11 Tips So You Don't Let Media Shizzle Affect Your Bizzle! - "how to cope with a media storm" for those less street :-)

Hey there BZ blog readers... another little blog post on the wonderful world of media and public relations.

When I started out in public relations, and well before I sold my soul and become a "consumer" PR Agency person I actually worked, in-house, in Crisis Communications.

This involved trying to protect the reputation of the company's I worked for when things went bad. Considering I did this in three seperate roles; a large multi-national utility company, a transport company and a FMCG (Fast moving Consumer Goods) company I got to see my fair share of sh*t hitting the preverbial fan.

I still keep my hand in when it comes to crisis comm's, mainly privately and not via 10 Yetis, for instance I gave media advice to the family affected by probably the biggest business related tragedy of 2008/2009 (not saying who, thank you very much).

I thought it may be worth passing on the top 11 tips (everyone does Top 10's, so 2009!) I have learned over the years for managing a situation when something has not gone to plan, business wise, and you have the media knocking at your door.

1. Prepare Q&A's advance - Every company knows that it could be tripped up by awkward questions so prepare for them. Create a document that can evolve over time with every possible awkward question and the associated media statement that you would give, should you be asked.

2. Identify your Coolest Senior Head - When things go wrong the media are not interested in speaking with a junior flunky, let alone a public relations one. They want immediate access to your most senior people. Identify who in your team could cope the best when under the media spotlight and get them media trained, or at least make them watch examples of people doing bad under the media spotlight, and those who do good under the media spotlight.

3. Tie Your Knees Together - The worst thing you can do is have a knee-jerk reaction. Most negative issues look a lot better once the initial storm has calmed. Unless you have absolutely no alternative but to say something immediately, try and hold off reacting for as long as possible. In some cases that may just be 30 mins or so after the initial call, but it can also be until the next day. The old adage of today's news becomming tomorrow's chip wrappers still holds firm today, and ever more so courtesy of the 24 hour rolling news that can quickly move its focus onto another story.

4. Be Transparent - Don't try and cover up a ball's up with a lie. Your fibs will come out and make the situation worse. Many wrongly believe that crisis communications is about convincing journalists to swallow a lie and this is so very very wrong. Good crisis communication is about getting across why a situation is not as bad as is being made out and not really that big a story. It is also about making trade-offs which leads me nicely onto my next point...

5. What can you Trade? - Can you offer a journalist an exclusive on your next big news story in return for them not writing up the negative article they are thinking about? It has to be very big mind you, and boy you better make sure you go to that journalist first.

6. Be Seen to Be Doing The Right Thing - Communicate clearly that your most senior people are looking into the issues raised and that they will report back as soon as the investigation has taken place. Take action to fix the error or mistake immediately and go over and above the call of duty to resolve the situation.

7. Don't Bury Your Head in the Sand - Get the dialogue going as early as possible with those who are attacking you. Try and meet face to face with media outlets who are giving you the kick in so you can better understand their angle and reasoning for the attack.

8. Agree a Line and Don't go Any Further - Don't be tempted to keep reacting to a story tit-for-tat with a media outlet. Most big companies have three responses to every question in their Q&A (see above) to be used for varying stages of media attack. The first is for light questioning, the second is if the media persists and the third is to be used when you have your tin hat on and people are lobbing in awkward questions galore.

9. Never go off the Record - It could the trade journalist that you have built up a great relationship with over several years, it doesn't matter! Never be tempted to go off the record when speaking about a negative issue.

10. Don't Whore Yourself About - you don't HAVE to do media interviews about a negative issue. The media will always say that you should so that you can get your point across - that is their job, it makes for a better story. Remember though, it is up to you, get advice from people you trust and decide the best form of defence - it aint always attack after all!

11. Don't Mention The Company Name in Your Defensive Statement - This is something that is valuable for two reasons. One, you simply don't want to add any further brand damage by associating your name with a negative comment. If the story is already out there and being written up, you don't need to put your company name in your statement. Two, your competitors will have the same Google Media Alerts for you, as you do for them. If they see you are getting hammered in the press then they are likely to fan the flames with a well placed comment that will make them look great.

Finally... don't be scared to get external advice! - Not an affiliate link :-)

Hope this helps.

Andy who runs a PR-Agency