A few guidelines for Growing Tech Companies regarding Media Relations and PR during the Coronavirus Pandemic

We work with growing technology companies and their venture capital investors. With both parties, there is often a goal to build their reputation with critical audiences - and this often requires a good amount of media relations work.

Coronavirus is, understandably, dominating the news agenda of late. This presents a challenge. How does a company with growth aspirations operate and communicate externally in these times? 

I have drafted the below following several requests from growing companies (typically those who have raised their Series B investment or similar), and VCs, regarding external 'reputation-building' communications during the crisis. The below is designed to provide some guidelines for organisations of this type. In particular, to help them make decisions regarding if, what, when, and how to communicate with the media during the pandemic. 

A few friends and colleagues have shared excellent posts regarding crisis communications for larger organisations, and internal communications during Covid19. Please find them, as this is not covered here.

Things to remember 

The Context: Before anything else, please remember that this is a horrible disease, causing a lot of distress and pain 

It is our moral duty to remember that this disease is causing harm, global panic, and is killing people. 

To talk in ‘PR terms’, the severity and seriousness of the coronavirus crisis means that it cannot be treated as a ‘media opportunity’ -- as a news story to be capitalised on by the usual means. This is for many reasons that will be clear to many, but I have outlined two below.  

First - and this is specific to Covid19 - it will appear crass and unsympathetic to blithely ‘pitch stories’ and ‘angles’ to the media, if you are not offering a very particular solution or presenting something of genuine impact. The crisis is already ruining lives, and it is likely to get worse; it perhaps isn't the right time to pitch the virtues of a video-calling services that better enables working-from-home.

Second, and this is broadly applicable to all bad news: PR professionals rarely advise their clients to associate themselves to a ‘bad news story’. Associating a company to news that is otherwise spreading fear and uncertainty is a not often a good idea, as the audience will likely associate particular individuals or companies with that news. In other words: don’t give your audience a reason to passively associate “Brand Name” with “Crisis”, if you can easily avoid doing so. It feels like a particularly odd risk to take.

The Journalist: listen to them, and give them something of use

Media are very busy, so only send something that could be helpful to them. 

The vast majority of journalists are currently focusing on covering the virus as a ‘news story’: zeroing in on subjects such as death toll, rate of spread, status of lockdown, international response and similar. This isn't just true of mainstream news media either, as many trade/sector-focused journalists are now reporting on the impact of the pandemic on their market, whether this is by sector, geography or both. 

At a time when the media are likely to be overwhelmed with inbound requests and by the rigours of covering a fast-moving story, ensure any interaction is relevant, succinct and actionable. 

The advice that is sage at any time, crisis or otherwise, is listen to journalists: they will tell you what is useful, and what is not.

The Tone: Respect, dignity, self-awareness

This is a subject of grave seriousness, and should be treated as such. 

Do not speculate on things that are not a concern of your business, such as the origin of the virus, the relative successes and failures of the global response, or the actions of your competitors in the crisis. 

Do not communicate in a tone that undermines the seriousness of coronavirus -- much like you wouldn’t expect a volley of sarcastic quips in frontline war reportage; or lazy, inappropriate humour in an obituary. 

Instead, offer your very best expertise where relevant and appreciated; and do so in a timely and effective manner. 

Questions to ask

Substance: What does your business offer? 

As the stakes are higher than perhaps they have ever been in our lifetime, only communicate if you have something of real value to offer. There are two good methods that will help you answer the question of “do I have something of real value to offer?”: 

The first is applicable in all scenarios, which is first asking, “have I seen anything similar to ‘this’ reported on recently?” If you see companies like yours, or news like yours, in the news; then it is likely you are sitting on something of value to media. If not, you do not.

The second, which is applicable to Covid19 and should be asked in the context of the virus, is: “how can we help?”

Substance: What has your business done, specifically? 

Concepts are interesting(ish), but action is news. 

To offer an example, if you run a 3D printing company, and you ‘conceptually’ are able to print medical devices, that is of middling interest, and is also applicable to every other 3D printing company with similar, or better, capabilities.

However, if you are a 3D printing company and your recently donated 300 3D printed component parts to Hospitals A, B and C: that is news (and, more importantly, you’ve done something quite wonderful). 

Timing: When should you communicate?

This is specific to the context of Covid19. It is useful, and perhaps a little worrying, to remember that we are likely at the beginning of a long and drawn out global crisis. So it is wise to ask: When can you, and your company, be most of value? 

Is it now, at the beginning of the pandemic? Or will this be several months down the line, when the virus is predicted to be at its peak? Or will this be when the world is ‘recovering’ from the impact of the virus? 

With something as critical as this, there is no need to rush.

Audience: Who are you talking to? 

In usual circumstances, I would always recommend that companies start by analysing their ‘key audiences’ and work backwards. You should only be doing PR if it can impact and improve your relationships with your key people: whether this is potential clients, customers, investors, employees or so on.

When it comes to coronavirus, it is incredibly important: Are you talking to medical professionals? Are you talking to the emergency services? Are you talking to governments? Are you issuing a call to arms to fellow professionals? Are you offering help and aid to the vulnerable? 

Answering the 'audience question' will likely help everything else fall into place.

Strategy: what are you hoping to achieve?

It is also very likely that you had a PR or marketing strategy in place before the outbreak, and it is also likely that you have altered your overall business strategy following the outbreak.

There is, perhaps, and almost kneejerk-like reaction to want to capitalise on a news story should you see a legitimate 'way in' for your company, but if this doesn't fit into the overall plan, there may well be very little real upside in doing so.

To wrap up...

The main takeaway of this post is is supposed to be this: fast-growing, private companies, and their investors, do indeed have the potential to do great and useful things during this time of worldwide need; but there are ways to communicate about these efforts that will ensure they are best appreciated by the media, your key audiences, and the global community.

I hope that was of some use. Feel free to email me if you have any further suggestions, or if you'd like to chat about any of the topics covered here -- I'm happy to add anything that I may have missed.

I also very sincerely hope that you are all keeping safe and well. And please wash your hands.