Best Ways To Manage Media Relations

When we meet with a company seeking representation and the subject of PR comes up, I often hear expressions of dismay regarding relationships with previous PR companies. Unfortunately, companies often shell out high fees for PR and, receiving few results, perceive PR as a bottomless money pit.

In fact, in the right hands, PR is an extremely valuable tool for small or under-followed companies. If the person or firm you have hired is not getting your story into the appropriate print or broadcast media, hire someone else. You may need a firm that specializes in introducing unknown companies and products. Although I’ve never had the opportunity to pitch a story on Microsoft, for example, I imagine it cannot be nearly as challenging as booking a story for an unheard of or relatively small public company.

Challenging is the key word, because it is difficult but certainly not impossible! I can tell you that IRG has successfully placed feature stories for Bulletin Board and under-followed companies with micro-market caps in Fortune, Time, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, along with placements in thousands of other influential trade publications and daily newspapers. Our CEOs have also appeared on ABC, CNBC, CNN and other leading television, cable and radio business programs and segments. The secret to securing placements is relentless perseverance coupled with continued energetic enthusiasm. It is also essential to have excellent writing skills and an understanding of what individual editors and producers want for their specific audiences.

A good public relations campaign is one that will:

• Create awareness of your company
• Build credibility for your company and its products or services
• Increase leads and sales among existing and prospective customers
• Set the stage for future fundraisings
• Attract prospective business partners or strategic alliances
• Position your company for mergers or acquisitions
• Keep your company in the minds and portfolios of investors

Beware of firms that tell you they have “excellent media contacts.” Media people move all the time. It’s how you tell the story. The media is ready to hear any newsworthy or trend-based story if it’s a good one. Don’t expect your story to hit prime time until you have hired a top-notch firm to help you shape and promote it.

If you want to pitch your story on your own, carefully review the following three sections that highlight some of the basic rules:

Formulating Your Story

• Think large. Pitch a trend or tie your news to some national event. Better yet, do your own survey, one that fits your story, and try to include numbers. Document as much as you can quantitatively. For example, in a bad economy your sales are up ___%.
• Reporters like stories that have “tension” and illustrate the unexpected. An example might be a dot-com actually doing exceptionally well despite the recent dot-com collapse.
• Don’t lie or exaggerate. It could show up in print. Honesty rules.
• Keep your pitch letter to one page whenever possible. The headline, subhead and lead sentence tell the story and must grab the reader’s attention. If they do not, rewrite it until it is captivating.
• Customize your pitch letters. Do you have a product that might be appropriate for different industries? If so, coverage will increase if you write a special release targeted to the needs and interests of each trade publication.
• Be newsworthy. Put yourself in an editor or producer’s shoes. Editorial space is valuable. It is there to sell advertising space. If readers and viewers don’t find the content interesting, that media outlet is going to have a difficult time selling advertising.
• Think visual for TV, good quotes or “sound bites” for print and radio, and speedy provision of information for the Internet.
• Controversy sells.
• If you can, position yourself as an expert on a particular breaking story in the news. Become a thought leader.
• Make sure your spokesperson or PR representative is enthused, articulate and able to relay the company’s story well, without using technical jargon.
• Offer someone who can help verify your story — another expert or authority.

Submitting Your Story

• Everybody wants to be on one of the fifty-two covers of Time or twenty-six covers of Fortune put out each year. It's fine to be positive and think on a grand scale, but you should balance that kind of thinking with a more realistic approach. Start with smaller steps, such as trying for coverage in any and all related trade media. And remember that trades want stories that are credible, unique and easy to understand.
• Don’t forget about online media. They reach an extensive audience and need stories, too.
• Use a photograph when possible. Good pictures increase pick-ups. Have high resolution jpeg headshots available.
• Tailor your pitch to the reporter’s coverage area and send it to them in their preferred method, not yours — whether e-mail, regular mail or fax.
• Respect reporters’ deadlines.
• Don’t bug reporters with phone calls asking them to confirm if your release has arrived.
• Don’t forget to target radio. Four out of five news directors at news and talk radio stations get their content from newswire releases and PR firms.
• Make sure your Web site is a resource for researchers and writers.
• Treat members of the media like valuable customers. If you do, it will increase the odds of seeing your story in print or on TV.

Knowing Your Interview Rights

• Be prepared for interviews and know your rights. Ask ahead of time:
• How long will the interview last? 
• Who will be interviewing me?
• Can I have an advance copy of the questions I will be asked or an explanation of the topic we will be discussing?
• What is it you would like to know from me?
• What type of story are you working on?
• Who else are you interviewing for this?
• What else can I do to help make your story stronger?
• What is your deadline?
• When will it run?
• Is the interview live or taped?
• Would you share my comments with me before the story runs for fact checking and accuracy?

Press Conferences
Management is often so excited about a new company development that they believe a full press conference is warranted. Unfortunately for lesser-known companies, this is seldom the case. Editors are busy people. They receive piles of invitations to all kinds of events, every day. Why should they attend and report on your event? The fact is that while you are trying to get a reporter’s attention, so is every other publicly traded company, along with every celebrity, wannabe, charity, and innumerable others. What most companies don’t understand is that newspaper and magazine editors and TV and radio producers by and large do not care about your new product, with the exception perhaps of certain “New Products” Editors. They may, however, care about the effect your product or service might have on an industry, the environment, people’s health, the economy, or the world-at-large, so find and use the tie-in!

Before you decide to hold a press conference, ask yourself: “What is so compelling about my news that a reporter or producer will make the time in his or her busy day to cover our event? Can I make my event or news correlate in any way to other news or events going on in the world? If so, how? Is there any way my news can be positioned to represent a trend?”

Assume you do manage to capture the imaginations of a few editors and they say they will attend your event — What do you do next? If you do not have a firm such as IRG to handle the project, here are some things to think about when planning a press conference.

Beginning

• Select a convenient location. Decide on refreshments as appropriate, whether coffee, pastries and fruit, wine and cheese, hors d'oeuvres, or a full meal. 
• Do not schedule your event too early or too late in the day, unless you are opting for an evening cocktail party. Avoid Mondays or Fridays if possible, as they tend to be bigger news and deadline days.
• Get your formal invitations out about three weeks in advance and include a postage-paid reply card.

Follow-Up is Key

• Ten days before, start calling for any confirmations you have not yet received. Have your list in front of you. Three to four days before the event, call to remind attendees.

On the Big Day

• Make sure you have an enthusiastic spokesperson — and I am not talking about all the heads of your marketing and sales departments! Remember that editors will be less interested in your product than in its overall effect within the marketplace. Be sure you excite them. I also suggest that you give away a promotional item imprinted with your logo and contact information, to serve as a reminder. These items, also known as premiums, are a nice touch. An excellent source for every imaginable promotional item is Design & Source Productions, located in New York City at 212.265.8632. Ask for Laura and be sure to mention my name.

After the Event

• Gather your list of attendees and call each within ten days for a follow-up.
• Finally, cross your fingers and hope they all cover the story!

What to Do If You’re Lucky Enough to Hear From a Reporter
Your press release has accomplished its goal and a reporter is on the line for you. I have seen how, in the presence of a journalist, normally unflappable corporate officers clam up with nervousness or gush with excessive enthusiasm. Eventually one develops media sophistication. Here are some guidelines to follow to help you keep a level head, if you’re lucky enough to get a call from a reporter:

• Ask for the reporter’s name, telephone number, e-mail address and media outlet. Ask if he or she is a staff reporter or freelancer. Tell the reporter you will have to call back. You want to make sure you are talking to a reporter from their print or broadcast outlet, and not your competition or a sneaky shareholder looking for an inside scoop.
• Once credentials are established, decide who in your organization should be the interviewee and what information they should supply. An IR/PR firm would know how to identify what is wanted, by what date, and whether the questions can be reviewed in writing.
• Before calling back you might want to write out your script or comments. Although you will be asked questions, once you have a reporter’s ear you have an opportunity to tell your story the way you want it to be heard.
• After answering all appropriate questions, you might want to offer photos, charts or other graphics to make the story more visual and compelling. Also, be sure to give the reporter your telephone number, and establish times at which you may be contacted to answer additional questions or check facts, as the story is being written. And, of course, make sure you are available to take that call.
• Stick to what you want to see on the record. If you don’t want to see a comment in print do not express it to the reporter!
• Never lie.
• It’s okay to not answer a question. But try to give an answer other than “no comment.” You might provide alternative information that helps your cause.
• Try to help the reporter with other leads or contacts that will strengthen the odds of a good story — or a bigger story.
• Speak with authority and enthusiasm.
• Be quotable. Keep your answers short and sweet. Interviewers, especially for TV and radio, love “sound bites,” or short, memorable quotes.
• Listen to the questions carefully. Do not let a reporter put words in your mouth. If you don’t like the direction of a question, repeat it back to the interviewer, but frame it with your own question, as in: “Are you asking me if…,” or “Do you mean to say…?” This tactic helps keep a reporter on his or her good behavior.
• Beware of hypothetical questions. Don’t answer them unless you have complete confidence in your answer.
• Silence can be golden. Don’t feel pressured to fill in. That’s the reporter’s job. During silence, the reporter is likely making notes or thinking up the next question.
• Bear in mind that it is your answer that counts, not the reporter’s question.

Another Media Tool — Your Book
Have you ever considered the possibility of writing a book about your company or industry, or about yourself as an expert in your field? Positioning yourself as an “author-ity” via an interesting, well-written book — even a slim volume that is self-published — can provide you with an extremely powerful marketing tool to help strengthen your reputation and your business. In addition to increasing the possibility of media placements, a book is also a good way to let people within your industry know what kind of an individual you are, what your company stands for, and why they should do business with you.

Many CEOs dismiss the idea out of hand, maintaining that they have neither the time nor the writing ability to produce a book. Today, however, there are professional writing collaborators who can assist you by ghostwriting your book, overseeing the publishing process, and delivering it to you on deadline and within budget. We have ghostwriters we can recommend, so if this appeals to you, give us a call.