Founders, We Need to Talk.

I think it’s time to clear a few things up.?

I find that often times, CEOs/founders/entrepreneurs confuse different terms pertaining to marketing.?

Content

Well, this is a general term and it can mean a lot of things, but in the marketing world, it refers to a company’s own content. This is the stuff that is hosted on the company blog/vlog/podcast.?

This should not be confused with PR or social media content. This type of content is owned by the company and is usually hosted within the site so it has the company branding. If done right, the goal here is to establish the company as an authority.?

PR

This is when someone else, namely a journalist writes about you. This typically happens when you (the company) have news such as funding, a big partnership, an acquisition, etc.?

This should not be confused with a thought leadership piece, which I’ll explain below. It is also not the same as content or social media. This is someone else writing about you, not you writing about your industry.?

Blog

This one drives me a bit nuts even though it shouldn’t. When people say to me “I saw on your blog” when what they really mean is that they saw it on my FB or Twitter.?

A blog is a destination site, usually a subdomain of the main site. So if your company’s website is xyz dot com, then your blog might be something like xyz dot com / blog. A blog is not a social platform. It is not an article someone writes about you. A blog is a blog.?

Social Media

You know what it means but often, people I speak to confuse the content you share on social with the content you write on your blog. Social media content might be a quote or a meme or a GIF but the content on your blog is usually long form.?

Categorize your social media posts into three:?

1. Tweets/posts with a link: This might be content you wrote or content someone else wrote about your industry and you are sharing it.?
2. Engagement: This might include replies, comments, retweets, likes, etc. The goal here is to show that you are a human being running the account, not some bot. It’s the “Social” in “Social Media”.?
3. General posts/tweets: No link, no call to action, just a thought or a quote or something similar.?

Thought leadership

This can mean a lot of things but it’s often used in the context of the CEO or another exec writing their thoughts on the industry and publishing it as a contributor on a large publication.?

This should not be confused with your native content (on your blog), PR, or your social media content. This should also not be confused with something that’ll drive immediate results. This is not an ad. The goal of this type of article is to raise brand awareness and position the company as a leader.?

Contributor

This refers to a situation in which a person writes content for a big site, but doesn’t have the freedom to write whatever they want. This also means that generally speaking, the person doesn’t cover news, so no need to pitch them.?

On my LinkedIn, you can see that I write for many publications. But that is not my job and I have to submit every article to an editor. And I never cover news. If only you knew how many pitches I get about news stories. All the person had to do was look at articles I’ve written on that site and they’d see that I don’t do news.?

Business Development

This should not be confused with sales or with marketing. Business development is about relationships. It’s about long term results. It’s about wining and dining a potential partner to establish trust and a long term relationship.?

I find that many startups don’t have such a role. The larger companies do. The public companies do. The startups don’t, primarily because often times, founders think they can do biz themselves because how hard can it be? Big mistake.?

Branding

This is the narrative of the company. This includes the story, the positioning, the visual assets (logo, design, etc.), and the tone of the company.?

This is not the same as marketing and it is a crucial part of the development of any company.?

Go-to-market strategy

This is the vehicle by which you will bring your product to the hands of your target audience. PR is not a GTM strategy. Neither is social media. These are both components of a GTM along with many others including paid user acquisition.?

Buzz/Hype

Don’t say it. Like ever. When I hear an entrepreneur say “I want to get some buzz or build some hype”, I wish them luck.?

Going viral

Anyone who says they can make you go viral should be fired. No such person.?

SEO

This is the method by which sites rank on Google. Meaning if you do SEO well, the goal is for people to find you on search when they search for a keyword that you optimized for.?

The holy grail is to find the balance between a term that is not overly competitive so you’re not competing with the whole world and a term that has enough search volume so you actually get traffic from it. So don’t try to optimize for the word “iPhone”. You have no chance. But also, don’t optimize for the words “I want to buy an iPhone 6 in Beit Shemesh” because, not many people search for that sentence so it’ll do nothing for your traffic.?

ASO

App Store optimization. It’s a similar concept to SEO but instead of ranking on google, you rank on the App Store.?

This is a secret weapon and anyone who masters this can get millions of downloads with close to no money spent. The catch? It ain’t easy and it changes all the time.?

Ok, I’ll stop here. Did I miss anything important?