PR For Crypto Companies — How To Do It Right
NEO should have done it better, savedroid blew it, TRON did it right, at least for some time — Public Relations for companies in the crypto space can help them to reach their goals. But it’s easy to make mistakes. Here’s what to look out for.
What Is PR And Why Do Crypto-Startups Need It?
Public relations fulfills functions such as information, communication and persuasion for an organization. Its long-term goals are to build and maintain consistent images to increase trust with defined stakeholders like for example customers, employees, or suppliers.
Possible goals of PR are:
- Increase in brand awareness
- Addressing new target groups
- Developing markets
- Motivation of employees
- Change in the perception by the public
There are thousands of companies in the crypto-space that are competing for these things. Investing time and ressources in public relations gives companies an edge. Take TRON-CEO Justin Sun as an example. TRON’s technology is average but Sun knows very well how to get the media’s attention. In December 2018, he warned Ethereum and EOS developers of the collapse of their platform and presented TRON as an alternative. [1] In January and February 2019 he strongly pushed the news about the planned BitTorrent Token airdrop [2] on the TRON blockchain. In March he got a lot of attention for his claim that Binance Coin is the new Bitcoin. [3]
For months his tweets set off a never ending stream of news articles, videos or re-tweets by other well known people in the crypto-space. The outcome? Sun and TRON were showered with attention and TRON’s price in BTC went up considerably from its low in November 2018 while the rest of the market still was deep in bear territory.
All You Need Is A Plan
Think of Justin Sun what you want. But he knew exactly what he wanted and how to get it. For companies in the crypto-space and the people responsible for PR there are a handfull of things they can learn from his approach.
In order to meet the defined goals, the person(s) responsible for PR have to thoroughly plan their actions. The cornerstone of PR planning is a situation analysis, which determines where the organization stands with regard to the competition. The following points may be the focus of a situation analysis of a company:
- Corporate data and history
- Goals, target groups and strategies
- Philosophy and culture
- Service portfolio and product range
- Industry and competitive situation
- Market trends, trends and opportunities
- Likewise, a SWOT analysis is usually performed
Based on the data and insights gained, PR messages can be defined and targeted measures can be taken to influence public perception. These steps inlcude everything from the participation in fairs and summits, to tweets, newsletters, giving interviews, or doing workshops.
Creativity is key but it’s also very important to not overdo it.
How To Do It Wrong
In November 2017 NEO — like the rest of the crypto sphere — experienced the fruits of the largest bull run that crypto had ever seen. “Time to put things into overdrive” thought the people at NEO and came up with an idea to get a bigger slice of the attention that was pouring in from all sides. What they did was to announce an announcement [4]. Because the company had never done something like that before, users started to speculate what the final announcement could be about. One rumor was about an upcoming endorsement by the Chinese government. In the end it turned out to be an announcement about a dev competition in collaboration with Microsoft. Not bad, but not what people expected — and the price fell by 11%.
An even worse PR stunt came from the german crypto startup savedroid. Trying to raise awareness about the numerous scams happening in the crypto universe [5] they suddenly displayed this meme on their website:
This was accompanied by a tweet by the founder saying “Thanks guys. Over and out.” He also uploaded a picture of himself drinking beer on a beach.
Users were not happy and that is hardly a suprise. When it’s all about the money, people tend to react very sensetively to news that undermines trust. Even when done with the best intentions it’s important to avoid doing things that will make you look like you can’t or won’t keep your promises.
This is a fact that even Justin Sun had to face very recently. TRON made a Tesla giveaway for its Twitter followers but messed up the draw. Sun promised a Tesla to one Twitter follower and then later reneged on that. He created a second draw and offered the first winner a consolation prize. Eventually, he backpedalled and awarded both winners with a new car, but the damage was already done. [6]
Conclusion
Blockchain-based projects need adoption. That means more people need to know about them which in turn means that crypto companies have to implement well thought-out PR and marketing solutions to reach their goals. In a field where competition is so strong good PR gives companies an edge. But it’s important to find the right measures and the right balance when communicating with stakeholders.
Sources
[1] https://cryptonewsreview.com/tron-boss-wans-to-save-ethereum-and-eos-developers-from-the-
collapse-of-their-platforms/
[2] https://www.coindesk.com/what-to-know-about-this-weeks-bittorrent-token-airdrop-on-tron
[3] https://u.today/trons-justin-sun-calls-binance-coin-the-new-bitcoin-is-now-the-time-to-invest
[4] https://coincodex.com/article/1085/the-crowd-goes-mild-after-neo-announcement-is-finally-unveiled/
[5] https://cryptonews.com/news/savedroid-s-exit-scam-was-a-pr-stunt-1615.htm
[6] https://www.ccn.com/tron-founder-justin-sun-needs-a-vacation-after-tesla-giveaway-debacle
