January 2010 Entrepreneur's Forum
PR, Branding, and Buzz
Topics:
- Why is brand important to a tech startups? What difference does a good (or bad) brand make for the likelihood of a startup's success?
- How important is a good name and domain name for your startup? How do you come up with a good name? When is it worth it to buy a domain name?
- What is PR / public relations? How is it different from marketing?
- What is buzz? How can it be generated and sustained?
- What is the purpose of PR for a startup? Do all startups need to do PR? When in a startups lifecycle should it become a priority?
- What are the services a PR agency can offer a startup? How much should these services cost? When do they become a budget priority?
- How does PR and branding fit into an overall marketing strategy? When should a startup focus on PR rather than other marketing priorities (social media marketing, traditional media, CPC, CPM, etc)
- Interacting with the press - targeting publications/journalists, writing pitches, developing press packets, etc.
- When to hire a PR agency vs. do it yourself.
- What are some success stories of tech startups using PR to their advantage? Horror stories of bad PR?
- What are some success stories of tech startups using effective naming, branding and buzz? Horror stories?
Moderator:
Panelists (alphabetic order):
Blog Posts About This Event:
Catch 22 – Startups and PR (by MessagingLab)
Ultra Light Startups to Address PR, Branding and Buzz (by Huffington Post)
Ultra Light Startups to Address PR, Branding and Buzz (by NYConvergence)
Ultra Light Startups to Spotlight PR, Branding, and Buzz (by Ultra Light Startups)
Ultra Lights Hoping to Take Flight (by John Lee Media)
Ultra Light Startups on Tech PR (by NYConvergence)
Panel Video
Panelist and Moderator Bios
Todd Barrish (@tbar98)
Todd is Managing Director at LaunchSquad New York. Todd has launched and worked with many start up companies that have gone on to become strong industry brands including Vonage, Priceline and blip.tv. His expertise includes brand marketing, high-level media and analyst relations, financial communications as well as corporate reputation and issues management programs. In June 2009, Todd was appointed to the Radford University Board of Visitors by Virginia Governor Time Kaine.
Rachel Honig (@rachellynhonig)
Rachel is Managing Director, at G.S. Schwartz & Co. and COO & Co-Founder, Digital Power and Light. G.S. Schwartz & Co is a 29-year-old, independent, public relations agency, whose clients include both “new chips” and “blue chips.” Digital Power & Light is a consultancy specializing in social media and Web 2.0 communications. Rachel has worked with a variety of technology and other start-up ventures garnering outcomes from organic growth to M&A to IPO. She chairs Women Executives in PR, a special sector of Advertising Women in New York, and sits on the Board of Advisors for the Masters in Corporate Communications program at Baruch College.
Karl Schmieder (@karls_mlab)
Karl is co-founder and C.E.O. of MessagingLab, a NYC-based communications firm focused on helping technology companies tell their stories. Karl is an award-winning writer, recognized for his ability to translate hard science into understandable and actionable marketing strategies. He has provided naming consulting services to several start-ups and Logitech, Oddcast, OpenWave and Yahoo! He is also the publisher of the Bio-Marketing newsletter.
Lloyd Trufelman
Lloyd is Founder and CEO of Trylon SMR, a New York-based digital media PR firm, and publisher of NYConvergence, a digest of digital media technology news for the New York area. He has developed and implemented numerous awareness and brand-building campaigns for startup and established technology, media and telecom industry clients nationwide since 1990. Formerly with MTV Networks, Howard J. Rubenstein Associates, CBS and major political campaigns, Trufelman is a member of The Partnership for New York City and a graduate of American University’s School of Communications.
John Adams (@bizbriefs)
John is the founder of BizBriefs, a strategic social media content planner and consultant who guides companies through the Web 2.0 arena while providing meaningful content. John was most recently the Director of Editorial Services for Storm Exchange, a news source for weather-driven businesses, where he produced podcasts, radio pieces and industry news stories. John is also a blog designer with extensive journalism experience who has reported, produced or anchored for various media outlets including: NBC Universal, Institutional Investor, Cox Enterprises, and Media General. |
