What do piloting an airplane and building relations with the media have in common?
Natalya Stein, CEO of the communication agency named BMB Agency, wrote a column for the CPU to shine a spotlight on the issue of building strong ties with journalists and creating a perfect information field for a startup.
In the article Stein emphasized the main issues that you should ask yourself at the start as well as the rules of working with the media and with your own resources.
During a downturn it is essentially important to have a clear thinking of the situation on the market and within the company in order to understand your position, aims and achieving prospects paying no regard to unnecessary details. This is extremely important for startups, for beginners. For those who are still at the early stage, it is important to set the goals clearly and move towards them step by step without mistakes.
Famous Russian performer Vladimir Vysotsky sang “Giraffe is big, he knows best!”
So, below, you will find recommendations for effective MR, most relevant in the period of crisis when the analogy with aircraft control techniques is extremely suitable.
What questions should be answered before everything else, what goals you should set in front of yourself, what set of services you need to choose to make media relations be affordable and highly effective for you?
Who am I? Where am I? What do I want?
When I started learning how to fly an airplane, I noticed an easy analogy between piloting and business.
First of all, what is piloting? My instructor says it’s a continuous process of making the right decisions. The same is also true for business.
The second nameworthy analogy concerns the questions that must be answered by requesting the controller’s permission before changing the position of an aircraft on an aerodrome or in airspace. When I first heard the request rules, I thought: “What on Earth wasn’t teaching radio traffic at the university instead of those basics of management?”.
The request should contain answers to the following questions: “Who am I? Where am I? What do I want?”. For example, “Severka – Start. 0792. At the preparatory. Allow the executive.”
This principle is the best for business. If you have already got behind a wheel, prepared to move, answer these questions for yourself. If we talk, for example, about media then the “request” looks something likewise:
Who am I?
Startup or small business.
Where am I?
• “at the preliminary start” (there is no information field in Russia and abroad);
• “on the executive” (I have some information field being on the way of strengthening positions in key issues);
• “takeoff is made” (the information field is shaped with an emphasis on key issues staying on the way of promoting specific messages or managing the information field);
• “at a given level and course” (the information field in the homeland of the project is figured properly, on its way to abroad).
What do I want?
• to create the primary information field;
• to strengthen the information field on key issues (telling the media only a few core aspects) and to form a press portrait of the speaker in several most important areas;
• to shape an information field abroad in the selected countries.
In response to the request the air traffic control officer usually gives or does not give the go-ahead and he sometimes says aloud additional input data. For example, the pressure and the direction of the wind, the presence of other aircrafts on the runway or in the area where we decided to fly or which lane we should move on. This is very important: if you decide to do something, ask yourself these questions before you act, and you will see that additional input data will definitely appear.
Don’t reinvent the wheel – you won’t fly too far
When it is clear who you are, where you are and what you want, the difficulties appear – how to manage with all this staff.
From that moment it is important to remember one more rule from aviation: an airplane is an airplane that flies itself if the pilot does everything right. So, the same rule is right for any business, and for PR, in particular: if everything is done correctly then the outcome will be worthy. You should just try not to goof it up.
If you decide to create a primary information field, then you can act according to the principles of “fan PR”.
What does it mean? To give comments on all topics (which are surely not totally contrary to your activities), to express your opinion on various issues from business management to industry issues in the format of comments, opinion columns. Remember that to give comments you need to prepare a certificate of the company, of the speaker (one or more) as well as compose a media database and work wisely using your own resources or hire an executive.
What is important to consider at this step: to make the actions effective it is necessary to catch the wind, to get into the information flow. If there is a hot (not only provocative, but simply exciting for a lot of people) newsworthy event, you need to respond to it really quickly.
For example, several restrictions on the sale of alcohol were introduced and you are an alcohol company. React quickly, become a key speaker, give comments. An important decision regarding your industry (or small business in general) has been made by the government, so catch up the flow, respond to it immediately.
As one of my mentors, Sveta Odintsova, says, journalists take comments from the most important ones and from the most talkative ones. Besides, be careful when you choose a source site. If you prepare an opinion on a topical issue, but publish it on the site whippastrywithhumps.com, do not expect a boom. Open the media citation ratings, choose those who will help you to achieve the wishful result – and go ahead. Provided a mention in the cited periodical – continue to work with other media.
If you already have some kind of information field, it’s time to highlight and promote key areas.
First of all, you need to decide which of the speakers will perform for every part. For example, Natalya Stein talks about media relations, Ksenia Khizova talks about digital, SMM and so on, Alexey Gozhiy talks about territorial branding. Furthermore, as in the first case, we prepare a certificate about the company and the speakers, media databases by topics (for every speaker, the topics are often totally different) and continue to work wisely.
If you are planning to develop your business abroad, remember: you cannot take off too high from the preliminary start. Take care of your information field in your native country, in Russia. And then step over the hill. Even if all your goals are abroad, but the company was founded in Russian and you personally also work here, still take care of your reputation in your home country. Believe me or not, but foreign journalists know how to use a translator and will definitely google who is who.
Don’t need another mouth feed
When it is clear who you are, where you are, what you want and how to do it, leave the luggage behind and prepare a TOR for the executive doer.
What startups should stop doing if they don’t want to pay 800 thousand for a hundred links for useless releases:
• invent news stories when there is no sense for it;
• provide informational support for the company participation in exhibitions and forums that take a lot of time but has no output at all (a good example is the industry forum in Barcelona, where only the large companies give news, small participants just go there to meet different people and then spam the media with releases in the format “Pupkin took part in the exhibition”, which is of no use);
• write releases with or without any cause;
• write news on the site (this is the work of an ordinary manager or of a secretary);
• maintain a calendar of industry events (again, the routine of the secretary).
And what is the output if you drop all the ballast?
Summing up, any startup at any of the stages (discussed above) needs:
• from five to ten comments in the media (original source);
• one or two author’s columns (original source);
• one press release.
per month.
That’s all. Clear. Effective. Available. And then decide for yourself whether to hire an agency or to hire a PR manager or do everything with your own forces and hands. As you know: who is behind the wheel runs everything.
Sidebars: about the creation of newsworthy events
Many startupers believe that at the stage of preparation of the primary information field, they need to create newsworthy events on their own. In other words: one small unknown company believes that its informational issues can attract media attention.
But let’s analyze the real prospects with a cold head – there would be only a few such occasions per quarter, or even per year: for instance, you launch a revolutionary product that will be highly appreciated by experts and on the market; or you have beaten sales record in the whole industry or have made any other kind of breakthrough; maybe Vekselberg bought you.
But still be honest and assess properly your capabilities by answering the question “how often can you guarantee such newsworthy events?”. And please do not take such a question with hostility, considering that if you are a PR man, you have to invent them! Just appreciate the reality. If you have one or two newsworthy events per month that will arouse media interest, and don’t laugh, this is seriously cool, my dear! What is more important, don’t screw up. You are always being watched. And pay attention to this wise thought pronounced by Aram Ashotovich Gabrelyanov (I do not remember it verbatim but remember it forever since the time I’ve worked for LifeNews): no one will create news better than a real life can.
So, do not invent too much, just analyze the information and perform it correctly to the media.
What does a company profile should include:
Name, specialization, history – how many years on the market it exists and all its achievements presented in one line, the main product or service, exclusivity, geography and scale (if there is a record staff of specialists), additional regalia, for example, “Exclusive supplier of the royal palace”, “Strategic partner of a mainstream leader or association”, topics for working with the media, contacts.
What does the speaker certificate include:
Name and surname, positions and company name, competencies (what he or she is responsible for), a short professional reference; if appropriate, academic degrees, topics for comments and speeches in the media and at conferences (what does he or she talk about?), contacts (press services or direct, if you decide to do everything with your own forces).
What should not be done in any case (once again about the most long-standing worries):
• to spam journalists with releases;
• to troll them with calls;
• to ask the media to create for you the topics with for your author’s column;
• to break the deadline;
• to write a comment for three or four pages;
• to ask for a link to a comment or to a post in case if you can find it yourself;
• to sign the speaker as “an expert” without specifying his or her position and organization.
