When it comes to heeding the best kind of public relations advice, it’s best to get it from an expert. Thankfully, Facebook head of technology communications Caryn Marooney knows what she’s talking about.
Marooney recently spoke at First Round’s recent CEO summit, providing the kind of sound PR advice that actually sounds like it makes true sense.
“Imagine you’re sitting across from a reporter at lunch. You’re telling them what you do, your story, why they should care about your product. You have to convince this reporter to not only write about you, but that what you’re doing matters. That you’re going to be successful,” said Marooney.
Considering her work repertoire, which includes co-founding PR agency OutCast, which previously worked with Amazon, Salesforce.com, Netflix and VMWare, Marooney definitely has some knowledge on the subject.
A “RIBS” test – standing for Relevant, Inevitable, Believable and Simple – is part of the proceeding when it comes to funding the best firms and hiring the best people, as well as getting the right advisors on board for the project.
Marooney broke each of these categories down, starting with Relevant. “It’s hard to get attention and it’s hard to be relevant,” says Marooney. “Fight for greater relevance. Make it a priority in your positioning.”
Perhaps one of the better key points came with talking about Believable. “You can be relevant, and your product may even seem inevitable, but you still may not be believed,” said Marooney. “At Salesforce.com, when we went out there saying this was ‘the end of software,’ sure it was relevant and seemed inevitable,” Marooney says. “But most importantly it was believable that Marc Benioff could pull it off. He had come from Oracle and knew software and all its issues. Even with that background and credibility, it still took us years to establish true believability.
“Being believable isn’t just convincing people you can win, it’s convincing them that they want you to win,” she said.
As far as being Simple, Marooney stated, “People are torn in so many directions these days — they’re on Facebook, checking email, trying to balance work and friends and family. Somehow you have to break through, and the way to do this is to keep things simple.”
“Take your messaging and edit it down. Get it to its essence. What is the one line you want people to remember You only get one. If your messaging isn’t unbelievably simple, you’re missing the point.”
More of Marooney’s speech and pointers can be found here.
Source: First Round
