Image via Wikipedia

There’s a great back story to the news coverage I secured this week in the Chicago Sun Times. When I pitched a story idea to columnist Neil Steinberg about the Half-Cap ceremonies held by the Chicago Public School to honor sophomores for making it half way to graduation, he said he was ‘shocked.’ Why honor sophomores for doing what is expected of them — finishing their first two years of school? He called the idea ludicrous and said he’d write a critical piece.

I kicked my self for reaching out to this journalist, but willingly followed through with my offer of an interview of my client, Lloyd Bachrach, the keynote speaker at Half-Cap ceremonies at Fenger and Robeson High Schools.

“Great,” I said to myself, “He wants to talk to my client, and bash him and the school system.” I expected Steinberg to excoriate the program as a waste of precious time and resources.

Steinberg said he’d understand if Lloyd backed out of the interview, but I didn’t recommend that to Lloyd. I offered the interview, I believed it was a great story, so I proceeded with planning Steinberg’s interview with my client.

I could only hope that he would be fair and temper his criticism. I considered the negative questions that might be asked and prepared Lloyd as best I could for Steinberg’s potential cynicism. While Lloyd wasn’t looking forward to the reporter’s call, he also worried about the outcome. He has a great relationship with Chicago Public Schools, and didn’t want to spoil that with a potentially negative story that his PR consultant had arranged.

For a week I checked the paper looking for the story, hoping that Steinberg would just abandon it. His column appeared while I was in London giving media training and social media workshops for a client. I was thrilled at the results! By giving Steinberg full access to the information about this program, we completely turned around his point of view. His negative preconceived notions turned into a positive, powerful story with a message.

I think it’s a wonderful PR case study about:

1. The value in sticking to your beliefs in a good story when a leading journalist criticizes it.

2. Why you must still agree to a client interview, despite the reporter’s negative reaction.

3. Giving access to all facts, sources and potential angles is important, especially when the reporter’s approach is critical.

4. Preparing your client for the worst allows for an interview that is devoid of emotion, civil and leads to a greater level of knowledge and undertstanding.

I couldn’t be more pleased over the results and all the hard work that went into helping Lloyd get a positive mention in this column and putting the public school half-cap ceremony in a positive light. What would you have done differently? Any other advice you’d like to share, or have you had a similar experience with a journalist? Leave me a comment, OK?

You finally nailed it – a local TV reporter you’ve been calling and emailing for weeks wants to interview you for the business, community or social issue that you’ve been promoting. Excited, you call your friends to alert them about your upcoming TV news appearance. Now what?

That’s the question I posed to my friend Kathy, who was thrilled about her upcoming WGN-TV interview about her community’s opposition to a giant new sports complex.

Landing the big interview to generate awareness for her cause was a great reward for her media outreach efforts. She quickly recognized though that the prize – accurate reporting of her position – only comes with preparation.

Looking at a reporter, talking to into a microphone, searching for a profound  comment while a video camera rolls is not a skill most of us possess. As my colleague Neil Parker advises his clients “An interview is no time for original thought.” Your comments and how you present them should be prepared and practiced far in advance!

These tried and true steps will arm you with the confidence you’ll need to turn that interview into and all your PR efforts into positive coverage. These apply to practically any media interview, whether you’re speaking on behalf of a community group, business, government or nonprofit organization:

Agree on a spokesperson

For businesses, governments or nonprofits, that’s an easy one. It’s usually the top executive. But if you’re a community group with many volunteers at work, you’ll need to agree in advance on who’s doing the interview. The stark reality is that it should be one person (or two at most) who will do the interview. If there are two of you, agree in advance who will discuss which topics, so you don’t repeat your key messages.

Turn your messages into sound bites

Since the news report is likely limited to two or three minutes, expect that just one or two of your sound bites – typically 10 to 20 seconds long– will be aired. Before the interview, jot down your key messages and shorten them. Repeat and put your messages in your own words to increase your comfort level and boost confidence.

Remember — COMFORT + CONFIDENCE = POSITIVE COVERAGE

Anticipate questions

Be prepared with answers by knowing the questions. It’s likely that as a business exec, government leader or a community activist, you’ve been asked hundreds of questions. Identify which questions are most likely to be asked. Put your topic in context of other news or trends. For example, the sports complex proposed for Kathy’s community comes as other similar facilities are failing and may require government help – a tax increase – to stay afloat. So her answers should refer to the experiences of other towns stuck with a white elephant that will require a bail out.

Practice

Rehearsing your answers is AS important as framing them. Ask a colleague to lead a mock interview. That experience will be just as weird and surreal as the real video-recorded interview, so why not get the hang of it beforehand! Practice a few times, and if you have a video camera or digital recorder, use it! Watching or hearing yourself for the first time is hard for anybody, but you’ll learn a valuable lesson and will sharpen your performance after seeing yourself in action.

Relax

Yes, you can still have nervous energy – it’s natural and provides the adrenaline rush that leads to great performances. However, the way to channel that energy into a compelling interview is by being prepared, knowing what to expect and facing your questions with confidence.

In my years in business, government and the media I’ve come to admire the great managers who’ve led my past organizations and have learned some lessons from the mediocre managers.

Now that I’m in business for myself, I have learned that you can easily measure a manager by the guidelines that just happen to neatly begin with the letter T.

Time – How well does he/she manage their time? Do they meet their deadlines, follow up in a timeline manner, act promptly on the task items before them?  Time is a constant — Everyone must follow its rules, from the lowly intern to the omnipotent CEO. If you fail to meet your time commitments or deadlines, you’ll instill doubt among those with whom you do business or at worst you’ll lose respect of everyone.

Tone – Here I mean your attitude and treatment of others. Are you following the Golden Rule? In this era of social media, helping others is the mantra – provide helpful tips to your followers and fans and they will show their gratitude with greater word of mouth and/or sales.  So ask yourself: “What’s my tone? How do I treat those around me? If you rule by intimidation, you set a horrible work environment for those around you. While a negative, pessimistic attitude will only bring your team down and diminish confidence and motivation.  What’s the tone you’ve set for your work and personal life?

Talking – Raise your hand if you’ve ever sat through a meeting trying to interject, but that one person monopolized the conversation, droning on and on and impeding anyone else’s input. There’s at least one in every group. There are those among us who repeat the same thoughts for impact, unaware that it’s a waste of everyone’s time. In your daily conversation with those you’re closest with, it might be helpful to ask others if you are one of those repeaters. I’m lucky, I have a pre-teen daughter who tells me I drive her nuts when I say the same thing over and over again! She’s taught me a lesson I apply at work: Say it once, maybe twice and others will listen. Say it again and again and they’ll tune you out.

Tasks – This is about deadlines. A real measure of how well you know yourself is how you commit to a deadline. How long will it take to get that spread sheet to the boss? After collecting research, will you really turn around that case study in one day?  As a former radio news reporter, I’ve been on deadlines since college. If I didn’t meet them, I’d leave pockets of dead air on the radio stations for which I worked. So I treat deadlines as ironclad. Whether it’s in work or life, I get this unnerved, anxiety-ridden feeling if a deadline approaches and I fear I can’t meet it (it’s healthy f for me, because it keeps me on track and I almost always meet them).  How about you? Do you respect your deadlines? Do you stick to them or not? What does that do to the relationships with your co-workers or the teams you lead?  I think failing to keep a deadline chips away at your credibility. I don’t ever want to risk that. My credibility is my name and my name is my brand. If I don’t keep those strong, I won’t have a strong business or a strong relationship with my friends, family and associates.

So, those are my Four Ts for being a tip-top manager.  After looking them over, I realize that these Four Ts apply to living a good life as well!  What about you? Do you have some others that you live by?  I would love to hear what you think. Send me comments here or at michelledamico (at) comcast.net!

Great story in the Wall Street Journal today about tools for PR folks using Twitter. Since I spoke yesterday at a Social Media for Government Conference, I thought those who could or couldn’t attend might be interested in these Twitter tools.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Social Media Case Study: Twitter Alights at RSA Conference (pr-squared.com)