- 02 Apr 2017
- 0 comment
- Posted by entrepr
- Talking to the Media
Yep, it really does happen. There are times when, despite what the ignorant say about all PR being good PR, it can much, MUCH better to keep your name, and your business reputation out of a story. How do you identify these? How do you evaluate the risk involved in commenting on a story? How do you assess a situation and try to contain it before it hits mainstream media?
We regularly keep client’s names out of stories for various types of stories but the all to often reason why, is that it doesn’t benefit them now or in the future.
So if an opportunity to comment comes along to you, and your PR warning bell bings – assess it with these questions:
- Does it give me a platform to highlight MY key messages?
- Will it drive traffic to my website to stimulate demand in my product or services?
- If a future client does an online search and comes across the story, how will it look? Will it look professional and engaging or will it leave a negative taste in their mouth?
It can be really hard to say no to a persistent or keen journalist – put yourself in their position that they are likely on a tight deadline looking for a source to comment ASAP. They will try to be convincing and that’s ok – that’s their job.
If you decide to comment, or you feel like you have no choice but to comment, for example, the journalist is going to run the story anyway and you’d prefer to have your said stated, it’s time to create some very carefully considered comments.
Submitting even some basic comments can keep a journalist contact onside, remember you are probably helping them on deadline. We will often draft comments that repeat the question, while providing an incredibly vanilla answer. If truth is absolutely on your side, you can also consider submitting dot point truths to kill the story, for example if a journalist is asking you about a customer complaint, you can categorically outline your attempts to remedy the situation should you be totally confident that you have followed your company policies and legal duties. So a client whinges that they have repeatedly lodged maintenance requests with your warranty department and the situation hasn’t been fixed or escalated. They complain that you haven’t communicated with them to the local paper. That’s what the journalist is told by the client.
The truth is that you received the first complaint on x date, you sent an assessor on x date (showcasing your timely response, ideally). The assessor found that the damage was a result of maintenance negligence. You sent an independent assessor to confirm the report. Report confirmed on x date. You advised the client of the outcome on x date.
You could also consider submitting some key message quotes about your industry leading/best practice warranty program but in all likelihood, the journalist will take your dot points, run them by the client and the story will be killed – alas, never appearing in the media.
It can be really stressful to turn these types of comments around – you have to think about how everyone involved will read and interpret the comments, from the journalist, to the actual client who complained, to the audience reading it if it does make it to print. You want to be positioning yourself as fair, honest and accountable.
