I'm Sarah, Founder and CEO of Sevans PR. AMA! 🔥

@alessandro_canella Hey Alessandro! I work with the lovely Sarah Evans as Managing Director of Sevans PR :) - great question. It's best to identify what platforms your audience(s) use and start there. While these days it's important to have a presence across the entire social ecosystem, concentrate your efforts on 1 or 2. Create custom content and ensure it aligns with the platform format and model. Depending on what stage you are at, and if you are looking for future investment, LinkedIn is an incredibly important platform to reach investors. For online learning startups specifically, Facebook and Instagram have historically proved to be effective.

@sarah_mawji Thanks a lot for your advice. We have started to gain traction on LinkedIn for the same reason. I believe IG is still the best platform to develop our online core and casual audience

@sarah_mawji Love to see you here!!! :)

@wesley83 Hi my friend!!! So great to see your question pop up. YES — I will be there and we absolutely must meet up. Can’t wait!!!

@ushercakes Hi Michael. I run a strategic communications agency with a focus in PR, so it’s not typically “me” launching products, but our clients. We’ve learned LOTS over the years and like with any platform, PH changes and evolves. When you’re new to any network, a PR pro will likely always recommend to leverage someone with an existing audience. It’s always easier to start with an established audience or community that trying to build it from scratch — especially during a “moment-based marketing” experience. If you have time to build community prior to a launch, by all means, invest in doing this. Otherwise, find someone who connects with the exact customer you’d like to reach and set aside time and budget to engage with them.

@brian_ficho We spend a lot of time consulting executives on this very thing. You’re not alone — many executives don’t have time or don’t love being so “public.” It’s important to take time to think about what can be dubbed your “personal brand,” and how you want to share a part of yourself with others. What WILL you talk about? What WON’T you talk about? (This is as important) Where do you want to share? How do you want to share? (Written, audio, video) Start with these four and some sort of cadence you can commit to — daily, weekly or monthly.

@sarah_evans1 great feedback. I wonder if there’s an opportunity for sort of light PR product that helps founders/execs built out a strategy that they can then execute

@product_at_producthunt Hi Michael. This is something I actually no longer use, but when I first started my company in the “early days” of social media it was essentially what I called myself before “influencer” was a thing. Our team created social content for brands at major events — which isn’t even something we offer any longer. You could say that now this has evolved into being advocates and champions for our Sevans PR clients.

@rodrigo_irarrazaval Product Hunt — join, participate and launch. If you’re talking about media relations specifically, this isn’t a hack as it takes time, but spend a significant amount of time looking for a journalist who would TRULY be interested in what you’re building or launching and reach out to build a relationship before every pitching them a story.

@hanna_z Hi Hannah. While we work with several e-commerce companies, I can tell you specifically what works for them. This is from an earned and organic perspective as I run a PR agency (versus traditional marketing). The brands we work with tend to utilize: Instagram and Linked for B2B and are really focusing on event-led growth to build out their funnels (that typically results in the highest retention).

@imrul_kayes Hi! MVP launches are a prime opportunity for startups to reel in publicity, new investors and customers and overall make noise around your product. It's important to plan ahead and ensure the PR professionals and marketers on your team are fully dialed in on every aspect of the launch - including the technicalities of the product itself. Before launch, ensure your social assets are up to date and that content has been planned for your company page and the team's personal accounts. On the PR side, An earned media relations approach plays a huge role in any launch. Media assets should be prepared a month in advance and you should begin reaching out to key media personnel a few weeks in advance. Can you offer a journalist a demo? Does it make sense to issue a press release? Are you interview ready and do you know how to answer tricky questions? It's important to take the time to prep and execute. If all of this is done well it can land you some incredible reach.