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

Journalists, entrepreneurs, and even some public relations professionals will tell you that the PR process is broken (buy me a drink sometime, and I’ll give you my rant). But could AI actually make things better? Honeyjar, which will be attending this week’s TechCrunch Disrupt as part of the Startup Battlefield 200, wants to use AI to make the expertise and judgment of the best PR pros available to everyone, including founders who have no idea where to start.

记者、企业家，甚至一些公关专业人士都会告诉你，公关流程已经坏掉了（哪天请我喝一杯，我会跟你大吐苦水）。但人工智能真的能让情况好转吗？Honeyjar 将作为 Startup Battlefield 200 的一部分参加本周的 TechCrunch Disrupt 大会，该公司希望利用人工智能，让所有人都能获得顶尖公关专家的专业知识和判断力，包括那些完全不知道从何入手的创始人。

The startup’s founders, CEO Michelle Masek and CCO Nadia Jamshidi, certainly fit the bill when it comes to PR expertise. They’ve both spent decades in the field, doing in-house communications and working at agencies. Masek recently served as senior vice president of marketing and communications for Ev Williams’ venture firm, Obvious Ventures. As Masek described the challenges involved in “helping with the why and when of comms and marketing for 110 portfolio companies” (the startups her firm had invested in), I flashed back to my own brief stint leading marketing at an early-stage VC firm, where founders were constantly asking for help getting into TechCrunch.

这家初创公司的创始人，首席执行官 Michelle Masek 和首席传播官 Nadia Jamshidi 在公关专业知识方面绝对够格。她们都在该领域工作了数十年，既做过内部传播，也曾在代理机构工作过。Masek 最近担任了 Ev Williams 旗下风险投资公司 Obvious Ventures 的营销与传播高级副总裁。当 Masek 描述“为 110 家投资组合公司（她所在公司投资的初创企业）提供传播和营销的理由与时机建议”所面临的挑战时，我不禁回想起自己曾在一家早期风险投资公司负责营销的短暂经历，当时创始人总是请求帮助，希望能登上 TechCrunch。

So I wasn’t surprised that Masek found herself asking, “Is there a way to scale the senior-level expertise into AI [in a way] that actually helps users do the work of comms in the proactive and skilled way that we do?” Honeyjar is her answer to that question. It automates processes like writing announcements, finding the best journalists to pitch, and identifying the most promising speaking opportunities.

因此，当 Masek 问出“有没有办法将高层专业知识扩展到人工智能中，从而真正帮助用户以我们那种主动且熟练的方式完成传播工作？”时，我并不感到惊讶。Honeyjar 就是她对这个问题的回答。它实现了撰写公告、寻找最佳记者进行推介以及识别最有前景的演讲机会等流程的自动化。

But Jamshidi told me in a follow-up email that Honeyjar’s vision goes beyond getting press coverage and beyond specific AI tools. “Honeyjar can find reporters, build media lists, scan news and social, track coverage, and surface opportunities,” she said. “Those capabilities are important, but they’re just one piece of what we’re building. The bigger idea is bringing the whole communications workflow together: signals, context, strategy, judgment, timing, and execution.”

但 Jamshidi 在后续邮件中告诉我，Honeyjar 的愿景不仅仅是获得媒体报道，也不仅仅是提供特定的人工智能工具。“Honeyjar 可以寻找记者、建立媒体名单、扫描新闻和社交媒体、追踪报道并挖掘机会，”她说。“这些功能固然重要，但它们只是我们正在构建的内容的一部分。更大的构想是将整个传播工作流程整合在一起：信号、背景、策略、判断、时机和执行。”

And it’s not just for founders. Masek said she’s come to realize there are “millions and millions of unassigned communicators responsible for the work of comms.” “They don’t have the title of comms, but they’re marketers, investors, authors, creators, school superintendents, sports team leaders,” she added. “It’s incredibly horizontal, this need to nail strategic communications. It’s always passed around, but the problems are very often not solved.”

而且这不仅仅是为创始人准备的。Masek 说她意识到有“数以百万计未被指派的传播者负责着传播工作”。“他们没有传播职位的头衔，但他们是营销人员、投资者、作者、创作者、学校校长、运动队领队，”她补充道。“这种对精准战略传播的需求非常广泛。它总是被推来推去，但问题往往得不到解决。”

Nor is Honeyjar trying to replace PR professionals. Masek said she and Jamshidi built the tool they wanted to use themselves. She argued that Honeyjar can make PR firms and in-house comms teams more effective, while allowing individual PR practitioners to “take on that third client without any scaling cost.” When Honeyjar opened its waitlist, it received 10,000 signups in the first 24 hours, said Masek. Beta testers include Nextdoor, tech startup Coco Robotics, investor Bloomberg Beta, and agencies Mission North and Full Picture.

Honeyjar 也并非试图取代公关专业人士。Masek 表示，她和 Jamshidi 构建的是她们自己想用的工具。她认为，Honeyjar 可以提高公关公司和内部传播团队的效率，同时让个人公关从业者能够“在没有任何扩展成本的情况下承接第三个客户”。Masek 说，当 Honeyjar 开放候补名单时，在最初的 24 小时内就收到了 10,000 份注册。测试用户包括 Nextdoor、科技初创公司 Coco Robotics、投资者 Bloomberg Beta 以及 Mission North 和 Full Picture 等代理机构。

That sounds promising for companies looking to get more attention, but it could be a nightmare for journalists. We receive more pitches than we can respond to, many of them already written by AI chatbots. When I raised my fears about getting inundated with even more PR slop, Masek noted that while Honeyjar can draft a pitch email or a social media post in the customer’s voice, the customer actually has to hit send or publish. “We never want a world where the human is removed from the loop,” she said.

这对那些寻求更多关注的公司来说听起来很有希望，但对记者来说可能是一场噩梦。我们收到的推介邮件多到无法一一回复，其中许多已经是由人工智能聊天机器人撰写的。当我提出担心会被更多的公关垃圾信息淹没时，Masek 指出，虽然 Honeyjar 可以用客户的口吻起草推介邮件或社交媒体帖子，但客户必须亲自点击发送或发布。“我们绝不希望看到一个人类被排除在流程之外的世界，”她说。

And that’s also where judgment is key. Masek said she and Jamshidi tried to “infuse and encode Honeyjar with our wisdom.” Through a broader initiative called the Comms Lab, they’re now training the product on the judgment of other PR pros as well. “For us, judgment is knowing what to do, what not to do, when to act, and how to adapt to the situation,” Jamshidi added. “That comes from understanding a company’s goals and priorities, what’s happening inside and outside the organization, and knowing what to say, to whom, where, and when.”

这也是判断力发挥关键作用的地方。Masek 说，她和 Jamshidi 试图“将我们的智慧注入并编码到 Honeyjar 中”。通过一项名为“传播实验室”（Comms Lab）的更广泛计划，她们现在也在利用其他公关专家的判断力来训练该产品。“对我们来说，判断力就是知道该做什么、不该做什么、何时采取行动以及如何适应形势，”Jamshidi 补充道。“这来自于对公司目标和优先事项的理解，对组织内外正在发生的事情的了解，以及知道该对谁、在何处、何时说什么。”

In some cases, Masek said Honeyjar might even tell a founder that they’re simply not ready for coverage. “We hear from reporters all the time who want better pitches, who want to hear from experts directly,” she said. “We actually see a future where there are more credible pitches in your inbox from sources who you actually want to hear from.”

在某些情况下，Masek 说 Honeyjar 甚至可能会告诉创始人他们还没准备好接受报道。“我们经常听到记者说他们想要更好的推介，想要直接听取专家的意见，”她说。“我们实际上看到了一个未来，你的收件箱里会有更多来自你真正想听的来源的可信推介。”