Speak to Lead

Survey reveals how journalists rate public relations practitioners and what they want from them

Thanks to publication coach Daphne Gray-Grant for alerting me (via Twitter) to the Bulldog Reporter/Cision 2010 Journalist Survey on Media Relations Practices.

If you are dealing with the media, the survey provides useful information about productive relationships between journalists and those on "the dark side."

Some journalist complaints about pr practitioners are the same now as they were when I was starting out 30 years ago:

• They don't know what beats I cover.
• They pitch their product/organization, but don't give any reasons why my reader/viewer would care about them.
• Their writing reads like advertising, not journalism.
• They don't understand that when I say I'm not interested, I mean I'm not interested, don't bug me.

But the survey also indicates increased opportunities for public relation professionals. Journalists reported

• Nearly half are expected to produce a greater number of stories per week
• A fourth are covering more beats
• Almost a fifth are making greater use of press releases and other pr materials

More stories, more beats, less time for each means, as seen by the increased reliance on press releases, that communication professionals can do well if they pitch timely, creative, audience-focused stories.

What I especially enjoyed, however, were the comments journalists made about emails. Here are 3:

1. Subject line doesn't grab my attention (23.5%)
2. Doesn't get to the point quickly enough (43.2%)
3. Wastes time with pleasantries (11.6%)

The survey also includes how journalists rate the professional skills of pr professionals. Could make for some very humbling reading.

Media training/Reputation Protection: Reporter's Words You Don't Want to Read

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2009 (WWDC 2009) opened today in San Francisco. It's described by Apple as "the premier technical event for developers and IT professionals innovating with Apple platforms."

One thousand Apple engineers; 5,000 developers. A new iPhone expected to be announced.

And here is the first tweet from the Wall Street Journal's legendary dean of technology, Walt Mossberg (shown here with Steve Jobs):

waltmossbergAt Apple #WWDC where it's all about iPhones and AT&T service is overwhelmed. You'd think they'd have prepared better.

OUCH! "You'd think they'd have prepared better."! What a great first impression.

I don't have any inside info from AT&T as to what went wrong. Maybe they thought they had done everything possible. Coverage would be, it seems to me, an obvious concern. 

Still, having observed how often the obvious gets overlooked, I wonder if coverage was on anybody's checklist.

Where were the reputation czars for AT&T and it's iPhone partner, Apple?

Persuasive Sound Bites: Word Pictures that Change Behavior

Steve Farnsworth (twitter user TheRealPRMan) has written a super blog entry titled Let's Shoot the CEO: Is Pay for Placement PR a Brilliant Idea or Acutely Ignorant.

Steve makes a powerful case against pay for placement. But that's not the focus of this blog. 

What excited me, and why you should read it, is Steve's use of a word picture to change behavior. 

Rather than attempt to convince with industry statistics, a long monologue comparing pay for placement vs traditional, or even testimonials, he cuts to the chase with a simple, but vivid word picture to shift the potential client's mindset.

Steve's experience also provides one other lesson on persuasion. You have to believe in what you offer. I can think of numerous service providers who would have immediately acquiesced to what the client thought they wanted. In Steve's case it's clear he knew the value of what he was offering and wanted the client to get the full benefit of his service. That's the power of the confidence that comes from firm belief ... and a determination to see that the client gets full value. 

Oh, and make sure you read all the way to the end to see the extent of the change.

Persuasive Speaking: Reputation Protection Part 3 - Five "Quick Fixes" to Safeguard Your Client

In Part 1 (Do Speakers Need a Reputation Czar?) I pointed out that many high-profile speakers end up looking bad because their personal staff and public relation advisers fail to make sure the speaker is ready for "prime time."

In Part 2 (Why Staff & PR Pros Fail to Protect the Speaker) I identified six triggers that produce poor counsel.

Here then are 5 tactics you can do to protect your speaker's reputation:

1. Be clear about what the speaker wants to accomplish in the speech or interview. Thendetermine what conditions you'll need for that to happen. In Secretary Geithner's Wall Street presentation, for example, a major goal was to reassure investors that the administration's rescue plan would work. A necessary condition to get investor buy-in was a detailed plan. Instead, investors got generalities. 
2. Become the audience. Ask the questions they'll be thinking: So what? Who cares? See your speaker's actions through the listeners' experiences. Perhaps using the corporate jet does save money for General Motors in terms of the CEO's time, but that's not part of the listeners' experience.  Note: If you're too close to the speaker and having trouble thinking like the audience, bring in someone who can. 
3. List your speaker's vulnerabilities. As you think like the audience, you'll discover soft points in the speaker's thinking or inconsistencies in his or her actions. Write them down. Then decide how to eliminate or neutralize them.
4. Know your speaker's comfort level and don't exceed it. For example, in Governor Jindal's response to President Obama's Address to Congress, the staging required him to speak directly into the camera for several minutes while standing in place. That unnatural staging would have been hard for even a good actor to pull off, let alone Governor Jindal. 
5. If something doesn't work in rehearsal, change it. In these high-profile situations, rehearsal time is often short. If your speaker is still having trouble with a word, phrase, or movement after two or three tries, change it or move on. Trying to "get it right" is unlikely to succeed and will lead to heightened frustration.

  Applying these five tactics well will help your speaker accomplish the desired objective.

Persuasive Speaking: Reputation Protection Part 2 - Why Staff & PR Pros Fail to Protect the Speaker

In Part 1 (Do Speakers Need a Reputation Czar?) I pointed out that many high-profile speakers end up looking bad because their personal staff and public relation advisers fail to make sure the speaker is ready for "prime time."

Why is it that even competent, often highly-paid, professionals fail the speaker? Here are six reasons I've observed:

1. Too close to the speaker, the issues, and doing business as usual. Out of touch with the audience. To the auto execs, flying the corporate jets to DC was normal. To members of Congress and the American taxpayer it was wasteful and arrogant.
2. Underestimating the symbolic impact of the speech, and not understanding that symbolism is much more than just the speech text.
3. Being unable to get the speaker to commit the time to rehearse, arrive early, and prepare mentally.
4. Complacent. Operating with an everything-will-be-fine attitude and therefore not aggressively anticipating potential problems and developing contingency plans. 
5. Unable to be blunt in telling the boss or client that something isn't working, especially if what isn't working was the boss or client's idea. 
6. No experience as a director and performer able to recognize all aspects that make a persuasive speech a powerful experience.  

Hence the need for a specialist, a "reputation czar."

In  Part 3 I'll give you a list of "quick fixes" that even an inexperienced staffer can use to protect the speaker's reputation.

Media Interviews: Getting Off Message - 5 Reasons Interviewees Stray from the Message

If you are about to do an interview, or are coaching someone who is, keep in mind these situations that can cause you to go off message.

1. Not having any messages. Hard to stay on message when you don't have any. Who would do that? Someone who thinks an interview is just a reporter-asks-a-question, interviewee-answers-it situation.
2. Forgetting (or never having had) the result they want from the interview. If you keep the result in mind, you'll be more likely to do what you need to to get that result, namely, staying on message.
3. Reacting when the reporter pushes your hot buttons. (See my post, Why News Guests Screw Up-Part 2)
4. Not comfortable with the messages. Unless you feel comfortable with the messages, off message will be the more familiar and easier place to be. That's why it's important to personalize and practice the messages.
5. Failure to learn and rehearse methods of transitioning back to message if you start to get sidetracked.

Success in interviews depends on knowing the result you want, having messages that are relevant and interesting, and staying on them.

Issue Advocacy: Persuading Others Is Easier If You Define the Issue--Unless You Use the Wrong Definition

In advocating a position on an issue, you'll be more successful if you are able to define, or frame, the terms of debate.

That's why getting out in front of the issue is critical. Better for you to get there first and  force your opposition to react to you, than the other way around.

But the advantage vanishes if you misidentify the key audience and/or wrongly define the issue.

Free culture advocate Larry Lessig discusses how these two mistakes contributed to the Supreme Court ruling 7-2 against his position in Eldred v Ashcroft when in fact he had expected a 7-2 ruling in his favor.

The relevant remarks are found in the video between 19:50 and 22:30. (The opening 20 minutes include a history of copyright law from colonial times to today. Quite interesting.)

Here is the link to Lessig's presentation: Open Source Cinema. 

My special thanks to Garr Reynolds, author of the fabulous new book, Presentation Zen, and his excellent blog for making me aware of Lessig's talk. (You can order Presentation Zen from amazon by clicking on the link in the column to your right.)

Reporter Thief: What to Do When a Reporter Uses Your Material But Doesn't Give You Credit

Ever had your material "stolen" by a reporter? Do enough interviews and you are likely to have times when you read an article, recognize your comments, and yell, "That #%*& used my stuff but didn't even mention me!"

That happened recently to a reader who sent me the following:

I was interviewed by two major newspapers that spent considerable time on the phone and asked me to send them some background on the topic.

In the first case they plagiarized me almost verbatim from a prior article I had written, never mentioning my name. In the second case [the reporter] used my background material and my insights with no accreditation.

These are major newspapers and I don't want to burn my bridges, but I do want credit for my material and insights as the source.

How do you handle this tactfully?

First, let's look at how to prevent such a situation from happening. Then we'll look at how the reader might respond to these two situations. 

When a client tells me "I spent considerable time on the phone" with a reporter, I know the next line will be

Michael Deaver--Tribute to a Hero

Vicar of Visuals, Media Maestro, Master of the Photo Op. (One example of his planning, left, Pres. Reagan speaking on the cliff above the Normandy Beaches on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day.) All titles given to Michael Deaver, Reagan's communication guru, who died this afternoon of pancreatic cancer. (NY Times) (Washington Post)

Mike's understanding of the power of visuals to convey messages-and his understanding of Reagan himself--transformed news coverage of the presidency. And in the process, he impacted all of us who create messages for media coverage and media train those who will deliver those messages.

Mike and I met in the mid 90s. Since then he has brought me in as a media trainer and/or speech coach for clients. He's also had me provide critiques of the communication skills senior U.S. House and Senate Republicans. I was looking forward to working with him next month for an overseas executive. Tragically, pancreatic cancer moves rapidly.

In my three decades as a media and speech coach, I've worked with hundreds of some of the finest PR and communication consultants in the world. I have great respect for many of them. But I have very few heroes. Mike Deaver was, and still is, one of them.

He was acutely observant and perceptive. He was a master of his craft. He was an innovator. More than that, Mike had the courage to tackle the dark side of Washington, to fight through his alcoholism and regain his innate love of life, love of family (he missed not being able to see the grandkids more often), and appreciation for others. He was much too young to die.

As to his impact on history, perhaps former first lady, Nancy Reagan, summed it up:

I think every president can point to one particular aide who knows him so well that he becomes indispensable. Mike was that man for Ronald Reagan.

Media Training: 'Off the Record' Warning, Part 2--It's Not Just for Interviews

Having a "There-is-no-off-the-record" (TINOTR) mindset is helpful not just when dealing with the news media. It should also apply to anything you say or write that might be of interest to the media.

Take the case of Michael T. Eckhart, president of the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE). Mr. Eckhart sent a letter to Marlo Lewis, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). Here is part of what he wrote:

Take this warning from me, Marlo. It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar...

If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity. I will call you a liar and charlatan to the Harvard community, of which you and I are members. I will call you out as a man who has been bought by Corporate America. Go ahead, guy. Take me on.

As you might infer, Mr. Eckhart