I’ve just read this great article – How To Get Media Coverage For Your Start-up: A Complete Guide by Leo Widrich, co-founder of Buffer. One of the things I’ve noticed, having worked with start-ups in the US, EMEA and Asia Pacific, is companies’ in this region do not dedicate the same amount of budget or time to this process as the international competition. For example, when I worked in the US at the end of the 90s/early 00s, a start-up typically spent US$25-35,000/month just on its PR agency. How many start-ups in Asia Pacific are even spending $5K? I appreciate that time and money are of the essence with start-ups, but to become a truly global player – as many of the companies I’ve met want to be – or even a dominant regional player, investing in some level of content marketing can make all the difference.
The other challenge with start-ups in Asia Pacific is finding and attracting the right talent. It’s not just a skills-gap (although that is a strong reason), but culturally, start-ups do not appeal in this region – for a number of reasons. Therefore, perhaps making a bigger publicity splash can also help address the people challenge – because it will certainly appeal to potential employees’ egos? It’s something to keep in mind.
The article covers seven areas:
- Have your own start-up blog, learn to tell stories
- How to get to know writers via Twitter and Facebook
- Do your best to avoid the Alexias and Sarah Lacys
- The art and timing of sending that pitch off and getting in touch with reporters
- A story about your start-up is written and published now what?
- Four completely different types of stories you can pitch
- How to make getting covered a habit, not an accident
I think this is a great, straight-forward, common-sense article and many start-ups in Asia Pacific can benefit from it. Also, as Leo Widrich suggests, just do one thing at a time and build from there.
However, having helped a number of start-ups get a corporate blog off the ground, can I please suggest that if you start this, you KEEP IT GOING no matter what? The start-stop-start-stop activity I have seen around blogging is frustrating for me – because I know what it is costing a company – and the budget is always the reason cited. If you can’t afford to outsource this, find someone within your organisation who has a flair for content and get them on the case. However, the best approach is to find the budget to bring in a professional who can get you going in the right direction – defining the stories your business needs to be telling your customers – and this professional can train your internal team to maintain it. You never know, you might find an internal content champion you didn’t know existed. Whatever happens, just keep it going!
I KNOW it’s hard, I KNOW you’re wearing multiple hats, but I also KNOW it’s vital for your business to succeed!
What do you think? Do you agree that start-ups in Asia Pacific could benefit from this information? And any thoughts on why you don’t think start-ups are culturally attractive in this region?
Cheers
Andrea
It’s a good, long post because he put a lot of thought into it.
I don’t know much about tech startups ex-japan but blogging and twitter are both very popular.
I definitely thought it was of great value and worth sharing. It’s the stopping and starting with blogging in AP that is a concern, with many still wondering how to even start! Interesting times xx