Elevating Your Narrative and Building Trust in Your Project | Saad Qureshi - YAP Global

today I'm going to talk to you give you an overview of what I want to call the web 3 comms Playbook um and explain basically why it's so important that you think about comms and the main things that you need to know to be effective but first a little bit about Yap Global so we're a comm's agency that basically Bridges the gap between quality journalism and the emerging crypto World um we've been around since 2018 and we're founded on the sort of passion for crypto good journalism and storytelling we don't just focus on PR um we do kind of help you know use PR to build our clients through the media but we also provide marketing Services uh so things like supporting on social media and content creation for things like blogs you know medium mirrors whatever um and ultimately our vision at Yap Global is to shape the mainstream landscape with trustworthy narratives and help demystify crypto for everyone um so that's a little bit of Shilling out the way uh let's dive into it so the first thing that we need to understand is that existing is not enough um as an industry we need to go beyond just building um and get better at communicating our value in crypto there is definitely this build build build developer first mindset this feeling that if you if you build it they will come but having a great product isn't enough if people don't know about it um I'm not going to name names but I think we all know projects that have really interesting Tech and you know a really Innovative offering but not many people use it and you know they don't have users they don't have tvl um and that's basically because they haven't really done a good job of communicating their value and capturing people's attention that's why it's super important to go beyond just building your users need to know and and to hear about the ways that you're going to help them the ways that you're going to solve their their problems and how it can improve their lives next up we have you need to stand out from the crowd so you know in crypto there's so many layer ones layer twos dexes borrowing lending platforms each with minor differences or you know built on a different ecosystem um so it's really important that you learn how to differentiate yourself in a way that not only captures but retains attention um I'm sure everyone knows that in crypto there is really this hot new narrative syndrome this uh you know last year was all about ZK and and staking there's everything's about modularity data availability now and you know the attention seems to shift quite quickly so you really need to know you know you're not going to be able to predict what the narrative like is like next year but you need to effectively communicate your your unique value proposition and you know that will ultimately determine how how much adoption that you do get and the success that you get at the end of the day um new audiences you know crypto can be really insular Community uh the same projects partnering the same layer ones and infrastructure providers um and the real Challenge and opportunity is in going Beyond just the people that we see all the time um and bringing in new people and a new wave of users who have you know different backgrounds new fresh perspectives and that can bring fresh ideas as well because it's only by broadening um crypto's appeal that we can really sort of Get Next Generation use cases um better ux and just generally create this kind of virtuous cycle uh of growth and Innovation um so how do we do this and obviously as a PR person I will say this but we need PR now more than ever crypto has a real PR problem um and PR really helps to establish trust and credibility those are the two things that PR is is really really good at um and in crypto obviously we know there is a big la lack of trust and credibility you know hacks scams and just generally really shady people haven't done us any favors um and through PR you can improve The credibility of the Space by really showcasing the benefits and potential of a project um but we do that through trusted third parties who are credible like really credible media Publications and I want to give this example um from a couple of years ago it was The Economist uh and they had this front page spread on um the the Perils of Defi and going down the rabbit hole and even though the the Articles themselves weren't overtly like really um positive and then there was Nuance to them um the amount of messages and and people reaching out after this front cover was really interesting because you know the economist is an extremely well regarded and well respected publication and people see it as credible so if the economist is covering it then there must be something to it and that's the essential basis of of media relations and and the pr that we do for our clients um PR also helps to bridge the gaps in understanding um the leap from any new and Innovative technology like crypto to actual user adoption is basically rests on how well it's understood um and you know I'm sure we can all agree that crypto is really really hard to understand especially for newcomers uh there's so much technology to learn there's so much you know things that don't really make sense in the real world but in crypto they totally do um so PR professionals are really good at translating these complex jargon fi Concepts into you know interesting and reliable narratives and making things that are really really technical like dank sharding ZK intense whatever um accessible to both Technical and non-technical audiences depending on who you're trying to speak to um and just by having this Clarity it really promotes again again it promotes understanding and that ultimately helps to promote adoption as well finally crisis management we all know that you know crisis in crypto can happen at any time whether that's a hack some sort of Team issue a big regulatory upate you know big market movement to the downside I guess um and a solid PR strategy really is essential for not only maintaining transparency but also managing the narrative during a crisis because if you lose control of the narrative um it really does impact your your credibility within the space um and just through effective communication you can keep whatever communities you need to informed and engaged and help to reduce any potential backlash and preserve your projects Integrity cool and I wanted to share just a really quick example of when we as an industry could have done a better job uh with communicating um so I'm not sure if anyone remembers but uh the defi education fund which is a an advocacy group initiated by Unis Swap and when they uh first started they received some really bad backlash due to poor communication around their funding um so in the initial Dow proposal I think they said that they would sell their allocated token over the course of 5 years um but as soon as the Dow proposal went through um and the vote went through there was this massive sell-off where they sold half of their tokens and you know loads of people across the media crypto Twitter were essentially kind of calling them scammers saying that you know they were it was a cash grab and it was a raid on the Dallas treasury but what the community weren't aware of was that the selling actually had a reason a fairly legitimate reason um and it was a reasonable strategic move um just basically diversify ahead of some Regulatory uncertainties and but the thing the key Point here is that the backlash really showed the consequences of what happens when you don't think about a clear information plan when you just kind of do things and you hope people understand the the reasoning behind them and that's why proper communication plans are really essential to prevent to prevent that negative attention and ensure everyone understands the the rationale behind important decisions cool so we talked a little bit about why you need conss um now going to set out some information on how to do the groundwork for good comms practice um so firstly know what makes news not every integration or partnership is news worthy a big PE a big part of our job as PR people is to help guide our clients and and tell them what news will actually resonate with the media and obviously for a PR agency who has a lot of experience we know the kind of nuances to this but roughly you can think of them through the filter of seven news values so it's it's a very rough way to know whether the media will actually care about your news so the first one is impact so how will your news actually impact people's lives um is there a complete you know is this like a really big revolutionary update a big breakthrough or is it you know version 1.8 and you've just got a new font um timeliness so why are you telling people now is it is there something in happening in the world right now um that is connected to what the announcement is um is it you know a trending topic conflict uh obviously this is something that we don't tend to go for with our clients and people don't need to lead into it but I think we all understand that uh journalists are interested in in a bit of drama a bit of spiciness a bit of conflict so things are more newsworthy when there is some kind of disagreement prominence um what makes you worth quoting on news stories like this um you know are you a big name in the space what qualifies you to tell the story are you someone with you know 10 years of experience in Ai and you're launching a crypto AI project or is this kind of the first thing that you've ever done the more prominent you are in the space the more likely you are to get covered by the media um trending this is kind of linked to timeliness um so events are more newsworthy when they involved in issue that it's top of mind for the public so you know again whether that's things like ZK or or particular narratives but also big news as well so the Bitcoin ETF was a massive story you know if there was a way to link your story to that then there was more chance of you getting breakthrough from the media um next up we have bizar so events are obviously a lot more newsworthy the more out of the ordinary they are um I remember I don't know if anyone remembers there was that project where it was like hamster racing on the blockchain and people could bet crypto and journalists love that story because it's weird it's bizarre and they covered it a lot um another story was the El Salvador Bitcoin uh sort of volcano Bitcoin Ming you you don't really hear about that so it's really important that you understand that if things have a are a little bit quirky and have you know an interesting spin on them then journalists are going to be more interested in your story um finally human interest so people want to read stories about other people um do you have an interesting an interesting background or journey into crypto journalists want to care about uh journalists want to hear about that I I remember this quite recent I think it was end of last year with this amazing story in coindesk about uh Mustafa alasam who's the co-founder of Celestia and it was this like amazing feature on him because you know it turns out that he's got a really interesting backstory he was a hacker and when he was 16 he went to jail for hacking the the CIA website I think and it's it's it's a really interesting story and journalists are fascinated by that and you know we think that everyone has an interesting background and an interesting journey into crypto so it's just about how you package that up and working with people who understand how that resonates um o sorry crafting your narrative so understand how you want to go out with your message firstly obviously identify your USP what I said earlier about um lots of a lot of saturation in the space mining differentiation but really hone in on what your project what makes your project stand out um is it the technology is is it the team is it the problem it solves is it the community uh make that the core of your your PR narrative um it's really important to understand your competitors as well how does the media portray any big competitors in the space and make sure your narrative you know doesn't copy it but highlights the ways that those the way that the media portray those competitors in a in a negative way just make sure that you understand how they do that um and then when crafting a narrative understand that consistency is is key and a key way of of remaining consistent is thinking of a of a really strong oneliner so this should tie up and sum up everything that your project does and you know as PR people when we're pitching journalists we use that one liner all the time so say for example scroll their one liner might be the most evm compatible ZK rollup and it just like succinctly described what they do and in every piece of communication that they put out they put that in and it really helps to you know stick into journalist mind borrow into their kind of you know thinking and maintain consistency across all their platforms um incorporating storytelling as well is really important share the Journey of your project include challenges that you've overcome Milestones you've achieved um this makes your narrative really more engaging and relatable and the final point is to have a strategy so start with your Project's business goals your target audience your key messag um and align your communication strategy to them what we like to do at Yap is three- Monon strategy we understand that crypto moves really quickly um and this really helps to organize you know things like thought leadership announcements you know upcoming media moments that we might want to jump on um so it's really important that you do that next next up engaging with the media so firstly you need to understand the media landscape not all media are the same and it's really important that you know why you want coverage in certain Publications sometimes we work with projects and they say something like oh we want to be in the financial times but is that the best uh sort of media for your for your reasoning um you know you might not know but financial times has you know generally negative stance towards crypto most of the time so you might not want to be engaging with those journalists who are probably going to write something fairly negative um and then remember that each media type whether that's crypto trades business mainstream or Tech press they have different different interests and focuses um and they they want different things from a story as well and understanding what they want from a story is really really key to making sure that you break through um know your audience and and tailor your message to them so in Krypton web 3 Founders need to communicate with lots of different people whether that's stakeholders um token holders investors partners and just understanding you know how you want to talk to them is is important and what your story is trying to do so for example how has communicated across various different media platforms changes as well so New York Times might um talk about ens One Way wired might talk about them another way coindesk might be talking about them another way as well so really understand how Publications talk about different projects um and then again link to the wider narrative make sure your project story connects with a bigger bigger picture show how your work fits into important Trends as well PR marketing so as I mentioned we do both PR and marketing so I wanted to take a quick opportunity to explain how they work together firstly know the difference it's really surprising how often PR marketing are kind of confused and conflated and lumped together um when they each serve their unique purposes so PR focuses on strategic messaging you know an earning media coverage incredible Publications marketing on the other hand gives you more control of the messages you put out but it relies on more Direct Communications like social media and blogs and they may not carry the same credibility as earned media but they each have their own advantages and disadvantages so for example you can use your PR marketing teams to align messages and make sure everything is aligned but um turn your PR achievements into marketing assets use your website use your newsletters use your social media channels showcase your media wins to other people and then you can you know reach different audiences that way and vice versa turn press releases into blogs um um yeah case studies or social media content as well you know don't let all the amazing coverage that you secure just reach that one audience use it as much as possible um and then maximize crypto Twitter as we all know crypto Twitter is super important journalists and news outlets really do turn to crypto Twitter to catch wind of of Trends and breaking news stories Scoops rumors so if you've got a decent platform and a decent audience on on social media you can really Inc increase the likelihood of your project gaining attention when journalists are looking for a story as well when things go wrong so um prepare for the inevitable Crisis happen they're inevitable in crypto like I said hacks security breaches Market fluctuations everything can happen um and make sure you have a PR team or a team that knows how to deal with crisis as well um you know that's things like potential scenarios response strategies and communication channels as well when a crisis does hit you need transparency and speed so you need to quickly acknowledge the situation um on your channels uh a quick response can really really prevent the spread of of misinformation and demonstrate your commitment to transparency um I remember I think it was like a couple years ago people thought that vitalic got kidnapped or something and it like the whole Community was going crazy and he had to like go on social media and take a picture with like a newspaper or or a hash or something and there was so much disinformation rumors because he just let it sit for too long without actually acknowledging it so yeah just think about moving quickly and making sure you kind of set the scene so provide your communities with regular updates um make sure that everything is clear concise and factual and avoid technical jargon as well where you can just to make all your messages as accessible to a broad audience as possible cool I've got one minute left so um in crypto it's really easy to find an example of Crisis comms that that's gone wrong um projects that don't say anything spf's crazy tweeting when all that stuff was happening um so I wanted to give a quick example of Crisis commoms that were seemen to go right so I quite early on in sana's life there was a project called slope um they were hacked so that meant that user funds were being lost um and this was again yeah quite early in Solana's development so the salana foundation got involved in the response and you know in the defiant you can see it was praised as a textbook response to crisis management um so the salana foundation quickly acknowledged the issue they uh established I think it was like a war room with all the relevant people um and they had all the key participants and they found out exactly what went wrong and communicated consistently across all their various channels you know mainly Twitter but across the website as well and basically why it was good was that the response was coordinated in formative um and it was really focused on transparency and providing factual updates uh and yeah the approach really helped to mitigate the crisis and maintain trust within the community and it you know it's quite interesting because it it resulted in a piece of coverage not really about the hack but about the response to the hack as well so yeah a very interesting case study urge you to have a look um yeah and that's me um that was a wh stop tour of web 3cs hope you found it useful if you have any questions will be around we have a booth 111 it's quite close to the near Booth um come in chat and yeah telegram's up here website's up here thank [Applause] you