How PR is played
By Techgirl

In the bad old days, if an Indian had a good tech business idea, he had to deal with a handful of moneymen to source the funds, and a few media houses that controlled what you could say to the public.

Today, the rules have changed.  An Indian techie sitting in Mumbai can raise funds from America or Europe. And he need not necessarily contact Indian media as well.  A couple of powerful tech blogs in USA can pick his story idea by 9 am and publish it in 14 hours.  Once published in America, the Indian tech media picks up the story.

In America, there are two ingredients to ensure a quicker success for a startup-up.  The first is a quality product and the second (complementary) element is a good Public Relations team.  A good public relations team in America can introduce you to the Venture Capitalists as well as the key journalists and bloggers. All for a substantial fee. PR is a nascent industry in India but will develop along the same lines as its counterparts in USA.

New York Times has just published a very readable article which details how tech super publicist Brooke Hammerling helped launch a new website Wordnik. My contacts in the American media tell me that Brooke personally knows most tech journalists and bloggers.

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Ms. Hammerling, while popping green apple Jolly Ranchers into her mouth, suggests a press tour that includes briefing bloggers at influential geek sites like TechCrunch, All Things Digital and GigaOM.

But Roger McNamee, a prominent tech investor who is backing Wordnik, is also in the room, and a look of exasperation passes across his face at the mere mention of the sites.

“Why shouldn’t we avoid them? They’re cynical,” he says, also noting his concern that Wordnik would probably appeal more to wordsmiths than followers of tech blogs. “That’s where I would be most uncomfortable. They don’t know the difference between ‘they’re’ and ‘there.’ ”

Without missing a beat, Ms. Hammerling changes course, instantly agreeing with Mr. McNamee’s take. “I love you for that,” she intones. “I’ll leave the tech blogs out. Let them come to me.”
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In the end, super publicist Brooke introduced the Wordnik team to a handful of key journalists and the Digg team. Digg founder Kevin Rose tweeted to his 759 thousand followed that Wordnik was “truly amazing”.

Read this article if you want to understand how the publicity machines works in America.  While the PR machine does not guarantee success, it helps improve your chances of hitting it big.

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com