Editor’s note: Charles Hartley is the president of Carolina Content & Media Relations Corporation based in Davidson.
DAVIDSON – This coronavirus disease and pandemic will change the high-tech business world in unprecedented and unfathomable ways.
So what are the best strategies and tactics for high-tech media relations pros to use to be effective over the next year? How can these people help their companies increase favorable press coverage, build brand awareness and customer loyalty, and help generate sales leads?
I recommend six actions:
- develop stories that focus on specific major changes, shifting investments and financial reallocations;
- identify new problems and innovate ways your company is solving them;
- make fresh and bold predictions about your company the overall high-tech market;
- show novel and unconventional strategy thinking;
- highlight new employee high-tech skills your company believes are in higher demand;
- reveal adjustments to leadership styles and enlightened ways of treating employees.
To elaborate:
One: strategic changes your company is making
Reporters and editors will want to write stories about specific changes your company has or will make because of the crisis. If the pandemic has caused your company to shift its strategic direction and/or target different buyers in new market segments, that could be a compelling story that generates press coverage.
Charles Hartley
Communicate those changes in a news release, pitch, byline article, brief video, or podcast. Explain why your company has made these changes and what factors weighed most heavily in making these adjustments.
For example, if one component of your new strategy is that for the next six months 75 percent of your employees will work from home versus 10 percent before the pandemic, communicate that story and explain why this decision has been made.
Articulate how you believe it will serve your customers better and help your company achieve is financial targets. Highlight smart and novel ways your employees are using high-tech when working from home.
Two: future investments you will be making or cutting
The pandemic will cause all kinds of unusual upheaval in the investment plans of high-tech businesses. If your company plans to invest more in technologies for your growing percentage of remote working employees, communicate how much more and specify the types of technologies and why you are embracing them.
Share numbers because reporters crave them and use them to add value to their stories. Bring the story to life by sharing dollar figures with the press especially if those figures are dramatically higher or lower than before the crisis.
If the coronavirus has prompted your company to stop pursuing blockchain business and instead focus more on artificial intelligence, communicate that to the press. Explain why you made this decision. These types of fundamental strategic decisions interest reporters because their readers want to know which direction markets are heading, why, and how fast.
If your business changes its strategy because of the pandemic, craft an alluring story about that to the press. The more dramatic the changes the more intrigued the press will be.
Three: new problems you will be addressing
Perhaps before the crisis your company focused on helping professionals land blockchain jobs. You helped these people solve their job-hunting problems.
Then the crisis hit. As a result, your company has reconsidered its priorities. It now believes the more lucrative recruiting market is going to be cyber security.
Your company concludes that the pandemic has generated more demand in the near term for securing corporate data using cyber security products and services as opposed to employing blockchain products and services.
So you decided to help cyber security professionals solve their problems landing work and will no longer be in the blockchain business.
This switch in problems you will be solving could be of keen interest to business reporters because it would show a change in corporate thinking and potentially a growing demand for cyber security services and products as blockchain services and products demand slows.
That’s a substantive market shift tech reporters could write stories about.
Four: new predictions for how your company will be different a year from now
Reporters often quote high-tech corporate executives making predictions about the future. They want people to paint a picture of what the industry will look like a year or two out because their readers want to know this.
As businesses start to re-open, media relations professionals can develop compelling story ideas focused on predictions for the high-tech industry.
Especially during this pandemic, reporters are craving stories about what the business world is going to look like a year from now. Seize this opportunity. Tell the press how your company believes this will play out.
For example, if a company is in the cyber security market, the media relations professionals could prepare a pitch along these lines: “3 Predictions For How the High-Tech Industry Will Transform Over the Next Year.”
Reporters jump on stories forecasting what will happen next, how things will be different a year from now. Media relations professionals will generate favorable and potentially widespread press coverage if they prepare prediction pitches that tie to the coronavirus and how the high-tech companies will be fundamentally transformed over the next year.
The more specific this type of pitch, the more detailed the predictions, the more likely reporters will include that content in their coverage.
Five: new types of skills your company will be seeking
With more high-tech workers likely working remotely, companies they work for will need more employees with the technical skills to handle all the different remote working softwares and online tools. Technical savvy and versatility will grow in demand.
This could mean a high-tech company’s workforce will need to change. Some workers’ skills may no longer be as relevant in remote working environments.
A pitch to the press focused on three new skills your company is needing because of the pandemic would be a compelling story. The pitch should show where the job market is headed and how high-tech needs and skill sets have been altered because of the crisis.
Six: new leadership style changes that will be made
Perhaps your high-tech company’s leadership team has done some soul-searching during the pandemic. In that process, the leaders have come to realize that their leadership styles are not motivating employees. That’s the reason so many have been leaving the company in recent years.
Coming out of the pandemic, the leaders may make major changes to their management styles such as more frequent expressions of appreciation to employees or give less negative feedback.
Whatever the leadership style changes, these could be packaged into a refreshing story for the press about how the coronavirus has resulted in a more positive treatment of employees and more supportive work environments.
Final thoughts
Because of the pandemic, media relations professionals in high-tech businesses will need to adjust like everyone else to this reconfigured business world. But the key will be to create helpful, educational, and easy-to-consume stories that have those key elements reporters treasure so much.
Pitch problems – the press is always interested in problems. Pitch future investments, strategic changes, and share financial details whenever possible because this makes the stories more tangible for reporters. Make predictions about the future of the industry, technology, people, and overall trends.
Connect with reporters by conveying stories about real human emotions, interpersonal relationships, struggles and aspirations, highs and lows, challenges, and triumphs.
Remember that in the end – before, during and after the pandemic – reporters and editors care about people and their lives, how they feel, what gives them hope, what frustrates them, what problems they need solved, and how much money they make or companies make or don’t make and why.
About the Author
Charles Hartley is the president of Carolina Content & Media Relations Corporation based in Davidson, North Carolina. The company improves the quality of writing, content marketing, and media relations for high-tech businesses. He also writes a tech humor blog titled “Tech Tales From the Hart” that can be accessed here: www.carolina-content.com. He earned his undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University. He also earned master’s degrees from The American University and Rutgers University. He can be reached at charles.hartley@carolina-content.com.
(C) Charles Hartley
