PR
VSC Ventures adds $14 million to its storytelling-meets-checkbook investment pitch
It’s a hard time to be building in public. Which means that it’s a hard time to tell your story as an entrepreneur. Which means that for a new venture…
VSC wants to craft the stories of startups, then invest in them too
VSC, a public relations firm that has helped the likes of startups such as ClearCo, Poshmark and Tile craft their stories, has raised millions to invest in the companies they…
Blackbird.AI grabs $10M to help brands counter disinformation
New York-based Blackbird.AI has closed a $10 million Series A as it prepares to launch the next version of its disinformation intelligence platform this fall. The Series A is led…
There’s a lot of noise out there. The ability to effectively communicate can make or break your launch.
Even startups on tight budgets can maximize their marketing impact
A startup’s best marketing asset is its story. The knowledge and expertise of its team, together with the why and the how of its offering provides the most compelling content.
6 reasons why reporters aren’t interested in your content marketing
If you’ve run into roadblocks, make sure you’re not making any of these mistakes with your content or your pitching.
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Leverage public data to improve content marketing outcomes
Those who see the opportunity in data-focused content will reap disproportionate benefits.
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Tesla’s decision to scrap its PR department could create a PR nightmare
This decision will affect the engineers and developers, marketing teams and all employees who put their all into the technology and company image, only to have it eventually misrepresented in the media.
Utilizing content marketing and digital PR can make huge strides in getting your brand name out there.
Earn the best backlinks with high-quality content and digital PR
A lot is debated in the SEO world, but nearly everyone can agree that links are and will continue to be vitally important to the health and rankability of a…
Facebook’s former PR chief explains why no one is paying attention to your startup
At TechCrunch Early Stage, I spoke with Coatue Management GP Caryn Marooney about startup branding and how founders can get people to pay attention to what they’re building. Marooney recently…
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Meet Facebook’s latest fake
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, a 35-year-old billionaire who keeps refusing to sit in front of international parliamentarians to answer questions about his ad business’ impact on democracy and human rights around the world, has a new piece of accountability theatre to sell you: An “Oversight Board“. Not of Facebook’s business itself. Though you’d be forgiven…
This week, I published a piece called the “The master list of PR DON’Ts (or how not to piss off the writer covering your startup).” The problem, of course, with…
How to avoid PR disasters, the new web, and who owns Huawei?
Soon: Live conference call with Anthony Ha on TED At 2pm EST / 11am PST, we will have TechCrunch writer Anthony Ha talking live with Extra Crunch readers about all…
Startup growth comes from many places, but one option is through “earned media” — stories and mentions in the press. Earned media is great, because the channel is nominally free,…
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Read the mud-slinging pitches Facebook’s PR firm sent us
Facebook’s latest PR crisis has cast a lurid spotlight on a GOP-led publicity firm called Definers Public Affairs, after a New York Times investigation revealed last week the firm had sought to discredit Facebook critics by, in one instance, linking them to the liberal financier George Soros — a long-time target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. The…
Contraception app still being probed by medical agency over unwanted pregnancies
Is there such a thing as bad publicity? It’s an interesting and contested question. To wit: Self styled ‘digital contraception’ app, Natural Cycles — which relies on a set of proprietary…
Upbeat gets $1.5M to create a data science-driven alternative to PR agencies
Out of all the how-to guides ever written about pitching journalists, I’ve never seen one address the truth—that most are simply too busy trying not to get murdered by their…
Bad PR agencies can kill a startup before it has a chance to succeed
Right now there’s a multi-million-dollar con being played on employees, investors and founders of startup companies — and they don’t even realize it. In a dying media world where quality…
AirPR is announcing that it has raised $5 million in Series B funding. The company started out as a marketplace that matched up startups with public relations professionals, but is…
A U.S. Department of Labor report last year stated there were approximately 57,000 PR managers and 208,000 PR specialists in America; conversely, there were only 46,500 journalists. Do the math.That…
Have you heard about the Tinder Meltdown (TM)? Some even called it a “stunt.” In case you haven’t, here’s the quick and dirty: a piece appeared on Vanity Fair that…
Longtime Apple PR Chief Katie Cotton To Retire
Apple’s VP of worldwide communications Katie Cotton is retiring, the company revealed today. Cotton has been with Apple for more than 18 years, and in that time she’s helped coordinate…
PressFriendly Launches To Teach Startups How To Stop Sending Me Stupid Pitches
For startups, there’s usually a choice between hiring someone to take care of your PR — which usually means retaining an agency — or doing the work yourself. PressFriendly seeks…
The Omniture Of PR? AirPR’s New Analytics Platform Aims To Show CMOs How To Invest In PR
Startups and PR firms have long had a halting, if not embattled relationship. Spend time talking to entrepreneurs and those working at startups, and it won’t be long before you…
Startup-PR Matchmaker AirPR Opens To The Public, As Data Begins To Reveal How To Fix A Broken Model
For pretty much as long as anyone can remember, a relationship triangle, or a “love triangle” if you will, has taken shape between companies and the PR firms that represent…
AirPR Launches A Marketplace To Match Startups With Top PR Talent
Today, AirPR is officially launching its Match.com for startups and PR, peeling back the curtain on its PR marketplace for the first time. Essentially, AirPR has created a tech platform…
AirPR Nabs $1M From 500 Startups, Matt Mullenweg To Help Startups Find Better PR
We in the media have a love-hate relationship with public relations firms and their professionals, with that relationship tending to skew heavily to the latter. Companies pour countless hours of…
How Big Is The FB IPO? It’s So Big I Just Hit Inbox Zero
Why is there nothing but Facebook IPO news today, you (Facebook haters) may be asking? Well, outside of the obvious – people are obsessed, this is a historic event, it’s…
The Samsung Note Is Definitively Not Coming To AT&T As Far As You Know
Remember the mini-slate Samsung released a few months ago? The Samsung Galaxy Note? Pretty cool little device. As we enter CES week, the press releases are flying fast and furious…
