Becoming an Expert

PR practitioners can easily transition from advocates to experts if they’re knowledgeable and available. The media need experts who can speak about their industries to constituents simply yet explicitly. And they need them when they call.

Knowing how to simplify tech industry speak and being a readily available resource has helped my boss, David Politis, become an expert in his field. For nearly 20 years, he has been the president of a PR firm that specializes in demystifying technology (Politis Communications). David has also been a self-syndicated columnist for Utah Tech Watch since 1994, and he always, always stops what he is doing to take a reporter’s call. Reporters know who David is and in the past week have quoted him on three different occasions.

Utah-based radio station KSL recently called upon David’s ability to distill language about consumer technology in two separate segments. On Monday, February 16, KSL quoted David in a piece about “VOIP technology creating problem with 911 services.” In this segment, he used a personalized example to convey the implications of a problem dealing with a highly technical product. On Thursday, February 19, David offered his perspective to a KSL radio reporter on “Engineers work to reinvent the Internet” and made the prospect of a “new internet” relevant to the common user.

Even within the PR industry David has established his expert voice. Ragan, a publisher of corporate communications newsletters, used an example from David’s early career to exemplify why employers should be sympathetic when communicating pay cuts. The February 19 article, “Dos and don’ts of communicating pay cuts,” amalgamates the advice of several PR professionals, and further positions David as an expert.

PR practitioners of all industries can position themselves (and their clients/employers) as experts if they will just take the time to make themselves and their lingo accessible to the media and consumers.

In other words, learn to speak to the Bettys everywhere and the media will speak to you.

ZDNet’s Krigsman is Correct: I.T. DOES Lose Credibility by Speaking in Technical Jargon

Michael Krigsman, driving force behind ZDNet’s IT Project Failures blog, nailed it yesterday when he wrote, “Is IT becoming extinct?”

In one of seven points he makes as to why he believes that the average Information Technology department is headed for death’s door, he writes,

“IT loses credibility by speaking in technical jargon . . .”

Michael Krigsman, “Is IT becoming extinct?” ZDNet, 3-23-08

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