Imagine it is 2020 – what’s changed in Tech PR?

Part one was the love child of the clichés ‘kids today don’t know they are born’ and ‘don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.’ This post takes a crack at predicting what will happen in the next five years, looking twenty years ahead would be pointless and Back to the Future II does it far better, with visions of Google Glass and Skype.  Disclaimer: I’m not as qualified or interesting as Tom Foremski (you might want to watch these video extracts rather than reading on)!

• Press releases will become a more rounded content resource – typically including links to images, whitepapers, research reports in an easily digestible format.  PR agencies will tailor this information to individual journalists to make it quick and easy to pull together a story.  Tom Foremski wrote a blog titled ‘Die press release die’ in 2005, and while the press release is certainly rarer than in 2005 it is taking the adapt or die approach rather than keeling over completely
• Social networks between clients and agencies will become the norm and spokespeople will need to be available anytime, anywhere and open up their diaries for PRs to schedule interviews at a moment’s notice.  The upside from a time perspective is that interviews will get shorter and shorter, as while journalists are under pressure to produce more content so want to spend less time on the phone they do want a unique quote rather than just taking a link from a press release
• Journalists may also decide social media is their favourite pitching medium.  A 140 character pitch must get more appealing every year.  While Cision's 2015 study showed journalists currently prefer email and confirmed that it is the most common form of communications with PRs, this is bound to change and the report does point to a growth in social media usage when dealing with PRs.   Despite the negativity around the telephone, we find that if it is used for collaboration rather than telesales it works.  It’s the best way to find out what the journalist needs to consider a story print worthy and work out how we can make it happen.  PR autobots won’t be replacing us anytime soon!
• PR agencies will collaborate with clients to make it easier to measure results in backlinks and click-thrus rather than clip counts and audience profile.  This requires collaboration with the web team and also an understanding of the changing nature of the sales cycle in terms of interaction with content to support purchase decision-making
• Paid for and owned content will become less of a second-tier option – the focus will be on equalling the quality of earned editorial but also contributing to the costs of reaching your target audience.  Credible publications are increasingly doing these types of deals, whereas 20 years ago paying for editorial was a sign that your story wasn’t strong enough for earned coverage.  On the owned side, big technology brands such as SAP are poaching journalists from the FT to help create their content

Watch this space for Part 3 in 2020 – there are bound to be a few curveballs!