Spokespersons: Don’t Limit Yourself to Just One

Multiple Representatives Offers More Opportunities to Engage Media 

Whether it’s responding to the normal day-to-day requests from the media or engaging with reporters during a crisis communications response, it’s better to have multiple spokespersons available to represent your organization.  

This is important for a few reasons. Having multiple spokespersons: 

• Provides reporters with more opportunities to interview a representative from an organization should one spokesperson be booked;  
• Allows an organization to have Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) that can offer more in-depth answers to questions; and 
• Creates more opportunities for an organization to engage in other PR activities – social media, conferences and events, internal communications, blogging and more.  

Looking at it from these two points, having one sole spokesperson can be limiting despite that person being the face of the business or the brand.  

Steve Jobs for example, was the extremely high-profile spokesperson and face of Apple for years. But most businesses, non-profits, and associations don’t need a Steve Jobs-type representative to be their face. 

Quite the opposite.  

What they needed are well-trained and/ or experienced spokespersons that can answer broad questions, as well as questions that are in the practical details.  

In times of crisis, they also needed spokespersons who could accommodate the numerous media requests coming in from journalists that are on tight deadlines.  

A company may consider having a lead spokesperson during a crisis, such as the CEO, but they should not be the only one available to provide answers or statements to journalists.  

When working with multiple spokespersons however, it’s necessary to ensure that each one is providing unified messaging and answers to media, or when posting to social media, for example.  

To ensure spokespersons are educated in how to speak with the media, Xenophon offers half and full day media training sessions for organizations’ representatives.  

Over the past two decades, Xenophon has provided training for everyone from C-suite executives to entry-level staff, and everyone in between that may engage with journalists or post on social media.  

For more information on how Xenophon can assist in preparing your spokespersons for upcoming media interviews, please visit: https://xenophonstrategies.com/services/media-training.  

Crisis Communications Media Relations