PR, Communication & Storytelling for Startups 1.1

Communication

ROCKEY SPACE, SF

Workshop

Alex Barrera (@abarrera)

Communication Ninja workshop

Alex Barrera (@abarrera)

“If you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles

without a single loss” - Sun Tzu

What can you tell me about

No expertsHate spamForced to write

What can you tell me about

YESYOUARE

and you know it!

roblem

When to contact

the press?

I don’t need to contact anyone

Communication Ninja workshop BLOG ME!!!

The Binary Conjecture

I pass...

Now I want!

Branding is about relationships

How many do you know?

How many do you know?Communication Ninja workshop

Tweet this!“Gather a list of bloggers/journalists you’re

interested in, follow them and interact with them, DAILY”

Tweet this!“Market the marketers: Write stuff

anywhere where they can see it but don’t spam”

Tweet this!“Market the marketers: Write stuff

anywhere where they can see it but don’t spam”

They writewhatever

theywant!!

Errr...

Tweet this!“Your startup pitch should be exempt of any technical term that your grandma

wouldn’t understand”

Pitch me, bro!

Write me da PR!

10 min

BORN IS NOT NEWS

Tweet this!“Before talking about your startup, make sure anyone can find your contact (email,

Twitter and Facebook) on your site”

Communication Ninja workshopMy inbox on a Monday

Your story better be awesome

But...what is

a story...?

A story is a universal human experience wrapped inside a culture-specific expression

Robert McKee

Storytelling IS

balance

IMAGINATION

Simplicity

Literary vs Story

Tweet this!“Find the storyteller in your startup,

match him with your writer and put them to work on YOUR story”

What are our building

blocks?

An EVENT creates meaningful

change in the life situation of a character that is

expressed and experienced in

terms of a VALUE.

blocks?

An EVENT creates meaningful

change in the life situation of a character that is

expressed and experienced in

terms of a VALUE.

VALUES are the universal qualities

of human experience that may shift from positiveto negative, or negative

to positive, from one moment to the next

Change is achieve through CONFLICT

Who is your protagonist?What’s your cast?What’s are the values at play?Where is the conflict?

15 min

Protagonist: David, the succesful Spanish entrepreneur

Cast: Wife, kids, VC friend, VC, blogger A, blogger friend, press42 team, blogger B, users, media

Values: success/failure, security/insecurity, trust/distrust, gratitud/ingratitud, determination/undecisiveness, happiness/unhappiness, fairness/unfairness

Confict: David vs SF, David vs Blogger A, David vs VC

Scene Scene Scene...

+/- +/- +/-

Sequence (2-5)

+/- +/- +/-

Sequence (2-5)

action/reaction

+/- +/- +/-

Sequence (2-5)

action/reaction

Sequence Sequence Sequence

+/- +/- +/-

Sequence (2-5)

action/reaction

Climax Climax Climax

What is your genre?

Romantic involvement 2 characters

Love story or search for love

Love is a cure

Happy up-ending

Love is a two-sided sword

What is your genre?

Grandeur and spectacle

Recreate past events

Protagonist is a hero

Clear evil antagonist

What is your genre?

Very bad to very good

Personal achievement

Redemption theme

Settings

Period of time

Duration

Location

Level of conflict

Choose yourcreative

constraint!(Genre and settings)

Genre: DramaSettings:

Present3 monthsSpain / San FranciscoInner, personal, extra-personal

Inciting Incident

expectation

result

expectation

result

GAP antagonists

Object of desire(conscious or unconscious)

Inner conflicts

Personal conflicts

Extra-personal conflicts

MindFamilyIndividuals in society Body Lovers Physical environment

Emotions

Friends

Social institutions

expectation result

GAP antagonists

expectation result

GAP antagonists

GAPrisk!

expectation result

GAP antagonists

risk2!

expectation result

GAP antagonists

Object of desire

risk!risk3!

risk2!

+/- +/- +/-

Sequence (2-5)

action/reaction

Act Story (3)

Act Act Act

Climax Climax Climax

What are your

antagonists?

What are your beats?

What are your

antagonists?

10 min

Antagonists: Competition, noise/signal ratio, family, VCs, bloggers

Beats: Moving to SF (Inciting incident), Cost of life (knowledge/ignorance), VC deal (security/insecurity, fairness/unfairness), Blogger contact (undecissive/determined), Blogger response (ingratitude/gratitude), Press42 use (non progress/progress, distrust/trust), Publication (unhappiness/happiness, failure/success)

Character vs characteristics

Object of

desire

Defineyour

characters

David: Successful entrepreneur, tech savy, family guy, trip to SF 2 years ago, not good with sales, money but not rich, former poster boy, not fluent in English, driven

10 min

The more knowledge... the better the story.

Put everything together!15 min

1. Premise idea

2. Protagonist (Characterization)

3. Select genre and settings

4. Inciting incident + object of desire

5. Build your event’s (Scene) progressive beats

6. Each beat a GAP (antagonists)

7. Climax your scene

8. Distill the Controlling idea (value + cause)

Change the angles

1. Change your genre

2. Change your settings

3. Switch protagonists (team vs user vs product)

4. Change point of view

5. Change the plot (events + values)

1. From love to war:“Take pics of your love moments”

“Our crusade is to eradicate Microsoft’s ugliness from

this world”

1. From love to war:“Take pics of your love moments”

“Our crusade is to eradicate Microsoft’s ugliness from

this world”

2. From present to past-present:“Speaking her mind is so easy now, she never though it

was possible”

“When Gutenberg created his printer, he couldn’t

forecast the true revolution yet to come when Internet

came into play”

3. From you to your partner’s:“Alice can now easily expose her paintings to all

corners of the world”

“Bob can track new artists and paintings to buy for his

clients, without going out of his apartment”

3. From you to your partner’s:“Alice can now easily expose her paintings to all

“Bob can track new artists and paintings to buy for his

clients, without going out of his apartment”

4. Change point of view“Alice can now easily expose her paintings to all

“Daniel is so happy that Alice doesn’t travels so much

thanks to X, he’s even investing in it”

5. From sad/happy to hate/love:“Alice didn’t have time for her children. Work kept her busy

at all times. Her boss, an egocentric pig, made

sure her days where akin to walking through hell. Desperate

for time, she discovered X, which found her a new job, one

with free spare time and life balance for her and her

children”

“Alice hated her children. They required time she couldn’t

spare. She needed that raise and they where going to

trump it. [...] Finally free of everything she

realized her children save her soul. She found a feeling

long lost, something primal she didn’t let go again.”

Rewrite your angle!15 min

With fewer words!10 min

Always know who is behind

Chess game picNe

wsAnalysis

Tweet this!“Always make sure you know who the

audience is and adjust the story accordingly”

Tweet this!

“Your social media channels are your story trailers, use them wisely”

Bloggers textbook

1. Not publication but journalist

2. Research the journalist’s topics

3. Send small excerpt (trailer) asking if interested

4. Build rapport bottom-up (3rd tier first)

5. Use different media: text + pics + video

6. Include all info: crunchbase profile+logo+other posts

7. Activity on Twitter, Facebook and your blog

8. Help them when they ask for info/contacts

Tips & tricks: Twitter

1. Tease influential people into answering you2. Space your tweets strategically (buffer app)3. Share interesting links, not your own stuff4. CC specific users (influencers, journalists, etc.) based on the content you share5. Tweet at least once a day6. Bio + avatar extremely important7. Personal accounts better - Personal branding8. RT + comment on journalist’s stuff9. Plaster your twitter everywhere! (@abarrera)

DoUmo ArigatoU

http://www.press42.comalex@press42.com@42press / @abarrera

http://slideshare.net/press42

PR, Communication & Storytelling for Startups 1.1

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