Three Important Techniques

A lot of times while giving interviews to the media, you get stuck somewhere or get caught in a tricky situation. Following are three important techniques to remember while talking to the media, and am sure you will never have a problem again when faced with a situation. These help you channel or focus the conversation into a direction that you would like to take.

Technique #1: Bridging
Bridging is a technique you can use to change the subject from one topic to another. It is not avoiding a question by answering another question. Rather, it is responding to the reporter's questions as honestly and concisely as possible and then moving over to a more relevant topic.

For example:
- A reporter asks you a question about something that is not your area of expertise. You can bridge by saying, “That's not something I'm qualified to talk about, but I can tell you about...” Then bridge to the points you want to make.
- As you become more familiar with the technique, you will find many ways to bridge.

Technique #2: Hooking
Hooking is a technique that you can use to 'set up' or influence the next question to be asked. In essence, you can 'hook' the reporter into asking you a question you specifically want to answer.

For example:
“There are two critical things you should know about the company.” The reporter is in essence ‘hooked’ into asking you about both aspects of the product.

Technique #3: Flagging
Flagging is a way of helping someone remember what you would like him to remember. It is a technique for underscoring or prioritising what is important, either through repetition or by saying, “The most important thing I want to tell you is...”

For example:
- President Nixon used a flag that virtually everyone will recognise. He used it so often that it became a trademark. Whenever he was about to make a key point, Nixon would say, “Let me make one thing perfectly clear...” That became a signal for editors that he was about to make his major point.
- Other flags might be:
“If there's one thought I would like to leave with you...”
“The two key points I would like to make...”

Become a Thought Leader

Thought leader is a buzzword used to describe a futurist or person who is recognized among their peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights. Thought leadership is an increasingly vital driver of business success. The term was first coined in 1994, by Joel Kurtzman, editor-in-chief of the magazine, Strategy & Business. The term was used to designate interview subjects for that magazine who had contributed new thoughts to business.

Among the first Thought Leaders were British management thinker, Charles Handy, Stanford economist Paul Romer, Mitsubishi president, Minoru Makihara, and University of Michigan strategist, C K Prahalad and his co-author, Gary Hamel, a professor at the London Business School. Since that time, the term has spread from business to other disciplines and has come to mean someone who enlivens old processes with new ideas.

Interesting, isn’t it? Believe it or not, by using the power of public relations, you can also be regarded as an Industry Thought Leader. Try and identify one such issue that the industry or category that you operate in is facing today. Find a solution, even though you may not want to, or you may not have the capacity to implement. But you can most certainly take the responsibility of educating the masses to help the industry overcome current issues. Talk about the solution freely. If nothing else, it will at least spark a healthy debate among your peers, and an industry body or the government will most certainly take note of it.

This will not only help your business, but you will also be regarded as a Thought Leader in your industry. Whenever an industry story is initiated, you will be among the first people to be contacted for a quote.

“Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.” - Joseph Addison

Communication Theme for PR Strategy

Any company that wants to communicate a certain message to its target audience must develop a theme for their annual communication or PR strategy. A theme helps deliver a consistent message through the year to your target audience. The media selection and the story peg here have to be tactical that support your business, as well as the industry or category of business you are in.

Let me give you an example of a company so that you have a fair idea of the relevance of a communication theme for an entire year’s PR strategy.

Organic Tea Company
One of the largest organic Ceylon tea brands was launching in India. However, the market for organic products or specifically organic tea in India is very niche. People do not completely understand the benefits of organic tea over regular tea.

So, apart from their regular PR activities of product launches, expansion, etc, the company decided to educate their target audience on the benefits of Organic Tea. Their communication theme, therefore, was education as a part of their annual PR strategy. The company undertook PR activities which helped spread awareness and grow the industry that in turn helped grow their own business.

Identify one such challenge that your company is facing in the market today and find a solution by means of an effective communication strategy. The theme will help you focus on the issue. The theme will help change the perception of your target audience towards your company or your product when you constantly communicate the same message through the year through different mediums.

If you need help in identifying a communication theme for your company, feel free to drop me an email at rahul@highergroundblog.com.

Build a Lasting Relationship

One of the most important criteria for good public relations is to build a lasting relationship. Treat the journalist as your target audience. A journalist needs you as much as you need him/her. He/she is always looking for stories to publish. If you can prove yourself as a reliable resource for a journalist, you will be looked upon as a friend, and this will benefit you in turn. The key is to create mind-space for yourself in the minds of the journalist. So that whenever he/she is planning a story, the first person that comes to his/her mind is you.

The following guidelines while talking to a journalist will go a long way in helping you to create a mind-space in the journalist’s mind.

• Introduce yourself before you need to make the pitch calls
• Intend to build relationships, not just getting the story out
• Know deadlines & communication preferences & honor them
• Have something in writing before you call
• Be available to journalists
• Always be honest
• Say thank you and be mindful how you offer feedback
• Avoid "no comment"
• There is not such thing as ‘off the record’

I am listing a few techniques that will help you build a successful and long lasting relationship with the journalist.

Informal meetings
It’s good to fix up a meeting with the journalist without an agenda. This is what we call an informal meeting. Most journalists also like to get friendly with a company's management as it means an easy access to quotes and stories. Actively call for informal meetings. These meetings should be void of any agenda to get a story in print. The meeting would be to get updates from the journalist on what is happening in the industry and the journalist would seek from you, your views and trends in the industry. Meet up with key journalists covering your industry, informally over a cup of coffee, lunch or dinner at least once every quarter.

Share information
Apart from news from a particular company, journalists also seek general analysis and research reports on the industry they are covering. Try and get hold of such research reports, industry data and analysis and share it regularly with the journalists. They would appreciate a proactive sharing of information without any pitch for a story.

Organise a workshop
Organise a workshop for the journalists covering your industry. You can organise the workshop even in the conference room of your office. The workshop should be in-depth and educational on any one topic of interest that you feel will help the journalist write his/her story better.

If you feel you have done something which has helped you build great relationships with the target audience, feel free to share it with everyone. Post it in the comments section or just email me at rahul@highergroundblog.com.

Reach Out to Your Target Audience

Hope you found my last post useful and managed to identify and write a story for your company/product. Now that you are ready to share the story with your target audience, let's discuss how you can do this.

Make a Database
Once you have identified a story that you will share with the media, you need to idenfity newspapers, magazines and TV channels that publish and air such information. To get started, gather all the forthnight's newspapers and magazines in your region. Also look for industry or trade newspapers/magazines pertaining to your sector. After a fortnight, scan through the entire set of newspapers along with their supplements, magazines, industry/trade newspapers/magazines for sections that are relevant to your piece of news. For example, if you have launched a new product and wish to get coverage for that particular product, look for newspapers and magazines that have a section on product reviews and whether that section fits your product profile. A health product will not fit into a section that does gadget reviews!

As a golden rule, do not write to or contact a newspaper or a magazine which does not have sections for your story. You will just be scoffed at by the journalist and could end up getting up negative publicity.

Each relevant section usually gives the name of the contributing journalist or the section editor. Most often, publications also give their email addresses. Note down the name of the journalist or the section editor and contact the newspaper/magazine for their email address, fax number and a direct number.

Disseminate
Once you have your database in place, select a suitable day of the week, preferably between Monday - Thursday, to send out your press release to the entire set of journalists. Send your release by email and fax. Always send your release in the first half of the day or not later than 4pm as most daily newspapers that go in for printing each night will not accept a story beyond 5pm. After sending the release, follow it up with a personal call to the journalist a couple of hours later confirming the receipt of the press release. This is a good opportunity to strike a conversation, but do not repeat blatantly what's writen in your press release. Ask the journalist whether he/she would be able to carry your release in the next day's newspaper or next issue of the magazine.

Personally following up with a journalist is a sure shot way of getting maximum coverage. A lot of companies and PR agencies fail to generate enough coverage as they do not follow-up with the journalists. Sometimes a particular journalist may not have come in on a particular day and your release will not get noticed. Therefore, it is important to call and check, and if the journalist covering your industry is not in, ask for the person filling in for him/her for the day.

Do not forget to include photographs if they are revelant to your story.

Identify a Story Peg and Write a Press Release

Let's get to the point where you can start doing PR yourself for your company. With some understanding of what creates news, and how to reach out to the media, you can be your own publicist. This post will tell you all about writing a press release. In my subsequent posts, you will be able to successfully identify and create stories and get through to the media and ultimately your target audience. After the basics, I will talk about creating a strategy for year long PR activities.

What is a Story Peg?
A Story Peg is nothing but identifying a story angle about your company that could be of interest to your target audience. For example, a new product can make news. If you have just started your business, you can reach out to your target audience to inform them of your existence, etc. What you have to bear in mind, though, when you are creating a Story Peg is that it should have a news value. It should be of interest to your target audience. Pick up a week's relevant newspapers and magazines and read up about your competition. Go through how a journalist has told a particular story. This will give you ideas for your own Story Peg and finally when you get down to writing a press release. You will be able to understand the kind of information that the journalist is looking for when writing a particular story.

Target Audience
With each Story Peg, you must identify your target audience. Who is this story directed towards? Who will be interested in knowing this piece of information? Your target audience can be your business associates, customers, potential clients, peers, employees, potential employees, etc, depending on your communication material.

Writing a Press Release
Writing a press release is not rocket science, but it surely is an art. You need to craft a press release in such a way that it tells a story that would interest the media and in turn, your target audience. The headline of your release should be able to grab attention. A reporter covering your industry would get umpteen press releases everyday from various companies. To grab attention, you need to first craft a catchy headline. Then, a compelling story about what you have to offer with enough research and information, with fair comparisons drawn will help the journalist craft your story better.

However, when you write a press release, start with the headline first. This will help you get a single minded focus for the piece of communication. Do not try and tell many stories about your company in one release. A press release should be focused on just one message. You can find various sources on the internet that will offer you sample press releases to help you write your own release. However, if you would like an expert to write your press release, mail me at rahul@highergroundblog.com.

In my next entry, I shall talk about how you can reach out to your target audience with your press release.

Get Started

Lets get started on working out a PR strategy for your company. There are six steps to an effective public relations strategy. These steps will help you evaluate your needs, goals, how you want to be perceived and what are the various communication tactics suitable to get your message across.

Step ONE
Conduct a situation analysis - look at what competitors are doing, and the resources you have.
Step TWO
Set objectives - these need to be sustainable, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed
Step THREE
Identify target audience(s) - who are you trying to communicate with?
Step FOUR
Define key messages - what do you want to say? Determine a strategy - what is the overall approach going to be?
Step FIVE
Choose tactics - what methods of communication are you going to use and fix timelines after identifying priorities. For example: guest columns, newsletters, feature story, presentations, community initiatives, sponsorship, etc.
Step SIX
Carry out an evaluation - your objectives must be properly evaluated, which will enable the programme to be refined accordingly. Do this by making a monthly media report on your company's coverage against your competition.