Comments on: Startup Storytelling and Media Coverage

By: Indicate Media

Indicate Media — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:03:00 +0000

Thank you April–Love your article on the parameters for determining what is a newsworthy and what isn’t. As a PR company, we are in the business of creating stories for our clients, and we always encourage companies to get creative, use current events and all of the other points you mention, and most importantly, let their personality shine through. Great post!

By: April Dunford

April Dunford — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:27:00 +0000

Thanks Rutul,
Hacker news is a really interesting example. There certainly is a difference between the reaction you get as a YC company versus the reaction you get as a non-YC, or even non-silicon valley based company there. And like anywhere there are certain stories that work very well there (startup lessons learned and more technology/programming related articles for example) and other very good articles that get no play at all there. For example I’m really into startup marketing but I’ve seen some great content get absolutely no play there at all and yet get an amazing level of engagement within the marketing community on other sites. The audience at Hacker News might be smart but they aren’t smart about everything.
April

By: April Dunford

April Dunford — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:22:00 +0000

Hey Mark,
I agree with you but only up to a certain point. Some stories might work across audiences but a lot of them don’t. For example I think the “startup lessons learned” type article only works for a very narrow range of publications (more narrow than most founders think because they tend to read the ones that do care about it). For most companies, I’ve seen better results from pitching a story that matches the pub rather than trying to take one story and tweak it across many different outlets.

By: Rutul Davè

Rutul Davè — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 18:34:00 +0000

Thank you April — great summary of startup storytelling.

Completely agree with your comment on ‘startup lessons learned’. Hacker News is a great example of that. Your are judged more harshly if you don’t have a reputation built up, but as a frequent participant adding value to the conversations, you can tell your startup story to an audience of very involved and intelligent readers.

By: Mark Evans

Mark Evans — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 12:15:00 +0000

April: I’d suggest audience and story should happen at the same time, or maybe the story should come before the audience. To me, a good story can be customized, changed and tweaked to meet the needs of different target audiences. It’s the same story but takes on different forms based on needs and interests. Anyway, my two cents.