Mastering Comms: What 25 Years Of “Talking” Has Taught Me
These thoughts and observations around communications work were originally published as six individual essays on LinkedIn. I’m compiling them here as a comprehensive piece that can be shared with a single link. If you are doing this work, or thinking about doing this work, or nostalgically remembering having done this work, I hope the words that follow offer something of value.
Near the end of the film “The Devil’s Advocate,” Keanu Reeves asks his father, Al Pacino (the devil), why he chose a powerful lawyer as his human form on Earth.
“Because the law, my boy, puts us into everything,” Pacino responds. “It’s the ultimate backstage pass!”
The line stuck with me over the years, because I’ve always felt the same can be said, maybe in an even greater and broader sense, of communications work. Especially at a company, where the communications team is responsible for developing, attending to and advancing the corporate narrative, communicating major business developments, responding to incoming inquiries — some welcome, some not — managing through crises big and small, new hires, departures, restructurings, product or content launches, M&A, litigation and innumerable other specialized situations.
Corporate communications lives in the space between how a company wants to see itself and how it is actually perceived by the outside world. Depending on the day, that can be a very fraught and challenging place to be. Add to that the underlying truth that when a company actually has to talk publicly about something, whether by design or as an unwelcome reaction to outside inquiry, is when things — as they say — get real. These core realities define the day-to-day existence and work life of professional communicators.
I started my career as a journalist but have spent the last 25 years working in communications, media relations, PR, flakdom, whatever you want to call it, on the agency and corporate side, with a particular focus on media, both distribution and content. I’m currently the EVP of Corporate Communications at AMC Networks, where I’m fortunate enough to count Saul Goodman, Villanelle and Victor Strand as my co-workers. Even as the communications function has changed and evolved — as the media itself has been challenged and reshaped, and new tools like social media platforms and the potential for a more direct relationship with the public and end consumers of our work have emerged — there are some core best practices that remain. Some have been informed by the ways the world has changed, some are just fundamental to the process of exchanging information most effectively and efficiently.
You could write a book about PR and corporate communications, but I’m not sure anyone would actually read it. So, instead of writing a book, I thought it might be a worthwhile exercise to write about some of the key practical realities and approaches that have served me well over the years in a series of posts. The individual installments are all interrelated and, to a significant degree, dependent on each other. But for clarity’s sake I’ll try to break them down into digestible (but interwoven) nuggets.
And, while considering this, keep in mind that as a successful communicator your goal should be to advance through a company by driving and helping to build the business. Especially as the world has changed, news cycles have become continuous and everything has sped up, “what matters?” is the core question that should define your focus and efforts. This is not intended as a defense of convoluted measurement tactics or “make me feel good about the hits I got” reports, but of the importance of an actual assessment of the real impact on the front end and back end of every communications tactic you choose to undertake. Your job as a professional communicator is to be as prepared as possible to respond to the incoming (whatever form it takes) and as strategic, methodical and impactful as you can be around leveraging every ounce of the outgoing. That’s it.
Meaningful impact can be achieved at any level of the function. As a professional communicator, you don’t just want to be the person someone comes to when they need to get a press release written, or when they are confronted with some unfortunate public circumstance. You want a seat at the table while the things you will later seek to publicize, promote or manage are being discussed and developed, while opportunities are being considered and challenges are being confronted.
Over this little series, I’ll be outlining some of the key foundational elements that have guided me across my career. I’d love to hear your own perspectives as we move through the posts in comments. OK, let’s go.
Relationships matter
This has always been the case, but certainly it is true now more than ever that relationships matter when you have a story to tell and you are looking to tell that story through the press. Newspapers, television stations and digital outlets are all severely resource constrained, and that has resulted in very real challenges in terms of even finding a journalist willing to consider a pitch, let alone take the time to report out and write a story with so much else being thrown at them in an increasingly demanding environment.
Getting there today is increasingly dependent on a relationship, both in terms of opening the door and being able to walk through that door with an underlying expectation that you are not wasting the journalist’s time with a misdirected pitch or something that fails to reflect an understanding of their beat, interest area and previous work. I would say something like 95 percent of the “PR fails” that wind up getting trashed on Twitter are the result of a (typically agency driven) shotgun approach to pitching that exchanges urgency and volume for careful thought, consideration and relationships that can actually result in a successful interaction on both sides. Ongoing relationships, some cultivated over many years, also deliver access at a time when everyone is running faster than ever, emails arrive by the hundreds and are easy to ignore.
If you are just starting out working in communications for a company or entity, a good first step — and one that hasn’t changed in decades — is to familiarize yourself with the publications and specific journalists who cover that company or industry, and start reading. Which outlets are most meaningful? Who are the journalists driving those outlets? Read everything they write, make lists, follow them on Twitter and try to find organic ways to introduce yourself and get on their radar, without asking for anything in return.
When you ultimately do see an opportunity to ask for something or make a pitch, make sure it reflects a deep understanding of the journalist’s previous coverage and interest area, and is the kind of story you could see them organically writing, based on their body of work. The most fundamental and foundational question a press person confronts when considering the placement of a specific story or piece of information is, “Who could you see writing this?” Your answer should be pretty precise, if you are doing your job right. I’m not saying that every pitch will be successful, they can’t be, there are too many factors at play. This is a field in which outcomes are never guaranteed. But if you don’t start with an attempt to connect your information with a journalist based on a sophisticated read of their previous coverage and the types of things they write about and are interested in, you’re dead before you begin. Don’t take shortcuts or feel like “directional” is good enough, and never waste a journalist’s time when you could and should have known better with the tools at hand.
Even with all the above, a light touch is a better approach than a strident or persistent demand. “Did you get the press release I sent?” is a question you can ask maybe once, certainly not 10 times. There’s too much, things are moving too fast, for you to think you can will stories into print — it’s the journalist’s decision, always. Keep that in mind. This becomes harder when a client (or a boss) is demanding coverage, but that’s why they call PR “earned” media, as opposed to paid. You can always buy an ad, or a sponsored social post, you can’t buy a piece of editorial in a legitimate media outlet. And if you are working for someone who has unreasonable ideas about your ability to produce glowing and fawning coverage on an ongoing basis, who walks out of every meeting seeing bold “I’m great” headlines, regardless of the underlying reality, you might need to think about making a professional move.
Mastering Comms: Curiosity and Awareness
Not unlike journalism, the key to a successful career in communications is an inherent sense of curiosity and awareness. If you aren’t interested in the world around you, and particularly in whatever particular field or industry you are working in, communications is probably not the right path for you. We deal in information, in telling stories that are significant and newsworthy, in putting words to developments so people can appreciate their significance. Wrapped up in all of that is being interested in the substance that defines your day-to-day.
I’m not saying that PR people are journalists, but you do need to approach your job as a communicator through the same lens as the reporters you will ultimately pitch and work with — that’s for your benefit, for your company’s, and for theirs. Why is this thing you think deserves news coverage important? What are the key questions that will be asked? Where’s the relevant context that might make the story instructive beyond your own situation? These are all required elements for every interaction around a press engagement, none of it is optional. There are plenty of ways to get there, but starting out on the other side of the desk has served me very well in my career, because it has given me an understanding of what makes a story and what it’s like to be a reporter that has been invaluable and still informs so much of my daily work.
Once you are working in communications, reading stories, listening to podcasts, consuming the services (your own and your competitors) that you spend most of your professional life thinking about are all critical baseline activities that are necessary for success. They will help you spot opportunities, both communications opportunities and business opportunities. With a higher level of awareness, you will be able to understand the prevailing narrative around your company and the broader industry, and that will make all the difference as you seek to navigate both.
When you have the basic communications skills down, you can apply those skills to any company, entity or organization, but it’s highly likely you will be more effective and have more satisfaction and fun over time if you are working in an area that interests you. I’ve spent my career focused on media and tech, two areas that are profoundly interesting to me as a consumer, observer and lifelong student, and I have to believe that has made me more effective than if I spent my time working on things I had no particular affinity for. As a communicator, the easiest way to apply that old “love what you do” adage is to do this work in a field that interests and stimulates you. Some people like working for agencies and the ability that offers to focus on a variety (and shifting mix) of clients over time, while others would rather dig in on the corporate side with a specific company, industry and set of colleagues. Regardless, these are choices you can make, walking in the door, so make them.
So, what are the tools that can help feed your curiosity and boost your level of relevant awareness? Well, social media — finding and following the individual and institutional feeds that matter in your particular area — is a godsend for the modern communicator. Set every receptor you can find to “on” and start receiving. Luckily, there are more than ever available today. Could be a podcast, likely several, focused on your industry or interest area. Email newsletters are having an ongoing and expanding moment. Again, whether it’s an outlet or a specific journalist, click the “subscribe” button and get ready to consume the incoming. Themes will emerge, prevailing narratives that are in favor with the press and others that are being questioned and scrutinized. Find your way around the corners of both. You are likely either sailing with the wind at your back or facing some underlying skepticism, maybe severe skepticism, you can navigate either, but you need to recognize the reality as part of your baseline level of awareness and strategic approach.
For someone working in PR, Google Alerts are a top-five most important development of life. The ability to stay strategically informed, in real-time, of coverage and conversation around companies, people and topics of interest is one of the most helpful tools in the history of information. I can’t believe it’s still here, and still free, and while social media search has grown up as an important new directional source along the same lines, there is nothing quite like Google Alerts as an essential and invaluable tool for communicators. IFTTT is another fantastic tool to automate search on platforms like Twitter and deliver custom results to you instantly. Twitter search and trending topics are also obviously key resources to immediately determine what people are talking about. Bottom line, there’s really no excuse for missing anything anymore, so don’t.
A high level of awareness will also increase your impact and credibility within your own company or organization, because no business moves forward in a vacuum. Sitting around a conference room table (or, much more likely today, on a Microsoft Teams call) what other companies, competitors and partners are doing and saying is a significant element of any discussion. Be the one who comes to that interaction with the information, who has read the most recent story or seen the relevant tweet. That level of engagement and ability to strategically anticipate will serve you extremely well over time as a communicator and an executive, whether you are interacting externally with the press or among your own colleagues.
Mastering Comms: Honesty and Judgment (Don’t Lie)
Maybe the first two words of this little series on working in communications should have been this foundational principle: Don’t lie. Don’t. There’s simply no reason to, and if you don’t have the personal integrity to see lying to the press as an issue, your career in communications won’t last very long or be very successful. That doesn’t mean you have to walk around as a completely open book, you can’t do that, either. There will be many things you hear and know and cannot say, and it’s fine to acknowledge that. “Declined to comment” is a perfectly acceptable response to a press inquiry. So, but much less frequently, is “did not respond to a request for comment.” Lying is not.
Your personal credibility is one of the most important things you have as a communications person. Don’t forget the main point of the first installment in this series — relationships matter. They truly do, and if you are fast and loose with the facts for whatever self-serving or of-the-moment reason, those relationships will not last. Life is long and people remember. You know how it feels to get burned, and how those experiences stay with you across years and decades? Don’t give someone else a reason to feel that way about you. It’s just not worth it, not for any story or for the ability to get through a crisis or any other situation that might make fudging the truth or deliberately misleading someone seem like an expedient means to an end.
And right up there with don’t lie is this — treat people fairly. As I said from the outset, most of these suggestions and truths are deeply interconnected. If you continue working in communications in a specific field or industry, your relationships with important journalists can last many years, even decades. There are reporters who remain key to my professional life who I met and started working with 20 or 25 years ago. (Personal note: these words originally wound up on LinkedIn because after I wrote them and didn’t know what to do with them I thought of Dan Roth, who runs content for the company and who I first worked with on a big Forbes feature of a telecom startup I was running communications for in — wait for it — 1997. We had a good experience on that piece, bonded over Stationers Inc.’s extraordinary reporter’s pads and the rest is history. One big story, and a relationship that has continued for 20+ years.)
In addition to not misleading or lying to people, you are going to need to be able to look them in the eye (or, more likely today, look them in the email) and say that you have been fair and above board in the exchange of information — particularly information that is highly prized in competitive situations. If you cheat a reporter out of a legitimate scoop, or play favorites with a revelation you know is broadly newsworthy, they will remember, and they should. When a reporter contacts you and says they are working on a piece, or has learned some specific information, from the standpoint of your conversations with other journalists that is basically the equivalent of attorney-client privileged communication. The media industry is inherently and fiercely competitive, and scoops or novel takes are prized and hard to come by, so a communications person who tries to put their finger on the scale to advantage one journalist over another in their competition with each other is not going to be a communications person for very long.
That’s one of the reasons “exclusives” for highly newsworthy revelations can be fraught and really need to be weighed heavily. I’m not saying a case can’t be made in certain situations for trying to place a high-level story with a specific writer and outlet, in some specialized moments that’s exactly the right way to go. But, used to excess, that approach typically delivers one high-profile piece, makes one journalist happy and antagonizes every other writer on the beat, some of whom will now be tasked with advancing your story in a particularly unhelpful state of mind. The speed at which things are moving today and general level of noisiness in the world has maybe made those kinds of hurt feelings more fleeting and transitory than they used to be, but it’s still a very delicate balance. An essential part of your job is doing everything you can to stay above board and make sure that all of the journalists covering your company or entity feel like they can rely on being treated fairly and with honesty. That’s bedrock for these ongoing interactions and engagements.
One thing on process that seems to come up more than it should. Talking on background or off-the-record is an essential part of working with the press, but in both cases it follows an explicit agreement between a communications person and a journalist. You can’t just blurt something out and then follow it up with, “that was on background.” You ask for those parameters before you start talking and they are agreed to, by the journalist, before the conversation begins. It goes something like this:
“Can we talk on background (or off-the-record)?”
Affirmative response from journalist.
Go.
This also underscores the importance of executive media training (more on that in an upcoming post) and making sure that the people you are potentially putting on the phone with journalists know the rules of the road as well, because dealing with the press, strictly speaking, isn’t their functional area, so they may not understand that trying to course correct during an interview by declaring something they just said “off the record” doesn’t really fly. Reporters you have a good working relationship with will sometimes cut you some slack in that situation, but you can’t expect in most cases to be able to do the cleanup after the garbage is spilled all over the road, you have to keep it in the truck.
Same “agreed upon in advance” dynamic applies to embargoes, which is my preferred approach for announcing news via press release in most cases. The process here is carefully building a media list, sharing the news/press release under embargo with a number of key outlets/writers, all of whom have agreed to a specific publication time either an hour or two (or a day or two) in the future, and then having the initial wave of coverage hit at the same time, which can then be followed by sending the release to a much broader media list and posting it to your company website. Like background and off-the-record, this follows an agreement. You can’t just blast a press release out to a dozen people on email and, as part of that message, note that this information is being shared under embargo and here are the terms. Those terms need to be accepted up front, with the release and the news to follow as a next step, not the first step.
Also, when working under embargo, remember that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and there’s nothing worse than working with 10 outlets and one decides to go early to try to game Google News, grab more social visibility, has an unreliable publishing system with a broken clock or some other issue. Don’t get greedy with the distribution. Build a list of the outlets that really matter for the news you are announcing, particularly involving reporters you have worked with before and trust, then move from there. To use a Reservoir Dogs analogy, don’t include a Mr. Orange in your round, someone you’re not 100 percent on. If you keep the above in mind, embargoes can really work. And, unless you are dealing with a piece of news that will absolutely be universally covered, it’s usually a much better way to go than just pressing “send” on a press release and then trying to direct reporters who are in a perpetual sprint to stop, turn around and look at something that’s already out in the world. With the level of activity happening today and how stretched reporters generally are trying to deal with the volume, even something that stands a decent chance of getting strong coverage stands a better chance if you take an embargoed approach.
A quick word on judgment. From the entry-level position all the way up to Chief Communications Officer, your judgment is probably the most important attribute your employer is paying for. Not your ability to write, secure coverage, handle logistics or any other of the more mechanical or tactical aspects of your work, all of which are important. But your judgement — what you think, and your ability to quickly assess any issue and land on what should be done and what should be said, or strategically find your way through a difficult and complicated situation — is primary to everything else. Don’t forget that, or fail to rise to those moments when you can have real and profound impact.
Speaking of impact…
Mastering Comms: Communicating in Crisis
Unlike a proactive pitch to a reporter, or an attempt to get some positive or meaningful business development covered by the media, a crisis situation typically calls for reacting to an event or happening that was unexpected and generates an extraordinary level of intense and typically negative media interest. A crisis can take many different forms, but the communications goal is almost always the same — bring the situation to a coherent and satisfying conclusion as quickly as possible.
A crisis can last for a news cycle or two or an extended period of time, depending on the underlying issue. It could take the form of an unfortunate tweet or public comment from a celebrity, a business dispute that negatively impacts customers, all the way to something like BP dealing with the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill or Toyota having to recall millions of vehicles because of deadly acceleration issues. Social media, and the speed at which things can move and voices can be mobilized and amplified today, has only made media crises more numerous and intense.
In almost any crisis situation, but particularly one that is rooted in a complex problem, it is important for a company to form (or already have) a working group that is large enough to make sure it includes all key stakeholders, but small enough to ensure fast action and expedited approvals are possible. That’s because once a crisis breaks, the clock is ticking, and the objective is to publicly resolve the matter as quickly as possible. Getting there will almost always involve some internal fact finding that can range from a few phone calls or emails all the way to a formal inquiry or investigation that includes outside parties, law firms and significant time. It is important to balance the urgent demand for a public response to a crisis situation with the need to fully understand the matter at hand so it can be resolved and discussed publicly in a way that is not premature or partial, which will only further complicate and extend the situation.
These are custom moments, which require specialized and tailor-made responses, so it’s hard to generalize or offer across-the-board guidance. But, especially given the intensity of a crisis situation and the related volume of media interest and scrutiny, there are few key things for a communicator to keep in mind, understanding and acknowledging that every situation is different and will require a specific response in media tactics and language.
Speed of response is a key objective, but don’t extend the story by speaking prematurely and creating additional media moments
Maybe the worst thing a communicator can do during the intensity of a crisis situation is to speak out of turn or issue an incremental, partial or non-strategic response that will ultimately be unsatisfying and only extend the period of negative attention and scrutiny. Discipline is key in these moments. That doesn’t mean it would be a mistake to publicly state that a company is investigating a matter or conducting some appropriate review as an incremental step to resolution, every situation is different, and that might be necessary. But it does mean that everything that is publicly stated needs to be carefully considered and determined to be moving in the direction of resolving the situation in a way that is true/accurate and — to the greatest degree possible — publicly satisfying, so that people can consider the response in the context of the original underlying situation and move on.
Missteps in communications need to be avoided always, because they are public, but especially during periods of intense scrutiny. The “I’d like my life back” comment by former BP CEO Tony Hayward is a perfect example of how an off-handed quip, during a crisis moment, can serve as an amplifying and avoidable flashpoint. Those two seconds defined him, and his response to the Deepwater Horizon crisis, regardless of anything else he did or said over many months. See “former CEO” above.
Standardize processes
Crisis moments are stressful and challenging. Communicators are likely to feel overwhelmed by the incoming. In these intense situations, it is more important than ever to take a breath, center yourself and be methodical about the processes and procedures used to manage and respond to the media influx. Especially today, when a crisis wave can come on suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, a communicator may be flooded with requests for comment or information before even an initial response has been formulated, let alone approved. Remember the first post in this series, which pointed out that corporate communications lives in the space between how a company wants to see itself and how it is actually perceived by the outside world. That is never more the case — and that space is never more uncomfortable — than during a crisis situation. As the member of the response team working directly with the outside world, the press, the need for a methodical and level-headed approach is essential. Don’t get lost standing on the deck and staring out at the raging seas, focus on the steps necessary to get the ship safely back to port.
Something as simple as keeping a comprehensive running list of all incoming inquiries from the beginning (formatted for rapid email response) can be extremely helpful when the moment comes to issue a comment. Because when you are able to move into crisis response tactics — given appropriate considerations and approvals — you need to move quickly and methodically. Don’t forget, your underlying goal is to resolve this situation as soon and as thoroughly as possible, not unnecessarily extend the moment through additional news cycles, and every new action or comment can be expected to spin the interest and scrutiny forward into another round until you reach a satisfying conclusion. Again, discipline is key.
This extends to monitoring, as well. Companies and communicators should always be actively listening to the outside world in normal course. During a crisis, the need for this is amplified exponentially, and you should use all tools at your disposal to make sure you are acutely aware of this ongoing, and likely intensifying, dialogue and sentiment. This is a moment for peak awareness. From traditional media monitoring to Google Alerts, advanced tools like IFTTT, social search (especially Twitter), keep your eyes relentlessly on the field until the situation is resolved.
The public is looking for a coherent, authentic and satisfying response
There’s no way for a company to game its way through a crisis situation, especially today. The rise of social media platforms and potential for amplified public outrage has severely limited the ability for companies or entities to duck and cover and just wait for the badness to pass. Apologies need to be complete and genuine, considerations or actions taken to address a troubling underlying situation need to be comprehensive, impactful and satisfying.
For an individual apologizing for a comment or action, something that has become a weekly if not near-daily occurrence in our celebrity and social media-fueled culture, full-throated and authentic is the standard. “What I did (or said) was wrong and I am truly sorry,” is a clear, unambiguous and satisfying statement. “For anyone out there who may have been offended by my (actions or) remarks, please know they do not reflect the person I am, and also consider (self-serving context/extenuating circumstances),” is not.
For a company, a public apology may also be a required part of a crisis response, but the situation will likely also call for a clear and accessible articulation of the steps the company is taking to resolve the issue and ensure it will not happen again.
In the age of social media and the associated potential for moments to become viral and for public commentary to both feed and amplify media scrutiny, crisis moments can arise faster than ever before. As a communicator, your North Star is doing everything possible to bring them to a satisfying and coherent conclusion as quickly as possible, guided by information and a resolution of the ingredients that sparked the negative attention in the first place.
Mastering Comms: Media Training
Media training is an expertise that is specialized enough, and lucrative enough, that it has grown into a discipline and function that companies and communicators often hire from the outside — like someone coming in to fix the office copy machine or deliver the coffee. I never totally understood that, because while there are certainly good media trainers, and the process can be helpful and have impact, if you are a professional communicator, especially one working at a high level within a company or organization, you are a media trainer every day of your life, and you need to own that.
Earlier in my career, I would hear people talk about media training as if it was almost a mystical thing. Some class of people who knew how to make articulation potions you didn’t even realize existed. “Should we have Executive A media trained before the big public event?” “This is a really important profile piece, we really need to make sure Executive B is media trained before the interview.”
I’m not trying to malign media trainers, because typically they are smart professionals who have worked in PR or (usually broadcast) media for years and can offer good tactical insights and specialized PowerPoint presentations filled with best practices, lessons learned and important guard rails for dealing with the press. “Don’t fill the silences!” They come in for a few hours or even a day and they talk executives through those presentations and how to most effectively speak with the press or just in front of people. They do mock interviews — sometimes on camera — and then everyone watches the footage and works on how to improve the interaction. There are unquestionably benefits to getting professional insights around interview mechanics and techniques, how to appear on camera, how to punctuate messaging in a clear and concise way, to avoid endless repetitions of “you know” and “like” in speech and similar forms of guidance. Media training in general can be a valuable process, and typically the process itself is what delivers the bulk of the value.
In an earlier post, I made the point that when companies actually need to talk about something is when things get real. Gearing up for a major interview, product rollout, keynote or high-profile panel are good examples of this, and these are the moments that feel big enough and important enough that the notion of bringing in an outside media trainer is often raised. When that happens, and that training gets scheduled, there are real benefits that occur — namely everyone is forced to get in a room and focus on this upcoming event or interaction and work out what is going to be said, and how, all the substantive and performative aspects of that.
This preparation is crucial, and the internal communications people are as key to the process and determining a successful result as anyone sitting at the media training table. This is not always an immediate realization for the comms person, especially early in your career, because you have hired someone from the outside world to come in and perform a service. But, keep in mind, that service is consultative, not comprehensive, and by design you are closer to the ongoing reality that will help define the outcome than they are. The worst thing you can do in that position is feel like your role amounts to “OK, thanks so much for coming, the patient is over here, doctor,” and then serving up your executive to the outside expert who will just take it from there while you sit back and watch. No.
Boiled down to its essence, media training is making sure that some individual you are putting in front of the press or the public is trained for that interaction. To the greatest extent possible, they know what to expect, they know the questions they will be asked, they know what to say and how to handle those questions, they know how long the interaction is expected to occur, how and where it is expected to occur, strategies they might confront that are designed to throw them off their game and what a successful result looks like. As a professional communicator, that’s all your job, every single piece, regardless of how you get there in the end. It is part of your day-to-day routine and core to your professional existence, whether you ever hire an outside consultant to get ready for a Big Moment or not.
Whether you are considering a public event or a press interview, the primary questions are typically the same: Why are we doing this? What are the messages we want to get out into the world? How are they advancing our corporate narrative and helping to build our business? Why is this the right opportunity? If the best answers are “visibility” or executive profile building, there typically needs to be a deeper examination, because none of these interactions are guaranteed to be pure upside, and there’s plenty of downside, especially today.
Once you’ve committed to a public event or a press interview, the prep begins. At that point, you are in a dialogue with the event organizers or the journalist on the story and the goal is to get as much information as possible on the engagement to come. When dealing with the press, as opposed to a conference organizer, you may not be able to secure a full list of questions in advance — although you should always ask, sometimes in a variety of ways across several interactions, to make sure that when the moment arrives, you’ve done everything you can to prepare your executive for the conversation they are about to have. Filling in the gaps is where your awareness and judgment come in. You should be able to predict the questions around the specific framework of the engagement itself, and you are aware enough of the landscape and what’s happening in the world to anticipate other questions that might be asked. All of this goes into a briefing to the executive you are working with to make sure they are properly prepared and positioned to anticipate everything. This goes back to the idea that media interviews aren’t the business version of open mic night or playing telephone operator. There will be variables, and there will always be moments of spontaneity when individuals are interacting, but to the best of your ability you need to start that process with: Here are the questions we think you’ll be asked and here are suggested responses that further our narrative and business objectives.
Depending on the importance of the event or story, there could be several versions of messaging, going back and forth with the executive and other relevant colleagues. There typically will be at least one mock interview, to hone talking points and promote familiarity with the expected exchange. Insist on that, regardless of how fast your internal client is running or how over-scheduled she or he might be. In some cases, it’s important to do this days ahead of the actual interview, so all elements can be refined, digested and internalized. Sometimes, just building an extra half hour into the schedule before the interview begins will be enough to run down some sample questions and answers so the interviewee doesn’t start totally cold. You’ll find your rhythm over time, especially with people you work with for years. Speak up, trust your instincts, seize every opportunity to add value and guide the process to a successful outcome.
Look at that, you’re a media trainer.
Mastering Comms: A Comprehensive Approach
When you are getting ready to orchestrate a single story or a round of press, it’s important to take a comprehensive approach, think of everything and leave as little as possible to chance. The press release is a simple document that has been attacked and dismissed by some as irrelevant and out of step with modern communications in recent years. It is certainly true that the enormity and impact of a company “PRESS RELEASE” as an information vessel has been diluted by a variety of factors, including the emergence of other proactive press tactics, increasingly stressed and time-constrained newsrooms and a continuous news cycle that can make a document seem dated virtually from the moment it is marked FNL. But a press release is still a very useful tool, because of its ability to present a meaningful and newsworthy business development in a cohesive way, with appropriate context, either as a gateway to media coverage or as a direct-to-consumer tactic.
What is completely out of step with today’s environment and successful communications is the notion that a PR person can write a press release, send it out into the world and, in most cases, expect anything to happen. Except for those that are enormously newsworthy or specifically written as a direct-to-consumer device and posted to a company website or moved around in social media, press releases today are a starting point, a building block in what will necessarily be a custom solution for sharing the information it contains with the media in an impactful way. Press releases can also be helpful over time as a backward-facing record of incremental developments happening across the company or entity you are doing communications work for, a quickly accessible reminder of what you have said and done and when. Now, if you happen to be working in an environment that favors a high volume of bold and frequently unsustainable announcements, the impact of this kind of historical record could cut the other way.
When proactively communicating a business development to the press, it is important to think of all elements that could potentially go into the resulting coverage and make sure they are all in play, by your own hand. A press release may be the core communications tool following an email or verbal pitch, the factual follow-up that helps land the story — all the important or relevant information in one place. But, even at this moment, the PR person’s job is far from done. What’s the visual or graphic? Are there third-party advocates or voices that could help improve the piece? Related factual information or stats? The journalist is in control of the story, always, but as an effective communicator, thinking through all these elements and ensuring that you’ve provided every single one of them is your problem, not something to be left to chance. The basic objective is this: You want to make it as easy as possible for the best version of your story to be the one that winds up in print. That requires thinking through all of the elements needed for an impactful piece and ensuring you are covering every base and leaving nothing you can actually control to chance.
This extends to quotes, as well, even if a live interview with an executive is part of the package. In a press release, quotes should sound like things someone would actually say, not a jargon/superlative/acronym soup. Stop being so “thrilled,” “excited,” and “pleased” about everything. In the case of a live interview, as we covered in the post on media training, connecting a reporter with an executive is not the business version of open mic night. It’s your job as a communicator to approach that kind of engagement by thinking through the key two or three key things you would want to be saying in any piece, and working through prep to make sure they are said. That’s actually a very good exercise heading into a live interview. “We get to say two things in this story, maybe three, let’s not waste them with asides or non-strategic throwaway lines. What are the points we want in print and how do we say them in a way that gets them there?” Don’t take yourself off the hook by thinking you’re just playing telephone operator and sitting back watching the action as it unfolds, drive to a specific and achievable outcome.
Keep in mind that stories are largely driven by analogies, anecdotes, examples and pith, not repurposed marketing copy. And, in the event you are able to get that kind of boring and self-serving text into print somehow, chances are that few people will read it, and that sort of defeats the purpose of the exercise. Especially today, when journalists are increasingly judged on how many people click on and engage with the stories they write, the concept of how a story “did” has actually become something the PR person needs to be aware of, if not actively concerned about. This is an entirely new element of the communications person-journalist relationship. It’s relatively early days and still evolving, but as newsrooms have shifted to a digital environment in which story performance can be precisely measured, and resource-constrained outlets are trying to make the most of every dollar spent on the newsroom, successful engagements that convert to dud stories are actually an issue for the PR person, too.
Today, a comprehensive approach doesn’t just apply to fully servicing the story you hope to see in print or online, or the press release you are issuing. What does the social presentation look like? Is there a graphic from marketing that can be used on Twitter, Instagram and other platforms to amplify the news? In almost all cases, there needs to be, and it’s up to the communicator to make sure those boxes are checked and the assets exist before things start moving forward. Taking the time to think through all the necessary components is the easy part, and there’s plenty that isn’t easy, so attend to those components. Sometimes, these ancillary elements can provide an opportunity to have some fun and apply some creativity, which can be a good way to break through in a very crowded and competitive environment. A few years ago, when we were renewing a TV series set in the world of technology, we wrote the headline of the press release in binary code and sent it out that way, which — in itself — became a quirky and whimsical choice that got the announcement some additional attention. I like to think Cameron Howe would have appreciated this.
Before we wrap, I wanted to just offer a few words about discretion.
We began with the notion of communications as the ultimate backstage pass, and one of the realities of being backstage is you are going to see and hear things not intended to be part of the performance. That’s why discretion is such a critical element of this work across all external and internal interactions. As communicators, much of our professional lives are spent recognizing and telling stories, but the communications department is not the place for the office gossip, or for people who use the construction, “Did you hear about…” as default conversational prefix. We know things before other people, that’s just a core part of the function, and that information needs to be carefully attended to and protected.
If you want the world to know something, tell one person. As a communicator working at a high level within a company, you will know about new products and business strategies and shifts before they are shared broadly across the organization, let alone with the public. You will know when new senior executives have been hired, or are leaving, you will know about financial results, possible transactions, hundreds of distinct developments that potentially impact your company, your colleagues, external audiences, investors, partners, your industry and other important parties. You have to be careful about all of it.
Most of this information will come from the inside. But, since your most important external constituency is the press, a lot will come from the outside as well. These are smart and connected people and a core part of their job is talking to other smart and connected people. You will get calls from reporters who have information (which can be correct or totally off) about things happening at your company or related to individuals you work with that you have not heard, and you have to manage through those situations carefully, both as you gather information around the inquiry and seek to respond.
Every situation is different, and it is hard to give specific advice in a post like this for all the permutations of discretion that will be required of you across a career in communications, but it all starts with a realization that discretion will be required. The role you’ve chosen does, in a very real sense, put you backstage, so don’t be the person running around the office halls or the Zoom meetings saying “Did you hear? Did you see? Can you believe?” as a functional approach.
A lot of times, you will be the first person a new executive works with when they are hired, to announce their arrival. That process relates not only to the specific individual but potentially to attending to egos and sensitivities of others in their orbit. You’ll often be the last person an outgoing executive works with, to announce their departure from the company, a different version of the same dynamic that requires sensitivity and care. Stay focused on the task at hand, but be human, these are moments that come with frayed nerve endings and an enhanced level of sensitivity all around.
Conclusion
OK, you made it, you’re a professional communicator. In the words of Al Pacino (adapted), you’ve landed the ultimate backstage pass. You live in the very interesting space between how a company (or organization, entity or client) sees itself and how it is perceived by the outside world. At times, that can be an uncomfortable place to be, but it’s ground worth occupying and holding.
You drive the business forward through your strategic perspective and by facilitating public awareness of the wins and meaningful moments while defending against the losses and the challenges. You compete, fiercely. You operate in normal course and crisis. You deal in words and strategies and information and you leverage your keen and honed awareness to create value. You’re in the rooms where it happens. Your key external clients, the press, are some of the most intelligent, opinionated and savvy people on the planet. You’ll learn a lot, about a lot. You’ll have great and stimulating conversations, about work and life. You’ll have relationships that last for many years. You’ll scream at each other sometimes. Try to scream more about facts than adjectives, which need to be earned and not demanded. In a post-COVID world, you’ll have satisfying meals together in restaurants. It’s a challenging but very satisfying way to spend a day, a year, or a career.
Good luck.
