Turning 30: Lessons and mistakes from a PR turned tech strategist

Today I turn 30. Friends joke about the spectre that pops into existence when the Earth spins a few times, politely tapping their watch as the seconds drip away. I don’t feel the same pressure as I am happy where I am. That said, the spectre’s arrival starts a wave of introspection as the clock chimes.

The last ten years have been eventful. I finished my first year at the University of Exeter, pondering where exactly a History degree would take me. The answer was public relations, where I started my career at an agency called Diffusion. The steps took me from agency to in-house, ending with Accenture in November 2022. And throughout that time I wrote a lot about immersive technologies, from running Virtual Perceptions since 2016 to the Immersive Wire since 2020.

I learned a few things from each stepping-stone, which I hope will be helpful for you here. Here are some of the lessons and activities from my time:

1. Many companies have no idea how to talk about themselves;

2. Cut your content — yes, even that;

3. Consistency is more important for building a profile than one large impact;

4. Tailor content to what your audience wants, not what you want;

5. Never dismiss in-person events;

6. Help everyone.

Let’s go through each one.

1: Many companies don’t know how to talk about themselves

I don’t mean companies are not willing to talk about themselves (far from it). What I mean is that companies focus on the wrong traits when they communicate their services externally, confusing customers and myself alike. They tend to pick the words which best describe their services, but don’t quite connect them with how the customer would feel working with them. The problem is particularly prone in the metaverse and spatial computing area, where a deluge of technical jargon drowns meaning in nonsense.

Occasionally my partner reads the newsletter and raises question marks on certain companies. “What does that even mean,” she asks, baffled by what a company may try to say.

Take these two examples I have made up (but close to examples I have seen):

• A B2B SaaS AR platform to create virtual try-on solutions;

• An all-inclusive AR platform that delights potential customers.

One is what a company may describe itself internally, or in an industrial event. It’s accurate, direct, and a professional will understand what it means. But it’s terrible for someone outside the bubble peering in, as they wonder why they themselves should care. The other is not perfect, but it attempts to tie the customer into the value proposition.

I’ve attempted to match that with the call-to-action for my newsletter — though it is not perfect. Currently it is:

Which has been worded carefully to convey:

• What: “Concise analysis on the metaverse and spatial computing.”

• Value: “Competitive edge.”

• Promise: “Every Monday.”

• Trusted: “Read by over 6,000 experts in Accenture, Meta, Snap, and others.”

The message will likely change again. But the point is that we work in an incredibly nebulous area. The metaverse has the spectral authenticity of cloud-whispers, drifting to and from as a flutter of abstract nouns tweet in the distance. The corporate messaging needs to be a good nail hammered into wood, pinning it in concrete terms for people to understand. It is then more likely to convert customers who can understand your work.

2: Cut your content — yes, even that

A lot of professionals see a blank page as an invitation to fill it wholly and completely. Dense passages of words fill the screen, meandering through the woods of technical jargon as the reader gets lost. The thickets are thick and large. When readers reach its end, stumbling out of the shambles of adverbs, they shrug and go, “What have I learned?”

Some papers warrant the detail. A whitepaper on large language models by NVIDIA requires a deep lexicon of business writing. But most pieces of content do not. Some writers lack the discipline or freedom to cut the fluff and focus on what’s important, instead populating it with a meandering string of words. This is seen mostly in press releases I have seen for many years, where companies prefer to stuff “metaverse” somewhere in the document. It’s why “medical metaverse” creeps in from time to time, which encompasses the concrete reality of fairy-tale rainbows.

Take the 30-second pitch as one example. This is the business hook which I have come across many times throughout my life — what you can use with clients to summarise the services you provide, what you do, and the problem you solve. I see the equivalent of this in some press releases, as a paragraph or two on what the company does. Except some companies fill the 30 seconds with the typed equivalent of static noise.

Here are two made-up examples:

• At MadeupXR, we offer a suite of services that focus on generative AI, metaverse, and immersive technologies to support your company’s sales, marketing and business activities, leveraging the deep expertise of the team to conduct a rigorous assessment of your organisation to leverage your data for the benefit of customers, stakeholders and leaders.

• At MadeupXR, we care about customers. We want their journey to be as frictionless and enlightening as possible, so they come out of it with something valuable. Together, it creates something truly impactful for what matters most.

I am not saying the second one is perfect — I typed it while relaxing on a beach in Italy. But it provides a more impactful assessment because it is shorter, less convoluted, and less peppered with keywords or phrases. It does not need the latest jargon to be impactful. In many ways, it does not need select words at all. It just needs to be exactly tailored to what clients or customers want, in the most direct way possible.

That does mean “cutting your darlings” — and many companies are really bad at that. “We must include our AR services,” they may say, turning a 30-second pitch into a three-minute minute speech and then a ten-minute PowerPoint presentation. This was most prominent in 2021 when I was freelancing, where XR spiked upwards in interest. But if the company has some discipline, then the simplicity of one impactful message carries further than a jumble.

3: Consistency is more important for building a profile than one large impact

So far we mostly discussed key messaging, the snippets of phrases which best communicate what a company does. But what about writing or content over time? Which is better — to have one large thought leadership piece backed by good research, or a smattering of small blogs posted regularly?

The best answer is both, if you are large enough. But for the smaller companies I see in our technological bubble, I believe the best answer is small pieces consistently published. The little nudges and reminders have a much better effect on being front of mind.

I have a slight bias on this as I run a weekly newsletter. The consistency of publishing at 8am UK time every Monday is as important as the content itself. Sometimes that does not happen, whether it’s because of a busy Sunday or I take a burnout break. But the persistent publishing has helped to ally people with the newsletter more, and the deeper dives (such as this one) help to enhance the newsletter’s content.

If it was not consistent, or published every month, then I would not see the same level of growth. Plus, the Immersive Wire would grow faster if I provided a daily round-up — though by that point I balance between my own personal life and the growth of the newsletter. The point stands, as it’s exactly why newsletters like Web3 Daily have grown at such a rapid pace.

Companies can do the same, too. Some prefer to release podcast episodes, and then convert the audio into copy that can be diffused across newsletters, website articles and social posts. The heart of good content marketing is recycling content across multiple spaces, like grass that spreads across plainlands. The weekly cadence works well for social networks, which (broadly) rewards consistent posting of good-quality content.

Of course, none of this matters if you are not directly helping your readers or customers — which leads us to:

4: Tailor content to what your audience wants, not what you want

I know it sounds a bit obvious. “Our content is always tailored to what our readers want,” any company would respond. “Why wouldn’t anyone want to hear our views on XR technical capabilities.” But the truth is that customers only say what they think customers want. The gulf between the two can be more expansive than the Atlantic, and just as deep.

Yes, companies have services to sell. Some offer immersive reality training programmes, while others offer platforms to build new services. But the art of good writing is meeting customers in the middle, and some fumble in the dark for the right place.

Take keywords as one example. When I dipped into search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) some time ago, I realised the importance of search. Most leaders start their search with Google, which is why bidding for certain keywords is vital to bring in new business. The same is true for SEO, where ranking for certain topics can help bring in business. In one company I worked in, SEO and SEM for one particular keyword was pivotal for the business.

Why do I mention this? Because companies need to match what people are actually searching for to convert new business. That keyword won’t necessarily be what first comes to mind — it will only be obvious if companies meet clients and have a conversation about their exact needs and specifications.

Take the word “metaverse.” It’s a useful catch-all term, but its usage has been declining for the last few months. I rank well on certain keywords, and I have seen that traffic volume has decreased while their ranking stays the same. Plus, my CPC (cost-per-click) on certain keywords is £0.08 — which is excellent for traffic, but shows how non-competitive they are in the market. This tells me that two things may be happening:

1. General interest in the keyword has declined over the period;

2. The phrase does not quite match what people want to see on search engines.

My interpretation of it is that there are fewer executives searching for phrases like “metaverse services” or “metaverse strategy” — which sounds obvious, but there was a spike in interest on my website some time ago. What they are instead searching for is more specific — perhaps “digital twins for food supply chains” or “traceability of services” (as random examples). These are under the same umbrella, but worded in a different way. Plus, they could be lucrative to bid on for companies who are looking into SEM.

The content also needs to match search intent. I made the mistake with previous articles in writing about tangentially connected stories, such as one piece on iShowSpeed (which now no longer exists). It drove hundreds of clicks via SEO, but not a single person signed up for the newsletter. So when I focus on SEO and topics, I base them on what my readers want me to talk about via conversations and networking.

My point is that what works in PR does not necessarily reflect what customers actually want. What works in a press release doesn’t necessarily work as an overall company strategy. Search engine discoveries are helpful by comparison, though finding the right phrases that convert people to your services is the heart of the challenge. Be rigorous and fearless, meeting people where they are rather than where you want them to be.

5: Never dismiss in-person events

My favourite moments from running a newsletter come from meeting other people. Much of my time is behind a computer screen typing away, sometimes late at night. But meeting people in-person is incredibly gratifying.

The launch of my book is one example, where I met lovely people who came together. It was nice to see everyone together, from YouTubers like Ordinary Things to general fans. But it reached a new level when I went to Immersive Tech Week in 2022. That was like seeing pen pals from around the world in one place, where we had conversations and proper catch-ups.

I know we live in a remote world, and working with colleagues remotely is a fun experience in itself. But nothing quite matches seeing how people smile, or laugh, or jab one another beyond the reams of texts. There is a soft presence to seeing everyone — and getting out of the room is an important part of doing that as well.

6: Help everyone

The premise of Virtual Perceptions (and then the Immersive Wire) was to lift everyone up. But since the first half of 2023, my drive to do something good became stronger. I don’t wish to just supply a newsletter — I want to help profile people’s work and make a positive impact on people.

How? So far it included assisting similar newsletters to get a leg up (such as Metaverse Monday) and profiling the great news of other companies. There is a content wall; I generally do not along long-form blogs or articles from companies. But the wall is about three inches tall, and I will cover people’s news if it is new and relevant that week.

That mission has grown over the last few months. I am now profiling students from the Department of Computing in Goldsmiths, which I know is helping them get new opportunities. I have a help corner which helps people land interviews, which has been nice to do. And I know that some stories here have led to hundreds of sign-ups for certain initiatives or activities.

I’ve now reached the stage where I don’t just want to grow; growth in and of itself is not a goal. But I do want the Immersive Wire to be a place that fosters innovative companies and talent that may shape the future of immersive tech. It’s a good goal as any, and one which I may continue.

As I turn 30, I’ve been looking back at the activities of my time. I now wish to look forward and build something good — and I hope we can work together on that journey. So if you have any new news, or wish to have a chat, pop me an email at tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com.

Speak soon!

Tom Ffiske works at Accenture, and the article does not represent the views of the organisation.