on me and what doesnt.

    But apart from that RWW was a great article agreed with 90% of it.

    Like

  3. Think they missed a massive point on PR, blogging! I started blogging right at the beginning, everything I have learnt about publicity has come from the humble beginnings of writing a blog. It teaches you,

    * How to get your point across
    * Search Engine Optimization
    * Sales + Marketing
    * Networking
    * And most important – Planning!

    I get so many people now asking me advice on who they should hire to write their blog, and I always give the same answer, write it yourself or don’t bother.

    It has taught me so much about how to approach other bloggers/sites because I get approached every day for advertising/articles/opportunities and so I know what works on me and what doesnt.

    But apart from that RWW was a great article agreed with 90% of it.

    Like

  10. There are some great tips in there, but there are some crazy ones too. I’m with you – launching at a conference isn’t a great idea, especially one that’s all about launching, like DEMO. The # of failed companies that have launched at DEMO is staggering.

    Most of the tips are great – just the PR & Conference ones aren’t as good. I don’t think we did any of those. 🙂

    Like

  11. There are some great tips in there, but there are some crazy ones too. I’m with you – launching at a conference isn’t a great idea, especially one that’s all about launching, like DEMO. The # of failed companies that have launched at DEMO is staggering.

    Most of the tips are great – just the PR & Conference ones aren’t as good. I don’t think we did any of those. 🙂

    Like

  12. There are some great tips in there, but there are some crazy ones too. I’m with you – launching at a conference isn’t a great idea, especially one that’s all about launching, like DEMO. The # of failed companies that have launched at DEMO is staggering.

    Most of the tips are great – just the PR & Conference ones aren’t as good. I don’t think we did any of those. 🙂

    Like

  13. aren’t you leaving a failing startup? If you think these are great tips, how many did you make sure were implemented? And how sucessful were they?

    Like

  14. aren’t you leaving a failing startup? If you think these are great tips, how many did you make sure were implemented? And how sucessful were they?

    Like

  15. aren’t you leaving a failing startup? If you think these are great tips, how many did you make sure were implemented? And how sucessful were they?

    Like

  16. Hey Robert,

    Thanks for blogging about my startup tips post! Read/WriteWeb had a summary, the actual posts appear on BlueBlog. In the PR tips post I wrote this:

    It does not make sense to launch at a conference that does not have any startup participation because it won’t be the right context.

    There is also more to the conference discussion, you can see it in these two posts:

    http://blog.adaptiveblue.com/?p=689
    http://blog.adaptiveblue.com/?p=482

    Alex

    Like

  17. Hey Robert,

    Thanks for blogging about my startup tips post! Read/WriteWeb had a summary, the actual posts appear on BlueBlog. In the PR tips post I wrote this:

    It does not make sense to launch at a conference that does not have any startup participation because it won’t be the right context.

    There is also more to the conference discussion, you can see it in these two posts:

    http://blog.adaptiveblue.com/?p=689
    http://blog.adaptiveblue.com/?p=482

    Alex

    Like

  18. Hey Robert,

    Thanks for blogging about my startup tips post! Read/WriteWeb had a summary, the actual posts appear on BlueBlog. In the PR tips post I wrote this:

    It does not make sense to launch at a conference that does not have any startup participation because it won’t be the right context.

    There is also more to the conference discussion, you can see it in these two posts:

    http://blog.adaptiveblue.com/?p=689
    http://blog.adaptiveblue.com/?p=482

    Alex

    Like

  19. Pingback: Christiaan Conover » Qik: The Coolest Video Service Since YouTube

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