In Information Security PR, what’s real Trumps slick gimmicks and stunts

Posted by Joe Franscella

About nine months ago, I had a phone conversation with Bob McMillen of IDG to better understand what he looks for in a news story. During the course of the call, the topic came up of just how many Information Security vendors there are. I don’t have an exact figure, but I came up with around 900 in the greater Silicon Valley area alone. If you use the InformationWeek description of what a startup is — as spelled out in StartUp City — many of the 900 could be considered as part of this category. Getting attention within a field of 900-plus is a daunting task to say the least. It has, and can, be done, but it does takes strategy and planning.

In May 2008, my firm, Trainer Communications, launched a promising startup, Rohati Systems (Click here for the Rohati Systems Case Study). Within the first 30 days of the launch, the company (with syndication included) had been featured over 50 times in leading IT and business publications in a combination of written features, videos and PodCasts. There were no clever gimmicks or slick PR tactics involved. This level of recognition was earned because Trainer’s Security Practice delivered — and I emphasize delivered over created — compelling news to the right journalists at the right time. We relied on experience and expertise to determine what was compelling, why it was news and then did due diligence to determine which reporters would be most interested.

If you are an information security startup struggling over how to deliver compelling news about your company or product to the trades, business and blogger communities, don’t waste your time thinking up clever tricks and gimmicks, just ask yourself the same questions a seasoned PR executive would ask a client when developing news:

1. Do you provide a solution to a problem that has been identified as a trend?
2. Is your company run by a known, proven management team and are they available to be spokespersons?
3. Is your company run by former executives of a powerhouse vendor?
4. Are your executives available for an in-person tour?
5. Do you have a recognized evangelist, pundit or analyst in your corner?
6. Do you have customers willing to serve as references?
7. Are you providing first-of-a-kind or disruptive technology?
8. Will you identify who your competitors are and openly discuss differentiators?
9. Do you have funding? Note for security companies: $20m is a lot…..
10. Do you have investors (VCs) known for backing winners?

Your answers to these questions will reveal the tangible assets your company has available to go out to the media with. Obviously, more “yeses” equal a greater number of assets and, to quote an old saying, “The more the merrier!” More often than not though, a startup will have a mix of yes and no responses, regardless of the scorecard, knowing what you have and don’t have will allow you to develop a PR strategy based on what’s real as opposed to just conceptual. And as any successful PR practitioner will tell you, what’s real Trumps the conceptual any day of the week.