8 unconventional ways to get tech journalists to like you

As a journalist who likes to write favorably about the Philippine startup scene, I often get asked by entrepreneurs on what they can do to help me. Though I tend to demure from this question – it’s part of my job yadda yadda yadda – what follows is how I would respond if Filipino social norms would allow me to be brutally honest.

I think these tips would be effective ways to strengthen your working relationship with journalists you’ve worked with in the past. By providing them with value, they will – out of human nature – try to provide you with value in return.

1. Make a carousel and put their stuff on there

Most tech companies have a carousel on their website – a section with links to past features and write-ups of your company. If I’m a local journalist on your beat, I want to see my work up there. Yes, it’ll be great if the added visibility will drive traffic to the article, however little, but the real benefit is one of ego: You feel good when other people seem to take pride in the fact that you’ve written about them. Like you’re Gore Vidal or something.

2. Choose them for #FollowFriday

For #FollowFriday – the hashtag initiative that allows one Twitter user to champion the following of another – tech companies should choose journalists they work with regularly. There is no other choice that makes more sense. If you’re going to choose purely out of self-interest and not out of politics, journalists represent the greatest investment.

If you promote a journalist to your followers now, many of them may follow. Thus, when the journalist inevitably writes about you again, they can then broadcast and amplify your message as a third-party to your mutual followers. You can think of #FollowFriday as an opportunity to create a megaphone.

See: How to use email to seduce journalists into covering your event

3. Get your employees to follow them

Okay, not everyone may listen to your #FollowFriday appeal, no matter how enticingly you pitch your journalist in under 140 characters. Your employees, however, do have to listen to you. Or at least they should. So you should encourage them, gently but firmly, to follow your journalist of choice.

Such an unconventional action would seem to serve only the interest of the journalist, but it also serves your own in a surprising way: It gets your employees into the frame of mind that they can be ambassadors for your company in the online space as well.

4. Boost their articles on Facebook

As page owners on Facebook, your company has a magic button that can increase the visibility of a post as much as tenfold. This is the boost button. You should use it for articles written by journalists. It’ll get more eyeballs on their write-ups, which hopefully enhance your brand’s message or narrative.