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Dispelling the Myths of High Tech Public Relations The recent, and ongoing, dot.com disaster has caused many people close to the technology industry to forget about the glory days of the nineties. A time when downsizing wasn't in the company vocabulary, when venture capitalists were giving out 50 million dollar Christmas presents, and when college graduates were asking companies "why should I work for you?" instead of desperately scraping together a portfolio to show middle management how perfect they are for the job. The memory has not escaped my mind; it seems just yesterday that it was 1998. The economy was flourishing, a dot.com was born once an hour and an established technology company, at least six months old, was going public daily. The American vocabulary was changing. It included words and phrases I had never heard before like e-commerce, leading provider of, ISP, URL, clicks and mortar, B2B, B2C, back end, and every company had something called a "domain name" attached to it. All this was very overwhelming. I didn't have a beeper, a cell phone, or a laptop, and I didn't want them. At the time, I had just graduated from Loyola University in Chicago, and like every eager graduate, was looking for a place to start my life. Oddly enough, I ended up in Seattle, one of the centers of the World Wide Web. Soon I would leave all my inhibitions behind and venture into the frightening world of technology, even scarier, as a public relations executive. I vividly remember getting on the bus one morning, from my non-conformist urban neighborhood, to go to my first day at a high tech PR firm in downtown Seattle. It was as though the minute I accepted my fate to join the emerging force of technology professionals, my eyes were opened. Everywhere I looked I saw www. from pets to grocers to hospitals; I even saw an ad for www.letmeshaveyourback.com, needless to say that one didn't make it through the year. I was extremely nervous for my first day of work. While I was interviewing I convinced my new colleagues that I had what it takes to work in high tech PR. I had the energy, the hunger, the interest, I mean, I'm in Seattle, what else would I want to do? In reality, I was scared; I knew little about the industry and actually tried my best to rebel against the movement of all things online. The hunger and energy somehow appeared when I had begun to feel passed up by professionals in my field. I felt I was not changing with the times and in order to stay alive in the rat race of capitalism, I needed to join the enemy. As I walked through the door to my new office, many of the stereotypes of young technology driven PR firms were reinforced. Employees were dressed in casual yet hip clothing, some even wore shorts and went barefoot in the middle of winter. There was a pool table, containers in the kitchen filled with salty snacks and candy, a refrigerator filled with soda and beer, and of course no one was over forty, in fact, the majority of the people were under thirty. At this time, business was booming, the company couldn't hire fast enough to keep all of its accounts staffed. Therefore, I was immediately thrown into an account team that was currently booking a huge press tour, which would ultimately launch a new Internet company. Fortunately, the floor plan of the office was constructed so that desks were clumped together, much like a newsroom, with no cubicles or dividers to separate them; it was my saving grace. As the hours passed, I listened to my colleagues on the phone; I began to recognize some of the new American language I had heard before, "Yes, we are a leading provider of Internet infrastructure" and, "No, we are not the leading provider, we are the only provider of online B2B commerce and community for É". The first few days were like being thrown into a foreign country. Through shear osmosis I began to not only understand this language, but to speak it and more so sell it to reporters and analysts all over the country. If I was having trouble getting through to a certain publication, one of my colleagues would overhear and give me some advice on how to reach them, how to sell to them. People in this office weren't just blabbering on the phone or trying to get a piece of the Internet pie, they were strategizing, positioning, they were helping to build businesses. I learned more about technology companies in a week at that firm than I would have by reading all of the Industry Standards and eCompany News in a lifetime. I soon realized that not only did I understand what was going on, I found it interesting and challenging. Many have said that a monkey can do PR. Of course, it is not rocket science, but a PR professional, especially one working with a young, innovative technology company, can have quite an impact on a business. For instance, if you get a positive article placed in the Red Herring, it can influence stock price; if you develop strong, simple and believable messaging, you can secure a place for a company in its marketplace; if you secure a top-tier speaking opportunity, you can turn a first time 30 year old CEO into an industry leader and influencer. Many dot.coms may have self-destructed in the past six months, but the Technology Age is far from over. Take me, it has been a year since I took a leap of faith and not only have I moved on to a new online marketing adventure, but I have honestly come to believe that technology is the future.
Jane Wilson
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