Posts tagged ‘media relations’
The Basics of Crisis Communications – Part Two
As noted in Part One of this series, developing a crisis response plan and testing it regularly is crucial for nearly all businesses and organizations. In fact, the process of developing the plan is as valuable as the plan itself. The reason is that the process forces managers to identify company vulnerabilities that could lead to crises, and very often these vulnerabilities can be mitigated or eliminated as the plan is being developed. There are a number of factors to consider when developing the plan, such as:
1. Including the proper steps:
- 1: Empower employees to detect crises and potential crises and notify their managers
- 2: Train managers to determine the nature of the incident with a process to report, if warranted, the incident to Crisis Team Liaison
- 3: Assemble Crisis Response and Communications Team
- 4: Crisis Response and Comms. Team categorizes the seriousness of the incident so response is commensurate the degree of seriousness
- 5: Crisis Response and Comms. Team takes appropriate operational and communications actions, tracks progress and makes continual adjustments
2. Identifying your audiences:
- Customers – existing and potential
- Partners
- Policy/Elected Officials/Regulators
- Affiliate Organizations
- Media – traditional and new
- Environmental Community
- Vendors/Suppliers
- Investors
- Employees
3. Understanding and using the principles of Risk Communication – identifying factors for each scenario that may increase outrage among your audiences, such as**:
- Perceived effects are not observable
- Extent of effects is unknown to victims
- Delayed effect
- New or less studied risk
- Risk controlled by others
- Risk unfairly distributed (not equitable)
- Risk impossible for an individual to mitigate
- Risk capable of creating multiple victims in single place
4. Incorporating tactics to reduce outrage:
- Listen – people are calmer when they’re listened to
- Cede some control, perhaps through community advisory panels or a hotline
- Use the right words and comparisons to communicate risk
- Find common ground and focus on the valid complaints
- Educate through trusted third parties
- Be human – empathize
Crisis preparedness also includes making regular deposits into the “good will bank.” If you regularly and visibly contribute to the communities where you operate and invest in your stakeholders – employees, customers, communities, media and government officials – they may be much more understanding if and when a crisis occurs.
Up next – how the Internet and social media are creating a whole new avenue for generating (and managing) crises.
** See Peter Sandman’s work on outrage factors: http://www.psandman.com/index-OM.htm
- David Kalson, CEO, specializes in energy, environment and crisis/issues management.
The Basics of Crisis Communications – A Four Part Series
Business crises are all over the news, and commentary is abundant on how they’re being handled – even years later. Take the coverage of the recent News Corp. crisis or the Air France crash in 2009, for example. Unfortunately m
any businesses are not adequately prepared when a crisis hits and are criticized for the way they manage it. By preparing for potential crises well in advance, however, you can ensure that your business stays on track if one occurs.
Implementing a crisis response plan – and testing it regularly through simulation exercises – is key to being prepared. Effective crisis plans:
- Are simple – a basic checklist is helpful.
- Include a crisis team and spokesperson(s) from both operational and communications sides with up-to-date contact info and backups for each.
- Identify plausible crisis scenarios and plan for them, with defined objectives, pre-written documents and messaging for each.
- Have pre-approved “boilerplate” documents.
- Have third-party supporters that can be relied on to help carry messages.
- Are tested often (once or twice a year).
Up next, all the components to consider when developing the crisis plan.
- David Kalson, CEO, specializes in energy, environment and crisis/issues management.
Generating U.S. Exposure for International Organizations
North America represents the largest market for revenue for many international companies. For some organizations, there comes a time when direct customer marketing may not be enough to maintain the growth they’ve seen. When an international organization reaches this phase, strategic PR efforts can help build brand awareness in the North American market.
But this isn’t an easy task. Given the recent recession and stagnant job growth, the public is wary of “foreign” companies capitalizing on the U.S. market. Additionally, the press is both hesitant and often unavailable to commit the time to learn about unfamiliar organizations.
However, there are several steps an organization can take to improve its chances for exposure in North America:
- Reference Customers with Brand Recognition
Leveraging your client’s customers or partners is an effective way to garner media attention, particularly if those brands have significant recognition in North America. If customers cannot be mentioned in the press, the client can reference them under embargo during interviews, thereby providing credibility and a better understanding of their services.
- Show Investment in the Region
Given the state of job growth in the U.S., the media is interested in international organizations investing money and creating jobs in the region. Positioning the company as a job maker rather than a taker will facilitate better traction in the press.
- Develop Unbiased Case Studies or Research Material
The media environment in North America is very different than that of Europe and Asia. Any materials contributed to U.S. press should be non-commercial and non-promotional. Materials should address timely industry trends or challenges relevant to the organization.
- Leverage International Press
With the proliferation of digital media, many international stories are picked up in North America. Organizations can leverage their international media contacts to drive press exposure, which, in turn, can be utilized by the North American PR team to drive media and brand recognition.
- Take Your Time
Gaining traction in the press can take time, particularly if the organization has little or no brand presence in North America. The key is to develop a reasonable timeframe to cultivate long-term relationships and opportunities with reporters. It’s not about short-term hits , but about leveraging the contacts you establish to paint a comprehensive picture of the organization and its progress in North America over time.
What other tips do you have for international organizations seeking to increase their media exposure in North America?
By Josh Waller, Ricochet Technology Team
Todd’s Media Relations Do’s and Don’ts – Part Three
Source: Getty Images
As Part Two of this series noted, building a targeted media list is arguably the most important step in launching a media relations campaign. That said, it’s great pitching that gets you over the finish line. The pitch can mean the difference between a quick success – and a happy client – or a week of frustrating outreach with little to show for your time and effort. Below are a few tried and true tips for reaching out to reporters.
Step Three: Pitching
- Write nuanced pitches based on the research you’ve conducted, and reference reporters’ recent stories. Writing a good pitch can be time consuming, but it makes all the difference.
- Know when to call vs. email. Generally a phone call works best, but if you’ve worked with a reporter before and know he doesn’t have time for a call, send an email instead.
- Be respectful of deadlines. If you know reporters are likely on deadline on a Friday afternoon, call on Monday instead. Always ask if they have time to speak before you launch into your pitch.
- Never spam reporters or BCC multiple reporters on the same email. Reporters recognize spam when they see it. As noted in #1, pitches should be customized to individual reporters based on their work.
- Do not pitch multiple reporters at the same outlet at the same time! If several reporters at an outlet are appropriate for a pitch, rank them in order of importance based on their articles; if the first reporter declines, move to the next person on the list.
- Keep meticulous notes on the reporters you speak with. As you study reporters, it’s important to track their work and their beats from quarter-to-quarter. This is crucial to maintaining relationships with reporters, particularly as the media landscape changes.
If you take the time to craft pitches tailored to individual reporters, it will be remembered. Even if a reporter isn’t interested, often he or she will at least respond. Either way, you’ve started building a relationship; although you never want to rely solely on reporter relationships, chances are when you put the time in to appeal directly to the reporter, he or she will remember and respond to your call or email the next time you reach out.
Todd’s Media Relations Do’s and Don’ts – Part Two
In Part One of this series, we shared some tips on how to lay a good framework for a campaign. The second and most important step is building a great media list. Armed with a good list and in-depth knowledge of the reporters, you can contact journalists who are most likely to be interested in the story and discuss the details that will be most attractive to him/her. This step will differentiate you from all the other publicists pitching the reporters, and will lead to much greater success.
Step Two: Building the List
- Don’t use reporter-targeting databases to build media lists! Many of today’s PR pros use these tools irresponsibly. While these databases are helpful for obtaining contact information, they are not effective in identifying reporters for media lists.
- Branch out. Google, Lexus, Factiva, Amazon, news aggregation sites and blogs are useful places to find publications or articles you might have missed or can only access through a subscription. This is the stage to get creative.
- Analyze your target publications; start reading articles and noting reporters who have written relevant stories. Never include an editor who doesn’t contribute articles.
- Don’t rely on relationships with reporters. Having a relationship with a journalist may get him to answer your call or read your email, but if the pitch has nothing to do with his beat, you’re wasting your time – and potentially damaging your relationship.
- Remember that reporters change beats. Never pull stories from a daily or weekly publication if they’re older than three months, or stories older than six months from a monthly publication. The one exception to this rule is when you can follow the evolution of a reporter’s interest over time; you can note this sustained interest in your pitch, which shows the reporter that you have studied his work and know what he’s interested in.
- Study the reporters you plan to pitch. If you study the reporters and their work, you can craft customized, targeted pitches. Make sure you understand their perspectives on the topic; you don’t want to pitch an investigative reporter!
Remember it’s okay to only pitch a handful of reporters – it’s better to pitch 10 targeted reporters than spam 100 irrelevant reporters.
Up next, how to pitch like a pro.
Todd’s Media Relations Do’s and Don’ts – A Three Part Series
You may have read reporters lamenting about PR “hacks” pitching aimlessly and spamming them with news that has nothing to do with their beat. Some reporters have even publicly “blackballed” publicists after being fed up with one too many irrelevant pitches.
When I first started Ricochet, I made it my mission to change the mediocre media relations practices that had become standard in so many agencies. Many publicists approach media relations by churning out lists of hundreds of reporters (many irrelevant) and basically throwing news to the wall in the hopes it’ll stick. I wanted to provide clients with a new approach – using some simple tactics to deliver smart media campaigns that get results.
While the media landscape is continuing to evolve, some best practices hold true. Here I’ll share the secrets behind our media relations success.
Step One: Getting Started
- Become very familiar with the client and the topic being pitched. If you’re unfamiliar with the nuances of the company, your research will be less effective. This may seem obvious, but 20 minutes spent reviewing your client’s materials again could yield additional nuggets you can use in crafting a story angle – which may lead you to target publications or reporters you didn’t previously think of. Clients love this kind of creativity!
- Develop a good understanding of the initiative or product you’re pitching. Sometimes a company will want to target a specific kind of media or restrict its coverage to certain topics, so it’s crucial to know the project as
completely as possible. This will also help you answer reporters’ questions and represent your client intelligently. - Research how other companies in the industry have handled similar projects or narratives. Is your client really the first one to launch this initiative or product? Have other companies been successful with a particular strategy? The more you know about the industry and your client’s competitors, the better your recommendations will be.
Up next, how to build a killer media list.
- Todd Aydelotte, Founder & President
Internships in Health Care/Biotech with Ricochet Public Relations
It’s been a while since our last post. The start of 2010 has brought on a lot of changes with our firm. I’d like to welcome students looking for PR internships in health care and biotech to consider our firm and send me applications.
Ricochet is a rapidly-growing business, forging a new industry paradigm in technology and life science public relations. We emphasize collaboration, intellectualism and a sense of humor. Use your life sciences and/or technology expertise in a completely different arena than you thought possible by joining true innovators in the PR industry. Prior public relations experience is not necessary for these positions, but exceptional research skills, social skills and intellectual curiosity are essential.
To find out more about Ricochet Public Relations, please visit our website.
To be considered for this position, please email your resume (single page), cover letter and two samples of written articles to Dr. Nancy Ilaya.
As an intern, you will be working intimately with experienced publicists and will learn many of the core skills necessary to become an outstanding publicist.
Requirements for consideration include strong writing, research and organizational skills, as well as a keen interest in the media, technology and the life sciences.
The following skills are strongly desirable:
- Strong writing skills
- Research and organizational skills
- Strong communication skills
- Adheres to deadlines
- Works well under pressure
