If you are a Web 2.0 or a social software startup trying to either launch a product or your company, getting relevant Buzz or Press is absolutely important. Long known to be the most cost effective means to generate awareness among potential users, PR gives you the sense of “arrival”. Notice I said cost effective NOT least expensive.

If you have been in the market over the last 2-3 months you already know that the best Web 2.0 PR folks, like Jeremy Pepper or Brian Solis (Disclaimer: Brian’s a cofounder at BuzzGain) are either already taken, or they are very expensive (most charge $10,000 minimum per month, or freelancers who charge $5000 / month). So if you have read about Do It Yourself PR and think that might be the best way to save some cash, the question becomes who (all) do you target to get good coverage.

The usual answer I hear is TechCrunch. They are no doubt the best, but you cant put all your eggs in the TechCrunch basket. Make a good target list just like you would for potential investors or customers.

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out these folks should be on your list (In no particular order).

1. ReadWriteWeb

2. Mashable

3. Chris Brogan

4. Scobleizer

5. Jake McKee

6. Jeremiah Owyang

7. Webware

8. Louis Gray (Disclaimer: Louis is associated with BuzzGain)

9. Giga Om

10. VentureBeat

The best case situation is to brief them all. But if you dont have time, (which is strange, but not out of the ordinary) then how would you select which ones to focus on? Also remember each of these folks likes exclusives, so it does not hurt to focus on a subset each time.

If you follow the simple rule of thumb that you shoud focus on the ones with the most traffic to their site, I contend you will not have achieved your purpose – which is to get the MOST number of people to effectively have a chance to learn about your offering.

So what metrics do we apply? As we talked about blog authority and influence before, there are a whole host of other criteria, but here are the 3 that I would consider the most important.

1. Sentiment: Of the lot, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable and Chris are the most positive. Their article sentiment ratio is around 50-65% – very high and even with things that are not great, they accentuate the positive.

2. Outlinks: The number of links back to your site will give you a chance to convert awareness from PR into “potential leads” or prospects. The best link to post ratio (# of links per post) come from Louis, VentureBeat and GigaOm.

3. Engagement: Thanks to tagging, bookmarking, sharing Google feeds, tweeting, etc. you have the potential to reach a larger audience than visitors to your blog. So this extended audience should be counted into the overall metric for an individual’s reach. For extended reach Scobleizer, Chris and Louis are the best. Not only do they have a great number of followers on Twitter, friendfeed, delicious, etc., but their users are more engaged, clicking on links sent by these three than others.

So, if you had to make a call on exclusives, no doubt, focus on Rafe Needleman, Om Malik, Michael Arrington. Your best bang for the buck (for actual users) might come from some of these others.