PR can be a tough business. Not with life or death pressures, certainly, but tough in the sense of gaining respect for what you do, who it benefits and why it matters. We’re often caught at family gatherings trying to explain what we do, only to stare into a sea of confused faces and at least one elder asking us what it’s like to be a journalist. Many journalists question the value of PR executives and, on more than one occasion, have been known to make their distaste for the profession clear. Clients can also be tough to win over, especially if they do not fully understand the value that PR can provide to their business and how that value is achieved. Trying to please both of the aforementioned audiences on an ongoing basis is enough to question one’s career path. As a client service profession, the demands can be high, expectations unreal, kudos fleeting and the need to prove yourself never-ending.
So why are we in the business? How is it possible that we continue to persevere and help some of the most interesting companies increase market mindshare and reach their target audiences day after day? There are a lot of reasons, but the best reason for those of us at PerkettPR has to do with our specialty, high tech. We’re actually in this business for the same reason a lot of journalists, bloggers and clients themselves are – we love technology.
And, as one of the first entities pulled into the conversation when a new business is born or product is on the horizon, we get to learn about the latest and greatest services, applications and gadgets long before the rest of the world.
We have had an ongoing invitation to board rooms around the world to watch some of the most engaging, enthusiastic and extremely intelligent entrepreneurs at work. We are there as they envision and create the serious business tools and fun personal gadgets that continue to evolve the world’s way of working and playing. And despite the sometimes bad reputation for PR as “controlling and misleading,” those of us in high tech are really more focused on the fun task of telling as many people as possible about all these fabulous new technologies that continue to shape our society. Educating people on how technology continues to enhance the world around us – and make everyone’s lives more fun and productive – is a big part of our job and why we love it.
Tech PR executives, like the team here at PerkettPR, have been privy to some of the business world’s most confidential conversations, helping to shape the rollout of technologies and products – and even industry evolutions such as Web 2.0 – that people will stand in line for – or pay others to do so – for days at a time. We learn about the most exciting new technologies – from SaaS to CRM, VoIP to CEP, social networking to Internet search, video-on-demand to online photo sharing – years before the general public. We have seen technology innovation move at a rapid fire pace – through engineering departments to the depths of HR, from consumers to specialized groups such as doctors, Baby Boomers to Millenials – the growth never ends. It’s an incredibly exciting industry to be in and it doesn’t stop. We have the privilege to work with top innovators from all around the world, enabling us to always learn something new – and valuable – every single day.
Whether it’s why blogging matters to how a router works, to what AJAX is or how different businesses in different parts of the world build teams and track metrics, we utilize this information not only to benefit our clients, but to build a better company here at PerkettPR. We’ve been there to celebrate many tech successes and we’ve seen – and learned from – our share of industry hiccups.
While we still might not be able to explain to our friends just what we do, we always get a kick out of watching their expressions when we hint at what’s coming next in technology…so stay tuned, because as the buzz continues around the return of tech IPOs and what lessons we all learned from the dot com bust, we plan to be right in the middle of it – always.
