How to avoid wasting your money, your time, and your credibility.
You’ve just launched your Web3 project. Maybe you’ve raised a small round, deployed a beta, built out a sleek landing page, and even managed to attract early adopters into Discord. Now, it’s time to tell the world.
So you bring in PR help.
They promise 100 media placements in 30 days, a flood of impressions, and instant visibility. You’re told your name will be on Forbes, CoinDesk, TechCrunch — all the big players. It sounds great. You sign the deal.
Thirty days later? One awkward article on a crypto blog no one has heard of. No interviews, no traffic, and your name is nowhere near Tier-1 media. What happened?
You got shilled.
This guide is here to help you — spot the signs of bad PR before it costs you credibility, time, and money. More importantly, it will help you understand what actually makes a public relations agency (https://techwavespr.com/services/public-relations/) good — the kind that builds long-term trust, secures meaningful media coverage, and becomes a true strategic partner.
Because in Web3, where perception is power, knowing how to separate skill from shill might just save your entire launch.
Myth #1: “We Don’t Need PR — We’ll Just Send a Press Release”
Let’s clear up the biggest misconception right away.
Press releases are a tool, not a strategy. They’re useful when you have real news to share — a funding announcement, a major integration, or a product launch. But simply sending a press release to 300 outlets doesn’t mean anyone will open it — let alone write a story based on it.
In fact, most press releases go unread unless you already have relationships in place or a story people care about. If your entire PR plan consists of “we’ll send a press release and get famous,” then you’re not doing PR — you’re doing wishful thinking.
Red Flag #1: “We’ll Get You 100 Publications in 30 Days”
This is one of the most common — and most dangerous — traps founders fall into.
Any agency or freelancer who promises you 100 pieces of media coverage in a month is either lying or offering you quantity over quality. Here’s what actually happens: you’ll get one or two real mentions (if you’re lucky), and the rest will be low-tier syndicated press release reposts on obscure crypto blogs that no one reads and Google doesn’t even index properly.
Real PR isn’t about flooding the internet with your name. It’s about placing high-trust, credible stories in the right publications, read by the right people. One feature article in Cointelegraph, Decrypt, or TechCrunch is worth more than 100 nameless backlinks in content farms.
Red Flag #2: Their Media List Looks… Suspicious
They send you a list of “confirmed media” or past wins — but most of the logos are unfamiliar. You click the links and find half-broken websites with generic headlines like “New Token Launches on BNB Chain.”
Ask yourself: Would you read these sites? Would your investors? Your users?
A good PR partner targets publications that matter: outlets with real editorial standards, real traffic, and real trust. They should aim for relevant verticals (crypto, fintech, tech) — not just any blog that accepts a press release.
Red Flag #3: There’s No Strategy — Just Spam
This one’s easy to catch: they don’t ask you any deep questions. No brand story. No positioning. No differentiation. They just want a PDF and start “pitching” immediately.
This is called “spray and pray.” It’s lazy, ineffective, and damaging.
Good PR starts with a clear narrative: What do you want to be known for? Who are you speaking to? Why now? A solid strategy aligns your messaging, media outreach, and timing — and creates consistent momentum. Without it, you’re just shouting into the void.
Red Flag #4: They Don’t Understand Your Product — And Don’t Ask
Web3 is nuanced. You can’t pitch a DePIN project the same way you pitch a memecoin or a zk-rollup startup. If your PR partner doesn’t ask for technical explanations, whitepapers, or target-user insights — they’re not doing their job.
Worse: if they misrepresent your tech to journalists, you risk damaging your reputation before you even get a chance to speak for yourself.
Ask them to describe your product back to you. If they can’t do it in a clear and concise way — they’re just pushing words, not your story.
Red Flag #5: The Metrics Don’t Make Sense
Be skeptical of big, round, unverifiable numbers. “10 million impressions” from where? “$500,000 media value” — based on what pricing model?
Bad PR agencies love vanity metrics because they’re hard to challenge. But you need real performance indicators:
- UTM-tagged traffic
- On-page engagement
- Social shares and comments
- Bounce rate, referral sources, and conversion impact
Ask to see actual dashboards, not Canva screenshots with made-up charts.
Red Flag #6: Your Messaging Sounds Like a Web3 Cliché Generator
You hired PR to help you stand out. But somehow, your pitch now reads like: “A revolutionary decentralized protocol leveraging AI and blockchain to disrupt the digital asset economy for the future of finance in Web3.”
…what?
If your story is buried under buzzwords, no journalist — or reader — will take you seriously. Good PR humanizes your brand. It translates technical value into relatable narratives. It sounds real. If it reads like ChatGPT gone rogue, you’ve got a problem.
Red Flag #7: You Paid for a “Package” — But Got Nothing
This one hurts.
You agree to a fixed-fee retainer — $5K, maybe $10K. A month later, you’re ghosted. Or you get a single article and no transparency.
This isn’t partnership — it’s a transaction with no accountability.
The best PR partners work transparently: clear milestones, regular check-ins, and honest reporting. Ideally, they tie compensation to results or stages — not blind faith. If they just take your money and vanish? That’s not PR. That’s theft.
What Real PR Looks Like
Let’s flip the script.
A real public relations (https://techwavespr.com/services/public-relations/) pro will:
- Understand your product deeply
- Craft messaging that resonates with humans (not just algorithms)
- Build a pitch strategy based on timing, outlet fit, and relationships
- Be transparent about what’s working and what’s not
- Tell you when something isn’t newsworthy — and help you make it newsworthy
Most importantly: they’ll treat your reputation like their own.
The Truth: Good PR Takes Time
Sometimes it takes up to 2-4 weeks just to secure one strong feature. Not because your product isn’t great — but because building media trust is a human process. Journalists don’t work on demand. They have editorial calendars, fact-checking, and inboxes full of competing pitches.
If someone tells you they can deliver full-scale media buzz in 3 days, unless you just raised $100M from a16z or launched a Layer 1 backed by Vitalik himself… they’re bluffing.
Final Thoughts
In Web3, where trust is fragile and attention is scarce, PR is not about being loud — it’s about being understood.So before you sign that next PR contract, ask yourself: “Will anyone actually read what they publish about us?”
Because if the answer is no, then you’re not paying for PR. You’re paying for noise.
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