Effective Media Relations - What To Do After The Media Interviews You!
Wednesday 10 August, 2005
You've done all the hard work - prepared a media kit, engaged with a reporter and they've listened to your message and asked questions. What now?
Well, effective media relations doesn't just stop once you have been interviewed.
There are many ways to leverage your media experiences to help build your brand, reputation and image management skills.
Here are five tips on what to do after the media has interviewed you.
- Implement a professional media monitoring service
How will you know what media coverage you are getting if you don't monitor it? Professional media monitoring services look for keywords you have provided and monitor print, radio, TV, websites and now even blogs! This can often be broken down to geographical areas. I highly recommend this type of service.
Summaries are emailed through immediately with links back to the full story.
- Analyse your quotes
After the story has been run analyse which quotes the reporter has used.
For example, I spent an hour with a client and a reporter recently. The reporter used just one quote from my client in a 16 paragraph story. Analysing why just this one quote was used from a one-hour conversation can provide great insights into how reporters think and act.
- Understand what quotes or sound bite elements were used
If you understand what news grab elements your quotes contained and why they were used, you can replicate this and have greater success next time you engage with the media.
For example, the more you understand how the media works, the more you can customise your message to what they want and the greater the chance of success in your comments being used by the media.
- If you like your quotes re-use them
Good quotes are like diamonds. They are often formed under intense pressure. They are valuable, unique and when polished, cut and set can really make you shine.
If you've made the diamond and had it set, why not show it off as many times as possible.
If your quotes communicate your message well, re-use them again and again.
It is more important to communicate your message confidently, clearly and consistently than it is to be original.
- Never get angry or trash the media
If you get interviewed but not quoted, resist the temptation of trashing the newspaper, magazine or reporter and getting angry.
Instead, analyse the quotes that were used by others and try to improve your message delivery so they could have been better crafted and therefore more likely to be used.
The quickest way to improve your knowledge in this important and growing area is to learn more about how to craft messages that even the most cynical reporter will want to use.
Author Credits
Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an international business speaker, author and award-winning broadcaster. His latest book, 'Understanding Influence For Leaders At All Levels' has just been published by McGraw-Hill. 'Media Motivators' is his regular electronic magazine read by 7,000 professionals in 15 different countries. You can subscribe by visiting http://www.8mmedia.com/. Thomas can be contacted directly at +6189388 6888 and is available to speak to your conference, seminar or event. Visit Tom's blog at http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com/ for his latest insights and ideas.