Sophia Arakelyan’s new book for Tech PR people

New book called “Fundamentals of PR in tech companies” was released recently by Sophia Arakelyan, PR and marketing strategy specialist at Silicon Valley.  

Sophia Arakelyan worked for Wakie startup, helping it to expand onto American market, as well as for GVA Vestor.In venture fund, operating in Silicon Valley.

The hard copy is already available for sale in Armenia. The free electronic version is available here   (in Armenian).

Itel.am interviewed Sophia Arakelyan on her book.

-What is the main message of the book?

- This is the first time I authored a book on my own. The other two books, published earlier in my career, were written in collaboration with other authors. The intensive work on the book started about two years ago, and I am very pleased that it was published this year.

For the past ten years, I’ve been deeply involved in journalism and public relations for tech industry. During that time, I worked extensively with tech companies, startups and venture funds both in Russia and in Silicon Valley.

Currently, I live and work in Silicon Valley, promoting startups with cutting-edge technologies in Artificial Intelligence. Thanks to my projects, I obtain more knowledge and experience on how PR and marketing work on US market and globally. So I decided to share this experience with my colleagues, as knowledge is the most important thing that helps make decisions.

The book contains advice on how a public relations person should build communication with different types of audiences: as a metaphor, I refer to an octopus and its legs controlling communication with all audiences relevant to the company: users/customers, investors, media, colleagues, partners, government, etc.

I think this book would be useful not only for those in the public relations industry but also for business owners and tech startup founders, who are aware of the potential benefits of superior PR for the company but don’t truly understand the value.

-What are the TOP 3 mistakes that startups make in PR?

- First, they think that PR will bring an outcome immediately: users, venture capital, partners, etc.  In fact, PR is a long-term engagement, and only systematical work will bring about great results.

Secondly, they fail to build strong, appropriate messages for the product, fail to deliver the value proposition of their product for users.

And finally, they might spend enormous amounts of money on PR/marketing that is not necessary.

In general, I think that a product should sell itself, be more engaging and have a great value for the final user. The role of PR is to clearly deliver the value of the product to as many users as possible and build a positive reputation around the product.

- Who are the supporters of the book?

- The book was published by Antares publishing house. Russian PR experts and journalists also kindly shared their opinions. I would like to thank all the companies I was honored to work with and the opportunity to gain an amazing experience that I can now share with others.

Narine Daneghyan talked to Sophia Arakelyan