Wednesday, March 9, 2011

When the flying monkeys attack

One of my favorite t-shirts says "it's all fun and games until the flying monkeys attack" -- amazing the wisdom contained on a Hanes 50/50.
No one anticipates flying monkeys and odds are they aren't going to hit your business, but if they (or one of  a million other challenges you normally would not consider) strike it's going to be a whole lot easier on everyone -- employees, stakeholders, media and your bottom line -- if a crisis communication plan is in place.
While I have gotten the call saying "a reporter is in our conference room right now" and there are still things that can be done at that point --  it's cheaper, more effective and much less painful to have a simple plan in place in advance.
Most flying monkeys arrive without any malfeasance whatsoever on the part of the business. Accidents are more likely than indictments. Either way, few people arrive at work expecting that today will be a "monkey" day.
 A crisis plan delineates clearly who is responsible for gathering information and how it will be communicated internally and externally. Depending on the complexity of your enterprise, it can be as simple as a few simple pages of instruction updated annually or as complex as a detailed binder detailing dozens of specific internal roles and tasks, templates and instructions.
Either way, precious time is lost when homework hasn't been prepared in advance. Rumors, lies and innuendo will always fill a void left open by lack of adequate information. Alternately, in a complex situation well-meaning employees and even corporate officers will often speak to media and others giving as fact what is a small or distorted piece of the entire situation.
Study after study shows that people tend to believe and recall what they hear first, regardless of subsequent corrections or amendments. In cases of significant property damage or the threat of personal injury it is natural to respond to those needs first, yet too often the reputation threat can have more devastating, long-term impact if not addressed directly and correctly.
No media practioner wants to be spoonfed pablum by a spinmeister, but most appreciate getting the facts quickly and in an organized fashion.
Tools now include instant websites, social media, and text messaging allowing direct, unfiltered information to virtually any audience selected. A good communications plan will address how to activiate these tools best.
The process of preparing a plan is generally simple -- a few meetings with key personnel, team review of a draft plan and the presentation of a final plan. I work with clients both who wish to use their own internal resources to execute the plan as necessary or wish to reserve the option to call me to assist the team. Either way it's a small investment of resources in contrast to the incalcuable damage possible when flying monkeys attack.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

The untold truth about press releases

I often get calls from potential new clients asking if I can write a press release for them. While I enjoy paying my bills as much as the next guy, many times I ask a few questions and tell them I can't do it.
Having spent many years on the receiving end of press releases, I am often astounded by what clients think a press release should accomplish.
I once had an attorney agonize for days over what turned out to be a five- page release because he assumed that based on his particular expertise the paper would print it verbatim.  I tried to convince him to boil it down to a 400 word commentary for editorial page consideration to no good result. He was astounded and insulted when I told him that if we were lucky we would get one quote in a larger wrap-up story on the issue. In spite of his actual brilliance on the subject matter, the resulting release was so opaque, we didn't even get that one quote. His response to the missed opportunity? "But I thought they needed good stories so they wouldn't have to use all that out-of-town news."
News is in the eye of the beholder. When you present a press release for consideration you are the beholden.
Here are a few realities even your favorite journalist may not tell you:
1) There is still nothing more important than the Big 5.
If your release does not include the who, what, when, where and why, the overworked person reading it  is going to have to make a call.  Unless you are announcing a major event or activity of great importance to the larger community , it is just as easy to go to the next release on the stack that has the necessary information. Have respect for the person going through the press release mountain and put the key information up high in the release.
2) Fluff was delicious with peanut butter when you were a kid -- it has no place in press releases.
Maybe not everyone recalls or loved that gooey marshmallow product, but it is about as relevant to nutrition as puffed-up claims and elaborate adjective strings are to press releases. Statements have to be factual, opinions must be attributed to someone in quotation form. Don't make comparative or competitive claims unless you can back them up with objective, third-party data.
3) Respect their time, know their rules
Editors and producers have the daily task of sorting through reams of emails, faxes and phone calls to keep feeding the beast. Even traditional media now have 24-hour Internet news cycles giving them much more work than ever before with the smallest staffs and tightest budgets in modern times. Know their deadlines and whether they prefer fax, mail or email. Call only once to confirm they got the release. Do not call to complain if it wasn't used.
If you are seeking coverage of anything less than a joint press conference of Charlie Sheen, Lady Gaga and Nelson Mandella -- give media a few days notice for their planning purposes. If you want to comment on something that happened that day-- the information has to be in their hands within that news cycle. You are not doing them a favor, you are asking for their help.
4) This isn't pasta
The idea of throwing it against the wall to see if something sticks works only in the kitchen. There has to be a reason for a greater audience to care about your release. Every person who has ever worked a news desk can tell you horror stories about  the chronic releasers who make their bosses/clients happy by apparently getting paid by page and word volume. They would all  do well to read a copy of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."
Don't send separate copies to everyone in the same news organization. An assignment editor/producer and the regular beat reporter are enough, unless there is a reporter who has a longstanding relationship with the company/ client. If that's the case, they should get a personal heads up that the release is coming.
5) Sometimes a release should go directly to in-house channels
Corporate websites are full of online newsrooms with glittering, detailed releases full of promotional information.  That is an excellent use of such copy. It works because information that is interesting to involved readers who brought themselves to the website is not necessarily interesting to the general public. I have often sent such releases to primary beat reporters with a cover note saying that the copy is strictly for their information as it will be posted on the website. I've yet to have one make a story out of it anyway, but I have had several thank me for acknowledging what I gave them was not news.
6) Sometimes there should be no release at all
Some issues are best addressed with simple statements, fact sheets, one-on-one interviews or direct media like advertising , websites or social media. In all professional communications the first questions have to be:
--who is the audience?
-- what do you want to tell them? 
With those facts in hand, the best path should be clear. There's a special place in heaven for those who spare hardworking journalists the blight of bad releases.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

All the news that's fit to...

I won't tell you where I was sitting when I wirelessly sent a coupon to my printer from my iPad, but that instant took me directly to 1998 and a pair of suits in a crowded Houston Chronicle elevator.  They entered the car talking about a meeting on the newspaper's website.
"We're in the news business not the video game business," said the shorter one.
The other one was young enough to know better, but stated with supreme confidence that "the internet will replace newspapers the day you can read it on the can and clip coupons."
I was among those who nodded my head in ignorant assent. We were the candlemakers in a world about to go incadescent.
I grew up with the morning paper at breakfast and the evening paper at dinner. Leaving home meant I could have any section I wanted any time I wanted. Working for daily newspapers meant I could have the very first editions still warm from the press.  I was of the Woodward and Bernstein J-School generation who fought ferociously for the one job in the field available for every 14 absurdly idealistic graduates.
The pay was as ridiculous as the hours, but like most of my colleagues I was grateful for every minute. We were the gatekeepers, the arbiters, the message makers.  We fought each other daily for a share of the coveted news hole. They only thing better than a byline was the snowball effect a good story could create. The copy desk was the battleground for hundreds of stories and pitches that would result in the dozens of stories that ran each day. Successor media - newsmagazines, radio,  and television -- worked on the same scale and principle.
Many people worked to provide the best possible product which was paid for by the advertiser who wanted their messages with that product--  because it delivered captive and engaged readers/viewers/listeners to what they had to sell.
When I started in newspaper in 1980,  the editorial and advertising staffs were forbidden from each others' floors in the building. We were as likely to sit together in the caferteria as the cheerleaders and the chess club.
But, as you have likely heard,  that internet thing caught on and with it came new digital delivery systems in publishing, television, radio, music, newsgathering and even how singles date and mate.
The concept of trained and highly competitive people deciding what you wanted to know was immediately challenged by the ability of anyone to post anything and for you to find what you want when you want it.
Knocking out most of that obstruction also removed much of the fact-checking and fairness that was previously at the core of the process. Anything can go anywhere on the internet instantly and live there for perpetuity. The line between news/entertainment/advertising is worn thin when it exists at all.
Opportunity today exists not in discarding traditional media or exclusively embracing the expanding digital horizon. It is essential for anyone with a message that needs to be shared to know their audience -- who they are and where they are --- and deliver the message on their terms.
Print/broadcast held the hill for a long time before the digitial revolution exploded. In this third phase, Reputation 3.0,  the medium is not nearly as important as the message/ audience couplet. P.T. Barnum had it half right when he said to give the people what they want -- it's just as important to deliver it where they want it.