Aussie Social Media Monitoring service BuzzNumbers has put out a press release today saying that Claire Werbeloff, the “Chk Chk Boom” chick, has generated more than 41,000 conversations online since Monday last week. BuzzNumbers puts the value of those conversations at more than AUD$200,000 in equivalent advertising dollars.

While the numbers are interesting from a social media/viral hit point of view, for me the real thing of note is whether or not she’ll be able to do anything with that and the lessons startups can take away from the Claire Werbeloffs of this world.

I know, having spoken to many, many tech “entrepreneurs” over the past couple of years, that there’s a pervading belief out there that if they could just get some widespread, mainstream publicity for their startup that they’d be more or less set. This is particularly the case for consumer-focused startups.

That belief is simply not accurate.

Awareness is one thing. Having something of value that makes people hang around is something completely different and the basis of a solid business.

I receive Press Releases from startups all the time. I know that people don’t just send them to me, i.e. if I’m receiving them, then guaranteed that in most cases tech journos from large media orgs are also receiving them.

Now, TechNation Australia was created to build awareness of the Aussie tech/web/mobile startup industry so I’m likely to publish a story even if your startup isn’t demonstrating a huge amount of value just yet. And that’s OK as well, i mean - TNA is about building early awareness not about generating masses of traffic in some sort of “TNA-effect” to your site, so please keep sending as much info as possible about your projects to me.

That having been said, it worries me, for various reasons, that professional tech journos are receiving a multitude of press releases from low-value startups looking for traffic spikes.

In light of that, the question I have for Aussie tech entrepreneurs is:

If your startup suddenly had 41,000 online conversations about it would you be able to demonstrate enough value to convert new visitors to return visitors, or would you blow the opportunity?

My feeling is that most Aussie startups would blow the opportunity. I know that’s harsh - but I think it’s fair.

So, IMHO what’s the answer? It’s important to return to the idea I brought up earlier - value. Focus on value over traffic and your chances of long-term success are high. Focus on traffic over value and you’ll struggle.

That, in and of itself, oughtn’t be shocking. The shocking thing is that it takes someone like Claire to refocus our attention.