As media outlets find their grooves in how to cover a pandemic of COVID-19 as well as a social revolution, Marketplace Tech, the daily tech podcast hosted by Molly Wood, seems to be doubling down in its years long mission to cover unusual tech topics by highlighting the people - or people angle - behind them. The pandemic and protests of 2020 have leveled people so much, that every-day stories are looking more and more like gems.
From the Marketplace's family of podcast About page: “We’re a nonprofit news organization on a mission to raise the economic intelligence of the country. For more than 30 years, we’ve helped people become smarter about the economic forces that touch their daily lives through the unorthodox story, the casual conversation and the unexpected angle on the news. And while we are very serious about covering business and the economy, we don’t take ourselves too seriously."
Lately, host Molly Wood seems extra fascinated with stories that break down traditional assumptions about tech (that tech knows everything by itself, without human involvement, like in this story “Algorithms for vaccine distribution have a weakness: the people behind them” ), as well as how the virus has connected communities and will force (hopefully) regions to think beyond their borders so as not to ruin their neighbors, as has happened for centuries, or the dawn of time, like with this story “Making sure climate solutions don’t make more problems”.
Remote Learning is not going away anytime soon, so anyone starting a new program, or having new insights, should consider a story angle. This story, “For-profit online schools are getting a second look from parents” highlights a study that quite honestly made for-profit online schools look bad, with large student to teacher ratios, and made the public schools out to look like they had small student to teacher ratios. Anyone currently in the public school system knows this not to be the case. If this is you - if you created an online program, think of a story angle and pitch it!
Website designers are also big contenders here, as more and more businesses turn to the internet to stay connected to their customers. This story, “A possible life raft for small businesses selling online” featured Intuit’s (Quickbooks) new tool that connects people’s sales channels in their bookkeeping software to help sellers see where the money is coming from. Molly from Marketplace Tech made sure to mention that Shopify was on notice to be squashed by Amazon, which so far (hopefully) never happened (and may it never happen).
Make Sure Your Website and Social Media Is Ready
For any of these stories, make sure your website is ready to handle any sales inquires. If you sell a service, like a remote learning program or are a website designer, make sure there is a clear path for how people can reach out to you, or sign up with you.
Same goes for your social media. Need help with either of these? Get specialized guidance through Tin Shingle’s Private Training. Our sister company, Katie James, Inc. produces and designs websites, and works specifically with small businesses. Even if you have a design team already, we can help tell you what to have them do. Outside ideas are always helpful. Best of all, become a Tin Shingle Member and get in our Google Group to start giving and getting feedback.
Not Sure How To Pitch Marketplace Tech?
There are many story angles you could come up with. If you need courage to send one out, or feedback telling you are on the right track - or not - join Tin Shingle today to get connected into our Google Group and start a conversation to get our feedback. Tin Shingle does keep a database of Media Contact Ideas, some with job titles and email addresses. This particular lead encourages you to pitch into the generic email. But reaching a producer can’t hurt (usually)!
Marketplace Tech Story Angle Notice In Tin Shingle’s PR Leads
This story angle notice has been added to Tin Shingle’s PR Leads section. Marketplace Tech is looking for ideas, and they give their generic email for you to submit to. While anyone can hear this on their podcasts, Tin Shingle added it to our members-only PR Lead Center, as a way to help our members have one place to get different ideas.