News Blog

Many people think media training is for people who have to face up to bad news from the media , but of course it’s just as useful for those who feel they have a story but don’t know how to put it across.

FT writer David Bowen has written a good piece on how to get yourself noticed by journalists – his guide is most useful for anyone with a story who wants to get through to a relevant journalist. His advice includes not giving them a story on a plate, to encourage their compeitive instincts, and regular monitoring of social media – many communications advisers apparently are former journalists who left the industry before social media became widely adopted.

But we would add one thing – when you do get through to the journalist to put your story across, do make sure you can manage the message in an articulate way . A few hours of training can make all the difference before a vital TV or radio interview, and some elementary homework done on what the journalist will ask of you will be time well spent when that phone call arrives. Put as much effort into preparing for the interview as you do into hooking your journalistic fish – you won’t regret it.

Proving that it’s so easy to lose focus when the cameras are on you, presidential hopeful Rick Perry forgets a key department he has vowed to close. Critics say his campaign was over in 53 seconds , and all because he was perhaps under-rehearsed?  Preparing for the media should never be undertaken lightly…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByGf8lP87HU

New research suggests half of the users of Twitter in the UK don’t think about consequences before they post online – thand that’s a real danger.

The report, by law firm DLA Piper, found that 63 per cent of Britons “have little or no awareness of their legal responsibilities” while more than half of those surveyed said they do not consider possible legal ramifications before posting on Twitter.

Quoted in the Daily Telegraph, Duncan Calow, digital media law partner in DLA Piper’s Intellectual Property & Technology Group, said: “Social media is ultimately about individuals and we can see that younger generations especially, display a more laissez-faire attitude towards the policing of social media.

“However, recent events such as the ‘troll’ prosecutions, this summer’s riots and celebrity Twitter scandals may have begun to challenge this perception that the online environment is – or indeed should be – free of regulation.”

While many internet users post to Facebook, Twitter and even in newspaper comment boxes, without giving a thought to possible legal consequences, those posts are still subject to the same laws as material published offline.

The old adage about “when you’re in a hole, stop digging” is probably haunting the PR department at holiday company Pontins after their company was kebabed by BBC Watchdog this week . There are unlikely to be many happy campers after reporter Chris Hollins and helpers dressed as the seven dwarves visisted the camp and started cleaning up ‘alleged’ dirt and grime in and around the historic chalets.

But the company did little to help themselves by turning a PR disaster into something worse by their choice of interviewee – a combative lady who chose to take battle-hardened presenter Ann Robinson on by interrupting and forcibly making her point – only to be dismissed in mid stream.

Get real, Pontins. If you are going to face up to this kind of grilling on live TV, get some training first. And a bit of hi-de-humility torwards your customers would help too. Those who would like to see the piece can catch it on iplayer (but make it quick) or on YouTube below.

What makes a great interview? The BBC has been looking at some of the best it has aired over the last half-century.

Sir David Frosts’s famous Nixon interviews dominate , but some lesser known classics are also in there. Jeremy Paxman’s famous grilling of Michael Howard when Home Secretary is one that Media Counsellors uses to illustrate how not to answer a question when in a TV interview – Paxman famously asked the same question 14 times!

You may already be a great interviewee, but if you want help and advice on how to improve your performance, come to the experts. Training around television, radio and print media can help save your reputation and is more affordable than ever.

Do you think media training is still relevant in current times? Here’s our take on five of the greatest myths put about on the subject.

1) It’s Unnecessary.

The days when company chiefs dreaded being grilled on TV and radio are over. We all see internviews daily on TV and the internet, so we all know how to do it – why would media training help?

Nothing has changed. in fact because there’s more media out there, your chances of ending up in front of a microphone or camera have greatly increased! Interviewees now have seconds to make an impact , or can face huge problems for their organisations if they fail.Preparatiion is the key, and good training and practice with the experts is money well spent.

2) It doesn’t work.

There’s no way of fighting back if you are in a tough radio and TV interview with an experienced journalist, right?

No amount of training can help if you are in the spotlight because you have lied or committed criminal activities. For all the rest, how you put yourself and your story across is crucial.You need to carefully prepare your messages and in order to be able to best put your personality and your point of view across you need to think it through and prepare in detail. All of this can turn the tide of even the most hostile interview.

3) It’s Expensive.

Media training costs a fortune, from the high-tech gear to the perfect smile of the celeb interviewers used…

Once upon a time large studio costs and use of well-known media opersonalities added up to thousands for a one day course. We have cut costs to the bone, and we now offer value-for money short one-off courses without frills.

4) It’s Terrifying.

Why would you pay to be humiliated – after all you may never need the training as you can probably avoid being interviewed for real.

Not as terrifying as facing the media without it. Don’t think you can just ‘busk it’ and hope for the best if you are being interviewed. We’ll teach you to put your message across and take control of difficult interviews. We’ll help you put your case togetherand you will see how your delivery improves over just a few short hours. And the techniques we’ll teach you will stay with you for years, an essential part of your management toolkit, and even helop yopu communicate with employees, clients and even shareholders.

5) It’s Unethical.

A case mostly put forward by journalists who don’t want articulate, polished interviewees – they’d rather you were trembling like a jelly when faced with their scary world of cameras. Forget about the shifty politicians, who are trained to avoid the tough questions – we will never teach you to do that – but once you understand our methods you will be able to gain control of difficult interviews and really get your message across.

Latest research shows that more than half of journalists are now using Twitter for newsgathering, although only a few of them want to be contacted via social media channels.

So even if the very thought of social media fills you and your organisation with horror, the microblogging network may be the first step for those who have not yet put a toe into the deep rushing waters of social media.

LinkedIn is doubtless the ‘safest’ social network, good for personal networking but doesn’t offer organisations the potential that a well-managed twitter feed can – and messages are swift and easy to get out into the market.

Social media evangelists say it will eventually replace the mainstream but we doubt it – there will always be the place for the professional journalist – and when 98 per cent of press releases end up in their waste paper bin, Twitter just may be the coming tool of choice to reach them.

In most organisations a call from the media is something to be shunned – a job for the press office or external PR agency.

Yet most media calls are simply requests for information that can often help, not hinder, an organisation that wishes to get its message across.

Knowing how journalists think and why they do what they do in the way they do it can be half the battle in obtaining good coverage that can benefit your organisation . But unless you have worked in the media yourself this insight can be difficult.

“Media Training” has a reputation for being expensive and an attempt to control media messages, something exemplified by politicians who refuse to answer a straight question.

Yet most media encounters are nothing like as bruising – local newspaper and radio reporters often appreciate insights into how organisations work and they don’t always misquote or get the facts wrong. A well-written, well targeted press release can be an advantage to your business, and even in these days of social networking, most people find out news from the mainstream media.

A good level of media awareness can be taught in half a day for less than £200 per person, and a short course can be an excellent investment for those willing to brave the media and get on the right side of the news agenda.

For all the buzz around social media, we still keep coming across people who say “It’s not for us” or “we don’t think it’s important”  or “do me a favour – this organisation hasn’t even got its press releases right yet”

But it really doesn’t matter whether you’re into social media, ready for social media, or just plain indifferent to social media.

Because chances are most of the people that matter to your business are already using it or working on how to use it. In their spare time, your staff certainly will be, now three-fifths of the UK population have Facebook accounts.

Large organisations traditionally monitored press cuttings to keep up with what was being said about them in the outside world. This led to a lot of empire-building and fat fees for the cuttings agencies and newspaper copyright lawyers.

But in the world of 2011 the best way to keep a finger on the pulse of public opinion is to monitor social media. Your customers, suppliers and staff are increasingly making their views known on it.

There’s no ‘mystic art’ to doing this. Organisations like ours who offer this service know it’s mostly leg work , but to do a successful job of monitoring public opinion via social media doesn’t just involve subscribing to a bunch of newspapers and magazines, and reading them all.

Rather a variety of internet tools can be used to keep an eye on Twitter, Facebook, relevant blogs and the myriad other applications that make up social media networking.

The key that makes a successful monitoring job is intelligence – just like with our press cuttings analogy, what interests a company most will not necessarily be seeing its own name in print. Senior managers may be just as interested in specific competitors or products, or happenings in other market sectors.

It’s all about being close to the client, knowing his or her aims and needs, and working closely with in –house teams to ensure they know what the buzz is in the vital areas of interest .

It’s NOT about buying an expensive monitoring tool and giving it to the office junior, or the under-used person from the internal comms team.

Youth wouldn’t be a qualification to dissect your press cuttings, nor is it to monitor social media.

Monitoring is not an expensive commodity – your PR agency will no doubt offer to do it but watch how much they charge for it (those who did press cuttings once upon a time made lots of money from unsuspecting clients). Use a specialist and make sure they have a detailed brief. They just might save you from a very expensive damage limitation case in an age where corporate crises come out of an internet-blue sky.

Read more about our monitoring offering here.

Corporate reputation accounts for around £460 billion worth of value among the UK’s largest listed companies, according to a new index highlighting the importance of perception.

Research by Echo in collaboration with the brand consultancy Bestra suggests the reputations of some of the very biggest businesses in the country, including the likes of Royal Dutch Shell, Unilever and the BG Group, contributed almost 50 percent of overall shareholder value last year.

Companies whose reputation has been diminished in the past 12 months lost significant chunks of their market value. On a sector by sector basis, oil and gas is identified as that in which a strong reputation translates most directly into market value, followed not all that closely by basic materials, health care and consumer goods.