I’ve been working with tech PR agencies for well over a decade now – enterprise/B2B clients mostly – so I was pretty bummed out when a friend in PR dramatically shared they’d “rather die” than do PR for “boring, geeky” tech clients. Come on now, why hate on the “geeky” tech companies? What have they ever done to you, except provide actual, literal life-changing gifts of computers, Internet, e-commerce, mobility, and Netflix?
This wasn’t the first time I’ve heard this type of talk from PR folks turning their noses up at tech. Some people are open to working with more consumer-friendly tech, just not the nitty-gritty tech companies targeting the enterprise or infrastructure. Others simply won’t touch tech with a 10-foot pole. “I’m just not a technical person,” they’ll say. Or, “It doesn’t sound fun.”
To this, I proclaim: “Fear not the nerdy technology clients! Embrace them, for they shall ultimately make you a smarter, sharper PR professional!”
Here are my rebuttals to common complaints I’ve heard about tech clients:
“It’s boring.” Tough love time here, readers: It’s our job as communications professionals to take that “boring” tech-speak/jargon/alphabet soup of acronyms and transform it into a compelling, interesting story. It’s what our clients pay us to do! If you’re bored, you’re not paying enough attention to your client or to the industry in which they operate. There’s always a bigger story beyond the technology.
“There’s so much to learn.” OK, this one’s true. There are no shortcuts – you either know your client’s business or you don’t. That means combing through product sheets, white papers, and press releases, and getting smart about how the product works, how it’s sold, who buys it, and why it matters. Learning a new industry is what makes our jobs interesting. You don’t really want a job where you never learn new things, do you?
“But I’m not a technical person.” As one of my first employers told me, you don’t need to explain exactly how the aspirin works, just that it gets rid of the headache. We don’t have to describe every spec and feature of the product (that’s what the client is for), just enough about how it works, what sets it apart in the market and what business problem it’s solving. Relax, you’ve got this.
“It’s not fun.” You know who uses technology? Pretty much everyone on the planet. Even the geekiest, most technical products out there make people’s lives better in one way or another. Being able to take something often perceived as dull and demonstrate how it impacts an industry or an individual takes skill. That’s where the fun in our job comes from, right?
So ultimately, yes, tech PR is hard. But PR for anything is difficult today, whether it’s a consumer product or a non-profit organization or a Hollywood celebrity. There’s more noise than ever before plus more channels/outlets/devices/networks vying to convey your message. There’s no easy way to do it.
What’s kept me in technology PR this long is this realization: If you can take seemingly dull, dry jargon-filled techno-babble and transform it into a compelling, articulate business story, then you’re pretty much unstoppable. It’s hard work to distill technical language into something that a business or consumer audience can understand and doing it day in and day out isn’t for the faint of heart. Then again, those folks probably wouldn’t select PR as their chosen profession anyway, right?
Plus, there’s something very, very rewarding about holding your own against a cranky veteran tech journalist looking to test you about your client – make that time you spent reading all those white papers actually pay off!
For those currently in tech PR, I’m curious – what do you like about it? And for those who have determined that tech isn’t for them, why not? Share your thoughts here – I’d love to hear your stories.