Technology has opened up the gates for regular people and business owners to tap into new industries and streamline business operations. Canva gives you the tools to be a graphic designer, QuickBooks makes accounting less convoluted, and Shopify opens up businesses to a global audience. So what about PR tech?
Public relations tells the story of a company or project by creating a lasting relationship with the media and press sources. Creating those relationships happens through news releases, press commentary opportunities, creating compelling thought leadership, and a wide array of strategies to attain coverage and build brand awareness.
That being said, PR is not an archaic industry, and there are many tools that professionals have at their disposal to bolster their efforts to connect brands with the right audiences. But PR tech alone and in the hands of a person without the proper background will not help build the relationships that are indispensable in getting projects the coverage they deserve.
What is PR tech?
For the most part, the tools available to PR professionals serve are chiefly administrative or organizational software. They mainly assist in compiling lists, generating coverage reports, media monitoring, and automating certain tasks. These tools are useful if you know what to do with them, but it’s not particularly exciting or usable for people outside of public relations.
But a few programs and a contact list are not how a project gets coverage. And any journalist will quickly speak to their disdain for receiving pitches that are either completely unrelated to their background or clearly generated by a program to be as vague as possible. Relying on a single program or media list will usually prove fruitless, as it doesn’t promote the ground-level relationship between an outlet and an organization in an authentic way.
There’s really no magic program or software that will land a story in a tier-1 publication. PR tech can certainly help with certain aspects of media relations, but it cannot substitute holistic and strategic relationship-building. And it can’t compel a journalist or publication to cover a story that doesn’t suit them or pique their interest.
Understanding what PR actually means
In any industry, attaining the coverage you want starts primarily with a compelling story that will make a project stand out. And in a trend-heavy industry such as tech, that’s easier said than done. But finding a unique angle is key to garnering attention in an incredibly crowded landscape.
A good story is just one piece of the puzzle. However, it cannot be avoided, and an undercooked story can undermine even the most exciting of tech startups. As it stands, PR tech can’t really assist in ironing out and polishing a story that will land great coverage.
As messaging development and stories are quite fluid, they can be molded at any point to better convey features, value propositions, and exciting developments. From there, the hard work of building relationships begins, and that involves seeking out writers from publications that would really care about the story you’re trying to tell.
Pitching journalists is also not a one-size-fits-all job. For instance, just because a journalist covers blockchain doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll cover a web3 project. Learning the distinctions and niches that publications and journalists write about will help your story land with the appropriate audiences. PR tech and auto-generated general media lists won’t help with that.
Getting your story in front of the right eyes at the right time is essential to create effective outreaches and building brand awareness for important milestones. But an agency of PR professionals are vital too build and maintain press relationships in slower periods and help retool messaging to reach new audiences. Schedule a consultation with us today to access the tools at our disposal to help build your audience and coverage.
