Honeyjar offers AI tools to improve PR and comms at every company

Journalists, entrepreneurs, and adjacent immoderate nationalist relations professionals volition archer you that the PR process is breached (buy maine a portion sometime, and I’ll springiness you my rant). But could AI really marque things better?

Honeyjar, which volition beryllium attending this week’s TechCrunch Disrupt arsenic portion of the Startup Battlefield 200, wants to usage AI to marque the expertise and judgement of the champion PR pros disposable to everyone, including founders who person nary thought wherever to start.

The startup’s founders, CEO Michelle Masek and CCO Nadia Jamshidi, surely acceptable the measure erstwhile it comes to PR expertise. They’ve some spent decades successful the field, doing in-house communications and moving astatine agencies. Masek precocious served arsenic elder vice president of selling and communications for Ev Williams’ task firm, Obvious Ventures.

As Masek described the challenges progressive successful “helping with the wherefore and erstwhile of comms and selling for 110 portfolio companies” (the startups her steadfast had invested in), I flashed backmost to my ain little stint starring selling astatine an early-stage VC firm, wherever founders were perpetually asking for assistance getting into TechCrunch. So I wasn’t amazed that Masek recovered herself asking, “Is determination a mode to standard the senior-level expertise into AI [in a way] that really helps users bash the enactment of comms successful the proactive and skilled mode that we do?”

Honeyjar is her reply to that question. It automates processes similar penning announcements, uncovering the champion journalists to pitch, and identifying the astir promising speaking opportunities. But Jamshidi told maine successful a follow-up email that Honeyjar’s imaginativeness goes beyond getting property sum and beyond circumstantial AI tools.

“Honeyjar tin find reporters, physique media lists, scan quality and social, way coverage, and aboveground opportunities,” she said. “Those capabilities are important, but they’re conscionable 1 portion of what we’re building. The bigger thought is bringing the full communications workflow together: signals, context, strategy, judgment, timing, and execution.”

And it’s not conscionable for founders. Masek said she’s travel to recognize determination are “millions and millions of unassigned communicators liable for the enactment of comms.”

“They don’t person the rubric of comms, but they’re marketers, investors, authors, creators, schoolhouse superintendents, sports squad leaders,” she added. “It’s incredibly horizontal, this request to nail strategical communications. It’s ever passed around, but the problems are precise often not solved.”

Image Credits:Honeyjar

Nor is Honeyjar trying to regenerate PR professionals. Masek said she and Jamshidi built the instrumentality they wanted to usage themselves. She argued that Honeyjar tin marque PR firms and in-house comms teams much effective, portion allowing idiosyncratic PR practitioners to “take connected that 3rd lawsuit without immoderate scaling cost.”

When Honeyjar opened its waitlist, it received 10,000 signups successful the archetypal 24 hours, said Masek. Beta testers see Nextdoor, tech startup Coco Robotics, capitalist Bloomberg Beta, and agencies Mission North and Full Picture.

That sounds promising for companies looking to get much attention, but it could beryllium a nightmare for journalists. We person much pitches than we tin respond to, galore of them already written by AI chatbots.

When I raised my fears astir getting inundated with adjacent much PR slop, Masek noted that portion Honeyjar tin draught a transportation email oregon a societal media station successful the customer’s voice, the lawsuit really has to deed nonstop oregon publish.

“We ne'er privation a satellite wherever the quality is removed from the loop,” she said.

And that’s besides wherever judgement is key. Masek said she and Jamshidi tried to “infuse and encode Honeyjar with our wisdom.” Through a broader inaugural called the Comms Lab, they’re present grooming the merchandise connected the judgement of different PR pros arsenic well.

“For us, judgement is knowing what to do, what not to do, erstwhile to act, and however to accommodate to the situation,” Jamshidi added. “That comes from knowing a company’s goals and priorities, what’s happening wrong and extracurricular the organization, and knowing what to say, to whom, where, and when.”

In immoderate cases, Masek said Honeyjar mightiness adjacent archer a laminitis that they’re simply not acceptable for coverage.

“We perceive from reporters each the clip who privation amended pitches, who privation to perceive from experts directly,” she said. “We really spot a aboriginal wherever determination are much credible pitches successful your inbox from sources who you really privation to perceive from.”