Do You Care What People are Saying? If You’re Running a Business You Should!

Each day new clients come to me and ask, "Why should I care about what a newspaper in another country is saying about my business?"  This question has two major factors in it.  First its your company's reputation and if you don't care about that, you should really evaluate why you are in business.  Second, no matter what country or what media outlet is writing about you the whole world can see it.  As technology keeps advancing and the communication barriers between countries fade, your reputation can be enhanced or completely ruined in a matter of a few key strokes.  Companies need to invest time, energy, and funding into reputation management.

Over the next few blogs we will take a look at the top five key factors in reputation management.  First we will look at media monitoring and analysis. 

Media Analysis provides your company with comprehensive, real time (daily, weekly or monthly) analysis of all media coverage. The analysis details the reach and frequency of your earned media coverage and goes well beyond to give you diagnostic data on what messages are working and why.  You need to quantify all your coverage in terms of:

• Tonality - the degree of positive, negative and neutral coverage
• Brand Messages - the quantity of exposure of your key brand messages in the marketplace
• Brand Counter Messages - the quantity of messages that are counter to your brand positioning in the marketplace
• Brand Attributes - quantifying the set of attributes that are associated with your brand, both desirable and undesirable
• Competitor coverage - the quantity, tonality and brand quality of your key competitors’ coverage

Media Analysis provides you with real time diagnostic information on the impressions that are being made with your corporation, brand or products. This allows you to be proactive and design communications strategies to capitalize on the messaging that is having the strongest effect on your brand and to actively change impressions of coverage that may be damaging your brand.

You need to find a group that delivers easy to understand graphic summary format (even if you have millions of impressions being formed in the marketplace) so you don’t have to weed through thousands of clippings and try to discern the patterns buried in those reports. Media Analysis does the legwork, quantifies the data and delivers the insight to allow you to make smart, real-time strategic decisions on the critical messages that need to be communicated to the marketplace. 

There are several good groups out there that can provide such information.  But the key to working with these groups is to have a project manager trained in Media Anaylsis to lead this effort.  We team with Critical Mention and VOCUS PR.  Our clients have found that this trifeccta  of project mangement, research and real-time data has been extremely effective as they craft thier messages and brand.

If you're interested in learning more please give us a call or respond to this blog.  Our next blog will feature Step Two in reputation management.  We look forward to sharing the information with you.

How to Safeguard Your Image in a Wiki-World

In the online world, safeguarding your corporate brand can be a very tricky issue.  It is so easy for an unscrupulous element to launch a campaign online to defame your company or its products via social networking sites or his own blog. It is so easy to spread information online. Moreover, you will find very little time to respond to such online threats and comments.  Just as you would protect your home from harm by installing a security system, you need to treat your brand/image the same way by installing a "Brand" reputation monitoring system.

To get into Brand Reputation Monitoring you need to launch  your organization’s blog on which information related to your company can be posted. New product launches, likely launches, vital company’s decisions, news such as appointments, promotions etc. can be informed to your customers through the blog. Customers need to feel that they are given personal care. They should also be given the opportunity to comment on your blog posts. This way you can feel the pulse of your customers, potential customers, and clients. It is very important for you to maintain a healthy relationship with your customer and alike before in the online market your competitors are separated from you by a few clicks.

Another way of managing your brand reputation is active participation in social networking sites. In fact, you can subtly use these sites as a platform for advertising your products, marketing your brand, and expand your customer base. You can exploit this opportunity to your advantage. Since you are now open to the online community, you can showcase your products to them and also let them give opinions and feedbacks which can be of help to you. It is research simplified. The best part is these sites give you a platform to build up a good rapport with your customers.

Get in the game, be a part of the conversation and take control of what is being said about your company.

Media Tip #4 Bridging to Your Point

We've already established the need for key messages.  Usually three key messages will work best but having a fourth in your arsenal as a back up is a good plan.  So what happens if the reporter takes a turn and gets you off message. Suddenly you find yourself talking about your dinner plans or world peace instead of your key messages.  How do you get them back to your key messages without upsetting the interview.

One of the most effective techniques that interviewees can use to help retain control of an interview is called "bridging." Verbal bridges allow an interviewee:

• To steer a reporter back to relevant topics and key messages if he or she loses focus or seems off on an unimportant tangent
• To move away from controversial, uncomfortable or unflattering topics and back on to key messages
• To end every answer to every question with a prepared, strategic message

Bridging Techniques

Here are some techniques that have proven to be very useful.  When used appropriately, the following "bridges" can serve as effective tools of verbal control and defense:

• What's most important is
• The real issue here is
• That's not my area of expertise, but I think your audience would be interested in knowing that
• Let me just add that
• That reminds me
• Let me answer you by saying that
• That's an important point because
• What that means is
• Another thing to remember is
• If you look at it closely, you'll find

If you always keep your mind on your key messages, these tips can be like a trail of bread crumbs leading you back to your key thoughts and control of the interview.

Media Training Tip #3 -Watch Your Body Language.

Even in positive interview situations, interviewees sometimes look tense or stiff, which can have a big impact on credibility. Before on-camera interviews, if there is time, do some exercises or walk around to relax your body.  Even if you are not going on camera, if you find yourself behind a radio microphone, the key is to take control of your body language and relax.

Messaging Work is Key to New Business Start Up

Its critical to conduct a messaging workshop prior to announcing your company. A messaging workshop is designed to provide the key messages, key descriptors, methods of utilizing the key phrasing to increase awareness and provide a platform for all marketing materials for your organization.

If you want to:

Make clients feel more confident and purchase your product or service Ensure your staff is clear on what your organization is striving for? Garner more partners to drive more sales? Capture influencers to recommend your show to others?

You can achieve all these outcomes if your communications are clear and concise and are tied to a consistent, credible theme. A messaging workshop can help you uncover and develop powerful messages that explain in compelling language what you do and what you stand for. A good workshop will develop coherent, effective messages.

What is a "message" and why do I need one?

Effective words help crystallize thought and opinion about your organization. The words and phrases you use in media releases, media interviews, marketing materials, web sites and sales pitches should all be based on your key messages. Key messages should be tied to the overall business strategy and support activities by marketers, salespeople and your leadership team. These messages aren't advertising taglines. They are bite-sized summations of more complex brand and product essence.

Taking the time to develop strong company messages will increase your profitability and assist your public relations efforts. Your messages should resonate throught all your marketing materials. You need to have a clear, concise and captivating message.

Media Training Tip #2 “Off the Record…I think Not!”

Nothing is 100% off the record. Once notes are made, editors, publishers and yes even lawyers can look at them. This goes for all appearances, not just interviews. Whatever you say — anywhere — can follow you around endlessly and perhaps disastrously. If you don't know the answer to a question, say so. Then later on, be certain to get back to the reporter with an answer.

The best example I can share is when a former CEO I worked with thought he had a great friendship with a local beat reporter.  The two of them had know each other for years.  In the area this particular reporter has a reputation as a hard-hitting ,deep-digging reporter.  This CEO felt as though he could control the reporter by saying things he should not have said but prefacing them with, "Well Matt this is strictly off  the record".  The next morning the headline that ran cost the company not only sales but community support.   Did Matt quote the CEO with "Off the Record" material...NO. BUT that information was weaved into the story so much that when the headline copy editor read the story he actually pulled out the "Off the Record" deatails and unknowingly formed the lead headline.  Yep main headline front page and above the fold, not to mention in blogs, across internet sites and yes even in the email in boxes to the CEO's board of trustees....OUCH!

The very sad part of that case study proved to be that the CEO did not learn his lesson. He continues to this day to spout off to the media with no prior planning or forming of message.  He's even removed his PR staff completely.

Lesson to this story be responsible for your words.  Even if the report tries to sway you into talking "Off the Record" stand your ground.  Think of what tomorrow's headline might say...

Media Training Tip #1 Never “Wing It”

Media Training a -Must Do-

Media training is a 'must do' professional development program for any serious leader or manager.

Media interview training provides you with the skills to effectively deal with the media.

Media relations training, with a specific focus on media presentation training for television can be seriously nerve wracking for first timers.

Here's why you should consider doing a media training course and some essential tips from our media skill training courses.

If you go to the archives of any commercial television station and pull out footage from a news bulletin from the 1960s and view that footage with a stopwatch, you will find the average length of the quote (known as a sound bite or news grab) from the person being interviewed for the story is around 60 seconds.

If you watch commercial television tonight with your stopwatch at the ready, and measure each sound bite or news grab, the average length will be seven seconds.

This is why its being called McNuggett News! Its quick, slick, fast and tasty, but not very satisfying.

There are three reasons for this shortening of length.

1. Increased competition for our ever diminishing attention spans,

2. Increased choice, noise and clutter in our lives, and

3. The merging of information and entertainment dressed up as news.

So how do you get your message across about a complex, detailed issue through the media in seven seconds?

Well, you need to work out your key message and deliver it flawlessly as a media friendly quotable quote.

Remember, you have only one chance to get it right. The professional TV news crews I work with are constantly telling me about people who ring them after the interview and say "can you come back, I forgot to say this and that?"

Of course, the media are so time poor and deadline driven they never come back.

So you only have one opportunity to maximise your media moment.

How do you do this, especially for TV? Keep reading this blog for daily feature media training tips.  Or give Sahl Communications a call and book a full media training session.