By Karla Jo Helms
When dealing with journalists, you have to do your research and understand which journalist you are dealing with. There are good journalists and bad journalists, just like there are good doctors and bad doctors, good lawyers and bad lawyers, good PRs and bad PRs.
A lot of your trade magazines have incredible journalists who don't write from the angle of "bad news and controversy". When they interview an industry professional that they're writing about, they're very respectful, pretty much one for one, and like to show who they're interviewing in the best possible light.
Daily newspapers and other "news, news" type of sources are not always that way. They find the controversy in the story. They look for two forces opposing each other. They like to dig into the things that just don't jive and find out why. That's why you have to make sure you dot your I's and cross your T's when dealing with certain media outlets.
I would advise doing thorough research on the journalist to understand the journalist. What is their history? What have they written about? Do they have a particular slant in their writing? Do they pick on certain companies, certain lifestyles or certain people? You can find out a lot about a journalist just by reading their articles. You can find out what they like and don't like, and you can also find out how sound their journalism is. Are they unbiased? Do they take their time in finding out the information? Do they forward generalities, or do they actually find facts?
You must do this before you do the interview. You need to think of every question a journalist could ask your client. If they are journalists, they might dig up some dirt. Another word advice that fits in with this – make sure you work with ethical clients, and then you will never be surprised!
I have two stories from my experience in dealing with journalists.
The first is a story of not doing your homework on journalist, and not being prepared for your client. I make it a point to understand each journalist scheduled to interview my clients, but on this particular occasion, I had gotten a little cocky. I have worked with this journalist before in the past, and had developed a good relationship with him, but I had not read his recent work.
The newspaper he worked for had been attacking a particular company, only God knows why. My client had a good relationship with this company, and had connections to some of the people in it. After the interview, the reporter asked him a question off the record.
Let me interject a very important piece of information at this moment. NOTHING is off the record when you're talking with a journalist. I've even had professional journalists admit that to me. I've even seen journalists publish, "The client leaned forward and nervously whispered, ‘This is off the record, but so-and-so has been blah-de-blah.'" NEVER consider something is off the record with a journalist, even if he tells you it is. If you tell a journalist something, it's on the record.
The interview went extremely well, but at the end the journalist threw us a curve ball we didn't expect. After the last question, he said to my client, "So, off the record, what do you think of Company X?" It was such a general question, and no matter what my client said, he couldn't win. He was forced to either betray his contacts, or he was going to put his foot in his mouth (in the eyes of this particular journalist), by saying something nice about the company. It caught my client completely flat footed, and I totally didn't expect it. If I had actually done my research newly before the interview, I would have been able to detect the potential flap, and prepare my client for it.
Another word of advice - no matter your relationship with a journalist, they have a job to do - as do you. Don't ever make the mistake of thinking that your relationship with a journalist prevails over him/her doing his/her job - which is to report, not to promote your client.
You have to understand who is writing about your client, and what they are going to be writing about. In most cases, you're not going to be getting the questions before hand. But to put yourself in control of the situation, you need to do your research. You need to be prepared.
Drill your clients on any and all questions that might possibly be asked, no matter how far-fetched you think they might be.
It's like any emergency. You do fire drills, so if a fire occurs, you're prepared and know how to get out safely and securely. And if you are well drilled, there's no emergency that will happen, because you know how to prevent it.
On the other hand, I can give you an example of a time when I did do my due diligence, and the interview did go well.
Another reporter at a daily paper had called to interview one of my clients. This reporter liked to really dig up dirt on companies that were successful, quickly expanding upcoming businesses. He had it in his mind that if you were growing fast, you had to be doing something shady. As you know (but the reporter didn't), that's not necessarily true. People can be ethical, apply themselves, and follow the correct steps in life and grow rapidly and become successful. There's nothing wrong with that at all!
Before the interview, I made sure I understood exactly how this journalist wrote, and how he bent the truth (if he did). There are damned good journalists out there who get the facts, but when someone is writing in generalities, you know you're not dealing with journalism 101. You're dealing with someone who puts their own opinion before their journalistic code of ethics.
When I was preparing my client for the interview, she was a bit put off that I would actually drill her on particular questions which seemed insane a journalist would ask. But when she had her interview, sure enough, the journalist went that particular way. My client did exactly what we had practiced, and his slimy questions went nowhere.
When the article was published, my client got a glowing front page article. It was a huge victory. For days we had people who had experience being attacked by that paper calling in and giving us accolades. It was quite the accomplishment.
But the thing is, not only did my client get a great article, the journalist did too. I think that deep down inside, journalists who write really nasty stories that aren't true don't feel good about it. If you can do your best to keep them on track using your finesse and charm, and keeping good control over the situation, the journalist will actually get the rewarding sensation of a job well done.
One simple little trick I do to make sure the journalist stays on track is, I always make sure I'm either on the phone with them, or in person with them, or I ask that the interview gets recorded. Basically, you're bringing in a certain attitude that will keep them in check.
To sum things up, do your homework! Make sure you know how to handle anything that could be exposed about your client, or anything that could lead your client in the wrong direction. And deal with ethical clients, that way you don't have to worry about anything "being exposed". That way you stay in control, and you get good press!
About Karla Jo Helms:
"Public Relations is a powerful tool that can garner wide acceptance and delve into arenas that marketing cannot touch," says Karla Jo Helms, PR Strategist and Published Author. Karla Jo got her start creating and implementing PR Strategies for entrepreneurs which helped her develop a keen eye for how to hone in on the best use of PR for increasing a higher Return On Investment of one's marketing dollars. Her background in sales, business management and media relations has given her the well-rounded understanding of how to harness the power of PR to communicate to diverse groups of people...the end result being a wider sphere of influence and the invaluable commodity of goodwill garnered on a broad basis for her clients. Visit www.JoToPR.com
Tags : milwaukee circular saw 6394
0 comments:
Post a Comment