Xenophon Strategies

The Rules of the Road for Good PR

Matt Meenan

It never ceases to amaze me how often people blow it when communicating with the public and media. You see it all the time – whether it’s a self-generated PR disaster (I’m looking at you, Dan Snyder), a head-smackingly bad quote in a news story or, nowadays, a Tweet that gets attention for all the wrong reasons (sorry, Kenneth Cole), communications blunders abound.

Now, look, we’re all human and people make mistakes – journalists included. Still, it seems that, all too often, the minute a reporter calls, common sense goes out the window. Some people get nervous and stonewall; others may go too far the other way and make unguarded comments that come back to hurt them. Neither outcome serves you or your organization particularly well. And, as we all know, these PR blunders can have significant and lasting consequences.

To me, this underscores the importance of media trainings. I firmly believe that attending a well-conducted media training session is one of the most important things leadership in pretty much any organization can do. It forces you and your colleagues to think about your issues and prepares you to respond competently – which, when that inevitable reporter phone call does come, is a skill worth its weight in gold.

So, with that in mind, we created “Seven Simple Rules for Managing Media.” These rules form the basis for Xenophon’s typical media training presentation and provide a simple framework to help navigate through pretty much any challenging media situation. Here they are:

• Plan Ahead
• It’s (Almost) Always Better to Engage
• Reporters are not your friend
• Reporters are not your enemy
• Be Open, Candid and Honest
• Social Media Has Changed A Lot – But Not Everything
• Take Control of the Process

During my next several blog posts, I’ll take you through these rules in detail and explain how each works together. So, follow along. That way, the next time you’re faced with a sticky communications challenge, you’ll be more than ready to respond.  

Tweet this link

« return to blog | Feb 9, 2011 | media training | public relations