MEDIA & MEDIA RELATIONS

Top Ten Tips for Tech Media Success

published 2004

With IT budgets rumoured to be on the rise again, now’s probably a good time to have a quick refresher on some basic principles of working with IT media. If you’re relatively new (12 months or less) in technology PR, then these ten tips will help you to be an effective communicator in this specialised area.

1. Link to an issue

Gone are the days of journalists being impressed with a ‘speeds and feeds’ story.  Unless your product is truly unique, you’ll have to tray and link it to an issue. A storage product might link to disaster recovery or compliance, a web application may link to eGovernment. Linking puts your product in a business context and therefore gives it far greater chance of being picked up.

2. Develop a core pitch

You have your product details and you now have your issue. The next action should be to blend the two into an interesting pitch. Work hard on the first sentence - that’s the one that will make or break your chances of even being considered, let alone picked up and run.

3. Tailor the pitch

Keep in mind the different styles of publications you’ll be sending the pitch to.  Some will be more tech-centric and others will be more interested in the business applications of what you're pushing. For key publications, consider offering the journalist access to a customer who is using the product or solution.

4. Tailor your distribution

Electronic distribution of media releases does offer great reach, but it can also be the means of destroying your reputation with key editors and journalists. Your media database should contain notes of specific interests or particular journalists. History notes beside journalists can also help you remember what it is in particular they are looking for in a story. By having details such as these to hand, it’s easy to build a targeted distribution list for each release you send out.

5. When to follow up

Following up releases is an activity fraught with danger. Although you may be pressured to do so in the belief that this will gain extra coverage, it should be undertaken sparingly. Journalists receive hundreds of email releases a week.  They don’t want another hundred voicemails asking if they received the release/pitch (of course they did!) and if they are interested in pursuing it. Try to only follow up if you feel you can add to what you have already sent them.

6. Ask for recommendations

As technology develops, not all journalists can be specialists in all areas, so if a journalist responds saying that the story is not right for them, by all means ask if there is another journalist at the publication for whom it may be more relevant.   Again, details such as specialities should be logged in the notes section of your media database.

7. Be creative

If you genuinely believe your story is something quite unusual, then try being creative in the way that you pitch it. For example, a software product that is truly ‘plug and play’ could be sent via courier and packaged accordingly - maybe accompanied by a powerboard or inside a cheap ‘jack-in-the-box’ to emphasise its ‘out-of-the-box’ functionality.

8. Offer visuals

Most journalists today shy away from emails with attachments. So how do you get your visuals through to them?  Highlight a line at the end of the release saying that photos/graphs are available on request. But don’t just leave it at that.  Consider including the photograph’s caption at the end of the release so that the journalist at least knows what the visual is about.

9. Toe in the water

Writing good releases takes time, and that time is an investment in a desired outcome - coverage from the release. If you’re not quite sure of the best angle to work on, try calling a journalist with whom you have a good relationship and ask how he or she might like to run it. This way you’ll know whether it is a worthwhile exercise and, if it is, exactly how the journalist would like to see it presented.

10. Believe in what you have

At the end of the day, the deciding factor in whether a release gets covered or not may come down to nothing more than your attitude in pitching it. You’re trying to ‘sell’ something, so be sure that you believe in what you have to offer and have a positive attitude when pitching - this applies equally to a phone or an email pitch. Your first sentence is the one that’s going to count the most, so make sure it conveys your confidence.

Note: The author of this article is a Sydney based senior independent corporate PR consultant who works exclusively with PR Managers helping them with management of the PR Department or their relationship with their PR agency. In addition he provides specialist corporate PR and communications advice where issues or change are impacting on an organisation. He also blogs regularly on PR and communications topics similar to those in this article.