Tech PR – what you need to know part 2

Why else would you want to work in tech PR? If you want a fast moving industry with a steady stream of newsworthy happenings, then tech is for you. Nowadays technology touches so many parts of our lives that there are limitless news hooks to hang a story on.

It’s probably worth mentioning the breadth of subject matter that tech covers: from the latest mobile phones, games and DVD players, to industrial strength software and databases, to boxes sold to service providers that make it all happen.

Of course I think that the mobile space is the most interesting – especially in South Africa where every one has a cell phone and use them in very very innovative ways – for instance, airtime is major currency in most of Africa.

In my case I am working for a relative start-up (well we are 8 years old now) and still working closely with the founders – and you get some very interesting personalities. Geeks are cool nowadays anyway! Entrepreneurs are fun, and challenging to work with, incredibly smart, but also make your life so much easier when you need to throw someone passionate and charismatic in front of a journalist. These aren’t just talking heads, they are almost organically part of the company. And that always adds more flavour and colour to a story.

Another big attraction for me is that it is typically, especially in South Africa, a fairly young environment. I am constantly amazed by the people 10 years younger than me with the drive, ambition and nous to not only have a good idea, with clear business opportunities, but to actually make it happen. This is always an interesting story to tell. Within our borders, a South African success story is always well received and there are a host of publications focusing on just that – SA Rocks, SA the Good News, SA info etc.

Abroad, SA really has a name for firsts and innovation, and we are seen as a breeding ground for interesting technology and business, so these stories may also be on foreign journos’ radars.

Some proof of this: Clickatell has this year closed a funding round in Silicon Valley – virtually unheard of for a non-US company. We’re funded by the same outfit that funds Yahoo!, Google and YouTube. Pretty good for an outfit with offices in Bellville.

Because the space is filled with young people, this also means that a lot of your community is early adopters and you get to use the cool new media channels we have nowadays. This is where these guys hang out.

Having said that though, on the flip side, tech topics are becoming more mainstream, both in the business publications and lifestyle media. This lets you tell your story in many different ways to reach many different audiences, or indeed the same audience in a variety of ways. So in the case of for instance a new SMS service to deliver sports results to your handset:

•    Iweek may cover the technology behind a service,
•    Brainstorm the business benefits to running a service over SMS and outsourcing the delivery,
•    and FHM the fact that you can get sports results directly to your handset even if you are at your sister-in-law’s wedding.

So you are thinking of taking on a tech client?

[This is an extract from a presentation I gave in March 2008, prior to my founding Twokats Communications.]

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