Episode#4: ”How to succeed in PR when you start from scratch” -Joanna Kirk International Tech PR strategist and Co-director of StartHer

My name is Joanna Kirk and I am an international Tech PR. I work in the Tech Ecosystem since a few years now mainly with International VC firms, startups, Ecosystem Builders. 

What I would like to share with you today are a series of tips in PR. 

For those of you whom are launching a startup or starting a company or thinking of doing so, the main advice that I give at first is that there’s a lot of the PR you can do on your own. 

The first advice that I would give is don't hesitate to put yourself in the shoes of the journalist and the media that you are targeting. So, spend time a lot of time actually to identify the  journalist and the media that interests you most and then once you have done that step back and trying to imagine how you could to tell your story so that it fits with the editorial line of that particular  journalist or that particular media. 

Don't hesitate to take the time that you need to do this and also never forget that it's not because you exist that you are a story for a journalist. So you might now spend several weeks or several months targeting this media  over the time, and when the time comes you will be able to reach out much easier and in a relevant way. That will avoid you being kind of pushed back and it will maximize your chances of getting their attention. If you don't get a response from a journalist at first, that's absolutely no problem. never forget they receive several hundred messages, potentially, a day. So you can send a first message, a second and maybe a third and maybe that would be the time you get a response. 

Other ways for getting attention would be by attending relevant and focused events that are focused on your business and often you could be in a situation where you encounter the key journalist that will be your first contact on your first supporters and also if you have any invitations to participate at a workshop or a panel or you are part of a co-working or an incubator you might also have other ways of be in more visible and that also can help to get more attention. as I was saying earlier what you do need to do is nail in a simple question what your startup is doing so that you can present it in a very concise and clear way to a media or a journalist that interests you. The question you need to ask yourself is what is my startup doing and what problem are we addressing with it and how we plan to answer this problem. Once you've done that, and do take the time necessary to formulate it in the way you want to, you will be able to communicate easily with a journalist that you meet at an event or that you will pitch by email.

As a female founder or a female co-founder it's an opportunity in terms of PR to be in Tech today. I think that media are looking for stories and you should never hesitate to contact them for that. On the other hand take the opportunity to speak about your business about your startup and as sometimes it is the case they have questions of work-life balance or how to build a company with children or family. If that makes you feel uncomfortable, no need to answer it and again my advice would be to really focus on your business 

50intech is really interesting and important. It is relevant in the sense that it started out internationally and I think it's really important to move forward together. And I think that's the way that we're actually going to change things and that the lines will be able to move and that's actually why I joined 50intech as an ambassador from the first days and I'm really happy to be able to do this.

I'll be on the 50intech platform so if you have any Tech PR questions or if you are interested in connections then I'll be happy to help, so see you there!