Having trouble keeping track of all your PR review requests? Here is how PXN is helping companies streamline their review request processes - Third blog post by tech industry legend, Sean Hannam

More than 10 years ago, I noticed there were fewer journalists on tech press trips and more “lifestyle bloggers”, as I once heard someone from a PR agency refer to them. These days, I guess we’d call them influencers.

At first, traditional journalists felt put out by bloggers and influencers – they were considered hobbyists or amateurs, but things have changed. In the past few years, influencers have become accepted by their media peers, especially when it’s made clear they are usually paid by brands, or provided with free gifts in exchange for giving products coverage. Nowadays, most tech brands aren’t concerned with “lifestyle bloggers” – it’s more about how many followers influencers have on Instagram or YouTube.

And as for the amateur accusation, according to one senior tech PR person I spoke to recently, influencers are actually more likely to toe the line in terms of brand guidelines, because they’ve signed a contract with a company and they want to maintain a beneficial, long-term relationship, rather than jeopardise it. As he put it: “It’s not the Wild West anymore, because influencers have entered into advertorial partnerships with brands.”

Secure digital assets platform PXN has a proven track record of working with some of the biggest brands in the video games sector, enabling them to distribute their assets to media partners. More recently, the system has been enhanced to give press and influencers the ability to register their details and request and review codes for games they are interested in. For PR managers, this also helps them to build up a valuable database of media contacts.

Once they are approved for a review code, media are sent a digital key from PXN’s system. This provides them with everything they need to create content, including official assets, review guidelines and any embargoes or NDAs that need to be adhered to.

Video games isn’t the only sector this platform is relevant to – the system can be adapted to enable press and influencers from almost any industry to express an interest in reviewing a specific product or software.

In the old days, a PR person would have close relationships with a handful of key press contacts, such as editors, staff writers and freelancers, but since the rise of social media and influencer culture, this isn’t always the case – there are so many more channels out there that it’s often hard for PR professionals to maintain a relationship with press and influencers, or identify the media they want to target.

It’s also handy for PR departments to know if certain influencers aren’t able to review specific products because they already have contracts in place with certain brands – for example, why send an influencer a bit of kit to look at if they’re already committed to giving coverage to a rival brand’s product of the same ilk? It’s a waste of time and money and a conflict of interest.

In a media sector that’s so diverse and fragmented, how do agencies and clients track the impact that coverage from a journalist or influencer can have? Clippings agencies are still popular, but often miss coverage, meaning PR companies still have to find it for themselves, which can be time consuming.

PXN enables influencers to connect to its system via the API (Application Programming Interface) of YouTube, Twitch or other social platforms, which means clients can have access to the influencers’ live channel data, which allows them to track statistics and gives them added peace of mind that the influencer is genuine. It can also help to track and identify all the content that’s been published by an influencer thanks to hashtag tracking – if content has been published using the # then the system will give clients access to what’s been posted online. Press can also submit their coverage directly via the platform.

The rise of the influencer has led to yet another major change in the tech press and PR world – PXN can help its clients to embrace it and make the most of it.