Media Tips
1) You want to contact your local newspaper and radio and TV stations with some good news about your business. Should you:
a) Put on a big buffet lunch, with loads of free booze and tell them you will be revealing some exciting news
b) Ring them up and explain the story over the phone
c) Send a well-crafted press release
Doing (a) is unlikely to attract reporters. Long gone are the days when reporters had time to be wined and dined with the off-chance of getting a story, They won't leave the office unless they know it is worth going out. So you will have to tell them what the story is. And that still doesn't guarantee they will bother coming if they can cover it another way.
Explaining over the phone (b) is all very well, but a recent survey of journalists (including those in radio and TV) showed that 80% prefered to get the information in writing. So that brings us to (c).
2) What percentage of press releases end up in the bin?
a) 8
b) 40
c) 97
The answer is (c). Although some say it is as low as 95%! There are lots of reasons why press releases get binned, one of the main ones is that they are about something that really isn't very interesting. Before you send a press release think: is it really going to interest the readers, listeners or viewers of the media outlet you are aiming it at?
Another big reason for a press release being binned is that it is about something interesting, but is badly written. It's no good hiding the interesting bits in paragraph 12 - the news editor won't read that far.
(If you run a small business and want to know more about how to write a press release come along to one of Kate Betts Media's business seminars.)
3) There’s been a terrible incident at your organisation, which has resulted in some very negative publicity. Do you:
a) Say “no comment” to journalists
b) Decide on a company spokesman and prepare carefully what they are going to say
c) You’ve already prepared for this as part of your crisis management planning
“No comment” (a) sounds like you have something to hide. Far better to be upfront and say something to the media (b). They will report on the story anyway. It is possible to say not very much, but sound like you are saying something: “We are very concerned about what happened and will be launching an immediate investigation into exactly what happened. If there are any lessons to be learned we will take those on board.”
Even better you will have plans in place for such a scenario (c) and rather than scrambling around trying to work out who is going to say what, you will have rehearsed how to deal with the media as part of your crisis management planning.
If you'd like help dealing with the media contact us now.