Tech PR: what the bleep is it exactly?

A few weeks back, Ana provided some tips for graduates looking to crack that tricky first step into PR. Amongst the points raised; she flagged that the candidate’s ability to define PR is a key question that will be asked at interview stage. It’s one that I distinctly remember being asked myself in every PR job interview I’ve ever been invited to, so I can vouch for this from personal experience. However, I also seem to remember that on every occasion, I’ve given an entirely different answer, which is telling of a couple of things.

Firstly, it admittedly shows that I tend to ‘wing it’ and make something up as I go along in this scenario. I’d actually suggest that an ability to think on your feet is essential in any interview (carefully balanced with being prepared of course) and one I’d add to Ana’s list of tips. More significantly though, it’s also an indication of the sheer number of ways of defining the PR industry. There’s not really a right or wrong answer as to what PR is; there isn’t even a tin for it to say what it does on, so the best definitions tend to be open-minded.

For those (like me) who studied PR as a degree course, I’d suggest disposing of some of the more snooze-worthy definitions from the likes of the CIPR that are done to death on university courses and coming up with their own. Here are some of my interpretations from a tech PR view to get you thinking:

• It’s about communication – (well duh!) Of course it is – every definition you come across includes that, but most fail to communicate the communication that they’re attempting to communicate. If you get my meaning. So what’s the important point? In the technology industry, businesses have products and customers have challenges they need solutions to. However, businesses’ messages often don’t translate well between the two; customers might have a need for the business’ products, but they might not understand how it answers those needs. PR is about being the middle-man here, providing advice to the business on how best to develop a message that will be understood by their customers and bring the desired results, then executing its delivery.

• It’s about understanding people – from the definition above, you’d be forgiven for getting PR confused with advertising. (Note; if you are trying to get into PR – don’t confuse the two. It’s an instant fail, unless you manage to pull something unbelievably spectacular – like your dad being the editor of the Financial Times - out of the bag). On a basic level, PR is about getting coverage for clients, which usually means persuading journalists to write about them, giving the all-important third-party testimony to their reputability. Contrary to popular opinion, in technology PR, you can’t just rely on knowing the right people to get results (although it does help). It’s far more important to understand when your client has a story that a particular journalist will be interested in writing about. This knowledge and understanding of the media is the key to great PR.

• It’s the message, stupid – Following-on from that last point, no self-respecting journalist is going to write about your client’s latest announcement because it’s ‘super-exciting’ ‘ground breaking’ or even, dare I suggest it ‘very important to your client.’ The role of the PR agency is to develop a message that reflects the points the client wants to communicate, whilst providing a story that’s going to get the journalist excited enough to spend an hour or two of their day writing about it. With a well thought-through message, even the most mundane announcement can achieve some great coverage. Dom recently wrote a particularly insightful account of how to develop a strong message that’s well worth a read for anyone interested in PR or James Cameron’s Aliens.

These are just my three top-level ways of explaining what technology PR is and only just scratch the surface. If you’re looking to impress at interview stage, the best definitions are those you’ve come up with yourself, so get your thinking caps on and feel free to share your thoughts below. It certainly won’t do you any harm!