Ah, the news media.

So much to say, depending on the perspective. You and your company may view it as an animal, dying in a trap ready to lash out at anything that approaches it. Others may see a massive leverage point that can quickly get the word on the street about your company or product.

Much depends on context of course, and whether your company’s interaction with the leviathan is a proactive pitch or in the midst of a crisis, the better you prepare for the moment the better off you’ll be when phones start ringing.

Lots of businesses get really uneasy when speaking to the media, so one easy solution is not to speak to them at all. This is often an adept strategy (again, depending on context), but it completely eliminates the opportunity to pivot and control the message about your business.

We’ll address the art of the pitch and strategic targeting in later posts, but suffice it say that reporters and producers are generally overworked and underpaid, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.

Thus, the easier you make their job, the better and more clearly your company’s message will shine through. You’ve got to give the people what they need. So how do act on this revelation?

For starters, create a press room.

It’ll go on your web page and stay there for the world to see, and should include (but not be limited to) -

Press Kit including visual assets (logo, photos, etc.), company boiler plate, logo with tag line.
Company backgrounder or bio.
Contact information (make it easy to contact somebody at your company).
Recent press coverage.
Recent releases and public statements.
Social contact information (twitter feeds, Facebook address, flickr page).
A great example of all of this info in one place is twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s new project Square. Check out their “About” page here.

Not surprisingly, it does the social job quite well, while advance positioning the product in the marketplace as the only go-to solution for its credit card payment product.

So, how do I get this press room together, you ask?

Get your principles together around a big, white, dry-erase board, give them strong coffee, and start spit-balling. What is your brand? What is your message? If you had twenty syllables in print in the New York Times or The Economist with quotes around them and your CEO’s name behind, what would you want those syllables to say?

If you already have this messaging at the ready, great. If you don’t, you’ll want to hone your language into conversational, repeatable, saying-the-same-thing-five-different-ways & saying-much-while-saying-nothing-at-all, bullet proof, glorious rhetoric.

Gather it. Present it in different formats - quotes in press releases, boiler plate, leadership memos, talking points, even write them into the FAQ on your website. The key ingredient is to repeat, repeat, repeat.

Remember, this will be public facing, so pair down language to be as succinct and direct as possible to close the door on subjective interpretations. If you’re looking for strong examples, their recent security breach notwithstanding, check out Apple’s press room. They do a remarkable job. They’re also really good at firing out a standard but seemingly personal, “Regrettably, it is not Apple’s practice to comment on ___ procedures.”

I’ve actually been on the receiving end of such correspondence through my work with JUFTi Games’ press campaign to lift a ban on one of their games in Canada. We used the press room to gain credibility then put pressure on Stephen Harper and the Canadian Government after getting official “no comments” from their office and Apple’s.

The resulting article in the Wall Street Journal turned some heads, and the ban on the word Cornhole (it was presented as C******e in the Canadian App Store, effectively killing Cornhole All-Stars search-ability), was miraculously lifted.

Success.

So, would the Wall Street Journal and the Canadian Government have been responsive without a professional looking press room? It’s hard to be certain, but their first step was likely to search us, and the appearance of a media-savvy operation likely gave them a bit of pause.

What does your press room look like?

me
Pronunciation: \ˈmē\

1: I work with businesses and organizations to help shape their presence in the social sphere by using a number of different media.
2: I do other things too - traveling, food & wine, music, art - but I aim to create more than I consume.

From copy writing for public relations interests and branding entities to riding-herd on 1,000 head of bison I have garnered a broad background and a unique perspective in my work. I have contributed to the success of diverse branding initiatives, social brand exposure, publicity in the digital realm, web messaging and content, political events, customer loyalty campaigns, fundraising for arts organizations, retail campaigns, and manufacturing companies.

http://www.BobGrevey.com