Media briefings… some useful notes for communicators

Communication professionals in any organization constantly have to face the media, on a litany of ongoing issues. They could be at any level – be it the Corp Comm executive, right upto the CEO. Media briefings are regular pressers are just a couple of communication tools that have yet retained the charm, despite the arrival of a barrage of social media tools, which are at the disposal of any right thinking public relations professional.

If one looks around, its it such media briefings and pressers that communication professional are at the risk of exposing themselves and in turn make their organizations image vulnerable – not by mistakes in facts, but by failing to address questions in the right manner.

More so, in times when crisis hits at the heart of an organizations PR armor. Under pressure, its very natural that the communications professional however well equipped, reacts to the situation, as the media event goes astray by the volley questions lobbed in by the media. Faced with this barrage, even the best communicators wilt under pressure, reacting with their emotion laden language – all leading to a perfect recipe for an ‘image disaster’.

Yet, such situations can be better handled, more deftly, and to the complete ‘image advantage’ of their organization.

·        Lay down ground rules – At the beginning of the presser, make sure you lay the ground rules – state it  in clear terms that the intent of the briefing is to address such and such specific issue, and any question shall be around that issue only. Any query that does not pertain to the issue on hand would be taken to be answered later.

·        Better, begin with a written statement – The simple step of circulating a well written media note, detailing the views and facts on the topic would serve well as a pre-cursor in setting the agenda for the right kind of questions. Make sure the facts that need to be taken to the media are mentioned with utmost clarity, and mention that questions can be around the statement. By making such a statement, you also possibly tend to take the steam away for any digressions that are planned by some members of the media fraternity.

·        Plan for complementary statements – You have in hand a written statement; but if there are some questions that can be responded to with more facts, it would be a great idea to respond verbally, and also tell the media that these responses will be typed and circulated at the end of the presser. This can be easily done with the help of the communications team; and not just that, a complementary press note at the end of the press conference is a great way to re-iterate fact, highlight your responses, and way to ensure there are no map – territory distortions at the end of the day.

·        Maintain a friendly and cool demeanor – this may sound way too basic, yet a whole lot of media face offs go astray only for this precise reason. One provocative question, and the communicator loses his cool, making a completely unintended gesture or remark – and however the presser be well armed with facts, this one spar hijacks the image of the organization. The best way to handle any unfriendly question is just a broad smile, or stating can we take it later, or I would come to back to you as soon as I can provide this information. And if the media persists with the same uncomfortable question, the communicator must persist with the positive demeanor, a simple smile, and the planned response – one of the three above. With this, in a matter of few minutes, the questions will move on.

·        Avoid a “we know all” trap – Its often suggested that communication professional while addressing the media, must know all – yes, you must  be armed with a whole lot of facts on a situation. However, that is so different from displaying or exhibiting a know all demeanor in front of the media. That demeanor, mostly leads to a tinge of arrogance, and arrogance is the last thing you need in your PR weaponry. And it is such arrogance that tends to color the most accurate facts with the yellow of distortion. So, it is in your interest and organisation’s interest that you always maintain “I don’t have all the answers, but will endeavor to get them soon” demeanor right through. In fact make it a SOP for your media interactions, and the benefits are immense.

These 5 simple practices will serve to better your image management in a big way. They may sound simple, yet it is these that most of us as communicators or PR professional fail to inculcate in our PR armor, and also educate our spokesperson.

Where's your communication war-room?

Having a war-room for PR is a good to-do!

None of us want a crisis to strike us or our organization… but that is an ideal scenario! Many time, a crisis strikes out of the blue, making the core management team of the organization run for cover! Not just that – when a crisis hits, there is chaos all over, that adding to the already vitiated organization eco-system.

The organization eco-system includes all the stakeholders – the organization and its product and services, the market place, the positioning vis a vis competition, the employee, the financial institutions that have invested in the company, the stock market, and every single public shareholder…. The list is partial, and will depend on the size and scale of the organization.

While the occurrence of the crisis per se, cannot be predicted, the response to such a situation can be planned in advance – and this is what we call a war-room for crisis management. This war-room (primarily comprising of your internal communications pro’s) is ever prepared, and swings into action when there is a crisis – if at all there is one.

This war room will/must have people drawn from the top leadership of the organization (sales, marketing, finance, HR and so on) who will work in tandem with   the core communications professionals and will caliberate the response for any crisis.

The crisis team (the war-room) will be well prepared with all the facts pertaining to the product, service, people, infrastructure, the dynamics of the various markets it which they are present, the relevant information of the prime-competitors etc.

Apart from the communications teams which is well trained to interact and speak appropriately to the media, key resources in the organization are identified time and again (once a year minimum), and they are imparted with the communication finesse in handling all kinds of media queries, when the situation warrants.

A mechanism is put in place is such a way that once any event (crisis) occurs, all the key stake holders in the war-room are connected seamlessly and appraised of the events, the facts, the implications, and the consequences plus the actions that will e taken y the organization in the aftermath of such a situation. 

This fact brief to the core team – irrespective of where and when  the crisis occurs –  must all be done in 30 to 60 minutes. And post that the team hits the road in tackling the PR front with ease.

While it is the responsibility of the leadership of the organization to calibrate the response to any crisis, the ability to get the message across, in the best way, to all the internal and external stake holders is the key winner in the long term.

That happens seamlessly only if there is a war-room mechanism in place at your organization. With media staying connected 24/7/365, carrying out their social responsibility of disseminating information as it occurs, it is only a crisis war room that can save the day for your organization.

Not just that, your war room will actually impact your long terms interests in a positive way!

So, does your organization have a communication war-room?!

Is your PR, crisis prepared??

A crisis is the best time to communicate more!

For some reason, the word ‘crisis’ is associated with ‘panic’, and most of today’s organizations tend to immediately get pushed into a panic mode at the distant sight of a crisis. What then happens when there is a real crisis on hand, is anyone’s guess.

There are examples all over of how even the communication savvy leadership/PR team of an organization, gifted with a fair amount of media leverage, gets into a shell and resorts to denial mode when it’s time to speak and write more information, to be virally sent out to every media outlet possible.

The cardinal rule in handling PR in times of a crisis is to get immediately speaking and sending our fact statements to the entire gamut of media houses – including web2.0 and social platforms. The singular intent once the information/details of the crisis is handed out is to deliberately invite media conversations, with the intent of giving more and more details possible.

Never give a remote sense that your organization is shying away from the media – even when the crisis in not your own making, when you shy away, the immediate conclusion is that the organization wants to hide facts.

While there can be well documented papers (by your PR agency or internal communications team) of how to respond when there is a crisis, it’s easy to manage a crisis when some basics are in place.

Just see if these things are in place in your organization, anytime rather always…

-         a designated spokesperson, who will instantly be updated on any crisis that may have hit – he is the points man for all information to be given – facts, details, images, live feed and whatever.

-         Handpicked communication team that swings into action – gets into an auto pilot mode in any mishap – which is connected and networked 24/7/365 to take the crisis PR initiatives. Stay abreast all through the crisis life cycle, and ceaselessly and tirelessly handles all queries from every corner of the globe.

-         a communication mechanism (call it a protocol) which communicates to all the key decision makers and every internal stakeholder in the organization the details and occurrences of any crisis that may have hit, how the consequences will be managed, how internal/external stakeholder interests will be protected, what are the cost consequences and the impact on the organizations’ fiscals et al.

-         a standard template that captures all the finer details of any mishap that may occur, roll it out into the form of a media release, so that the same can be handed to the media fraternity  and follow up questions taken.

-         a mechanism that ensure that all the state authorities are informed of the mishap in the shortest possible time, with as much details as gather-able in the least lead time.

-         a media room which gets activated when such an event happens, where all the journalistic fraternity can report from, with all information fed to them officially, live wire.

These may sound baby steps – yet, in the crisis management plan, many  times its lack of this basic preparedness that brings in misery to the organization, than the actual crisis itself.

Make sure your organization is set ready in the first steps of managing crises.

As the old adage, being well prepared is half the battle won.

That’s true in managing a crisis too.

How about a twinterview today?

Are you ready for a 'twinterview' today?

A good PR pro constantly looks around to beef up his communication armor with the right kind of tools. There are so many of them, and with the advent of the 24/7 barrage of information powered by social media, you have a new kind of ammunition that is kindling the imagination of communication professionals.

Yes, welcome to the world of “twinterviews”.

If you are consulting a client for their PR strategy, it is high time you suggested twinterviews to them; and same to your friends in the media fraternity.

Twinterviews, as the name suggest are twitter + interviews – so brevity and factual accuracy is at the core of them.  As compared to some of the other tools in our communication armor, the time and energies that need to be invested in doing twinterviews is the least.

In the media world-over, twinterviews are catching up fast as a powerful tool – that help organizations and their spokesperson to state powerfully points regarding any issue – it could be a product launch, a employee engagement issue, a shareholder issue or even a crisis that is just sprouting up for the organistion.

The biggest advantage of a twinterview is that the Q & A format can be shared in advance, and the response, loaded with accurate facts, be scripted to fit in the power of brevity – in 140 characters that is. Once this is done, the interview (twinterview) can be run at the most opportune media time – depending on the trends, and the availability of the target ‘resources’ on the time line. As it is with any other tweeting event, the chances of re-run, and emphasize what is needed (RT) etc as available options for the communicators.

Taking twinterviews to the next level, interaction with a group of journos across the globe, by a targeted announcement, can also lead to a twit-conference.

So, are you ready to add ‘twinterviews’ to your communication armor?

How about a twinterview today?