You are your company’s biggest media asset

My pet peeve generally is when highly intelligent people view complex things in black and white. Founders do this with press.

I’ve seen the pendulum swing in both extremes in my career. Founders used to ask, “How do I get media coverage?” I’d respond, “Who says you need media coverage to meet your objectives?” Now, convinced “the media is dead,” they ask how to do social media, and I say, “Who says the media is dead?”

Instead, founders should ask, “Which communication tool, or tools, will help me achieve my business objectives?” 

It’s not either/or

Founders show an amazing capacity to think contextually and manage ambiguity in other areas of their business. They build customer-obsessed cultures while doing whatever it takes to move up-market, for example. If they apply the same nuanced thinking to communications, they’ll see that choosing between earned and owned media is kind of like choosing between shipping new products and maintaining existing software. 

In reality, you can—and probably should—do both.

It reminds me of how people used to say online education meant the end of four-year universities. The truth is both have their place. (Today, you hear the same arguments about AI.)

It’s the same with earned and owned media. Both have their place.

When to own media

Owned channels (social media, podcasts, company blogs, newsletters, etc.) are especially effective for down-market communications. When you’re talking to people who already know your company—and, to some extent, their friends—you don’t need a middleman like TechCrunch. 

At AngelList, our customers were founders and investors, two groups who pretty much live on Twitter for industry news and socializing. So, when there was a new corporate or product announcement, Twitter served us well.

Founders tend to like owned media because of the control. You can say what you want, exactly as you want to say it, with no risk of being misquoted or taken out of context. You can also turn it on and off and adjust the throttle to fit your business objectives at the moment. That’s not as easy to do with earned media (more on this later).

An added benefit of owned channels is that you gain followers with every piece of content you put out and can continue building a relationship with them. Social media also creates a neat (and editable) archive or system of record for major announcements.

When to earn media

On the other hand, earned media is most effective for communicating up-market.

When you’re trying to convince a broad audience your company has staying power, it helps to have a credible middleman. Earned media includes mainstream outlets with broad reach (e.g., CNBC, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal) and industry trade publications that are highly trusted among just the people you’re trying to reach (e.g., National Mortgage News, American Banker, Autoweek).

A lot more people outside Silicon Valley learned about AngelList in The New York Times and Bloomberg than we could have reached with our own channels. AngelList also benefited from the external validation that comes with traditional media coverage.

Maybe you’re trying to influence the family of a top new-grad engineer you hope to hire. The dad of this engineer might say, “My daughter’s thinking about joining this startup that got written up in the WSJ.” He’s not likely to get that excited by your company’s massive YouTube following.

The same is true for other audiences, like institutional investors or heads of large companies outside the reach of your company’s tweets and newsletters.

When it comes to creating a moment and getting a bunch of people to notice your product, it could be earned media, but it also could be owned media. It depends. Does your audience sit on Twitter all day? Does your audience wake up every day and immediately open LinkedIn? Have you amassed a massive newsletter following? If so, then maybe owned media works for you. That’s an important nuance.

Your goals decide

Rather than debating owned vs. earned, founders should first examine their goals and pick the approach that will best achieve those objectives.

If the objective is lead generation among people who are “very online” and stay glued to major social platforms, reactivating stale customers or upselling them, then marketing with owned channels may suffice. This suits many technical founders because it’s data-driven and at least somewhat predictable. Generate sales leads by pushing out more or better, emails, blog posts, and social content.

If it’s convincing people who haven’t yet heard of your company before—like enterprise decision-makers, mainstream consumers, investors, and prospective employees—that your company has staying power, then targeted earned media probably is the right approach. This is closer to brand marketing, which is more nuanced and relationship-driven.

As a founder, if you can understand the nuances of different types of marketing, then you’re on your way to being able to think the right way about the media. Only, you have to embrace even less control and more unknowns.

Relationships take time

Some people have a habit of talking to people only when they need something. Founders tend to do this with reporters. “I want x publication to cover my announcement,” a founder will say. But reporters are relationship-driven, not transactional. They rely on having a trusted network of sources to write great stories in the present and future.

The relationship aspect of comms makes it much different than more transactional types of marketing. Relationships take time to develop. Unlike a lot of marketing initiatives, earned media is not a machine that can be turned on and off based on what’s going on within your company (though that seems to be how founders view it). Relationships require regular maintenance and nurturing. 

Also, it’s not in your control. You could spend resources chasing after a story that never comes. Likewise, you could get a story but one you don’t like. More often, you get a story that’s roughly what you want, but you hate the headline. This is normal.

Help a reporter

If you’re the founder, recognize that you’re likely your company’s biggest PR asset. Reporters want to meet smart, interesting people in the industry who will help them write better stories. They especially want to talk to founders who are willing to share unique insights or points of view related to the topics they cover (even if it’s completely off the record or on background).

If you’re comfortable talking with reporters, offer an intro to one who covers your domain, months ahead of any announcement you might be contemplating. Establish a relationship. Be genuinely curious about what they’re working on, and offer help.

If you’re shy and don’t want to be quoted, there are still ways to build these relationships. I’ve worked for some of the most introverted, media-shy founders and people would be surprised how much they talk to reporters on background. This allows them to build relationships and share their perspective without having their name in print.

As a founder, consider seizing opportunities to get covered if it fits your company’s objectives.

You just might hate the headline 🙃