Traditionally, PR has centered around T.V. ads.
Back in the day, if a company was experiencing a PR crisis, they’d launch a series of T.V. commercials that showed them in a better light in an attempt to turn public opinion.
PR in general is no stranger to overcoming challenges.
Like how Coca Cola took a potentially fatal moment for the brand– World War II– and turned it into an opportunity, becoming America’s Cola brand in the process through a series of ingenious ads:
In fact, PR is constantly used as a tool for companies to overcome challenges related to the public’s perception of their brand.
And that’s exactly why PR is so important for blockchain and crypto startups.
Back in 1990, sparkling water brand, Perrier had to face the worst challenge imaginable for their brand: a harmful chemical was found in some of their bottles, resulting in a voluntary recall that saw their sales drop by 50% due to mistrust in the brand’s safety.
They turned things around through a brilliant PR campaign that led to a huge boost in sales and the revival of the brand.
In the same way, crypto startups have had to deal with the fact that several large crypto scams in the past two years have harmed public perception of any new crypto-related startup.
But with challenge comes opportunity– and ingenious solutions.
The result has been to shift to a more hands-on or guerrilla approach to public relations and marketing for blockchain-related startups. And it’s worked.
Community building is a powerful tool for PR, as the greatest social proof you can have is a huge group of people behind you supporting you.
And that’s what blockchain PR has evolved into today:
- Community-based
- Helpful
- Organic
So, how does it work?
How does blockchain public relations work?
We’ve talked about why PR is so vital for blockchain and crypto startups.
Now, let’s talk about how blockchain PR works and what you need to know to run a successful campaign.
As we touched on, blockchain PR is more about organic community-building than anything.
For that reason, the two main elements you need in place for a successful blockchain PR campaign are:
- The right kind of content
- Marketed in and to the right kind of communities
Let’s break each of these down individually to see how an effective blockchain PR campaign is executed.
Part I: How to create high-quality content
Content is king, but you can’t just create any old content.
Salesy doesn’t work in the blockchain space (thankfully) and any effort to sell aggressively will be immediately called out by community members.
As a result, you’ll potentially threaten your standing in said community and your entire ability to sell your product.
You need to create helpful and often educational content designed to actually be useful to your target audience.
There are a few ways to do that.
Find share-worthy topics
You can visit Buzzsumo.com to see what’s being shared often on social in your space to get an idea of what kind of content your audience enjoys.
For example, by searching “crypto wallet”, this post comes up as the second most shared post on the topic, perfect for an in-depth blog post:
This works particularly well because you can even see engagement metrics on Reddit, arguably the single most important social platform to any kind of blockchain-related marketing.
Make it comprehensive (the right length is key)
In 2020, SEO wizard Brian Dean of Backlinko and Ahrefs studied 11.8 million search listings to uncover key insights.
One of the insights they uncovered was that the average first-page listing had 1447 words.
And that’s just to get on the first page, the top three listings are often even lengthier and more comprehensive (hence their rank).
But what does this have to do with PR?
Comprehensive content is helpful content. And the name of the game is to create content that has the maximum positive impact.
If you’re creating a beginner’s guide to crypto wallets because your product relates to crypto wallets, create the best piece on crypto wallets anyone can find online.
Don’t make it long for the sake of being long, though. Make it as comprehensive as it needs to be to completely explain all the relevant ideas that the post should cover.
As a result, you’ll have a beefy post that is super high-quality, helpful, and share-worthy.
This post by Easy Crypto, for example, is a great beginner’s guide to getting started with crypto wallets and offers tons of useful information:
Content designed this way helps build trust in the eyes of your target audience and readers.
Plus, it’s a great way to build community, making it the perfect one-two punch for your blockchain PR campaign.
Part II: How to find the right communities
Now that you know a bit more about how to create high-quality content, it’s time to make the most of that content.
It’s not enough to create amazing content, and you certainly can’t create that content then just spam it everywhere you think your target audience is.
First, you need to find your target audience.
Where do they hang out online?
If you’re a crypto startup, Reddit is likely one of your best options. That’s because many of the largest crypto and blockchain-related communities live on Reddit:
However, major social platforms like:
- And Facebook
And crypto-specific platforms like:
- Steemit
- And BitcoinTalk
… are also great places to go as well.
Become part of the community
Ideally, you’re already a part of those crypto communities. If not, you’ll want to integrate yourself with them and become a part of them.
Community members can detect self-promotion from a mile away, so you’ll need to be patient and smart about how you go about promoting your content.
If you’ve integrated yourself as a part of the community, occasionally sharing useful content that is relevant to the discussion is perfectly fine and will be seen as helpful.
Jump into a new subreddit and start spamming your content links and you’ll be banned in hours.
So, be patient and keep the focus on engaging with the community and being as helpful as possible.
Remember: it’s more about how these communities perceive you and any member of your team engaging with them and less about generating shares or attention.
Spending time building up a good reputation in these communities means building up a good reputation for your startup period because these communities are the heart of the crypto and blockchain space itself.
Launch your first blockchain PR campaign with confidence
Blockchain PR is a whole different ball game compared to typical PR.
With that said, if you keep the right ideas in mind and execute them properly, you’ll be able to build a positive reputation in the blockchain space that not only helps you build community but generate customers.
