Media Relations & Crisis Comms: A Q&A with Jordan Smith

Jordan Smith is a communications expert with years of experience in media relations and communications at tech companies. She also happens to be my best friend! I'm so grateful to have a close friend and confidante as whip smart and kind as Jordan. She'd be the Chair of my Personal Board of Directors given our shared professional expertise, her great gut, and her sense of humor. There is no better person to bounce ideas off of, learn from, admire, and complain to. I have done all that and more with Jordan over 16 years (!) of friendship - and nearly a dozen international trips together.

Jordan has sharp, practical insights on media relations and crisis comms, two of the more challenging areas of external relations. Jordan has built her career in the field as the media landscape has shifted -- from layoffs and mergers to the rise of niche influencers and an ever accelerating news cycle. She shares her best tips for pitching right-fit reporters and pre-empting tough questions that reporters may ask as they seek to tell engaging stories.

How did you get into communications? Tell us your story.

The story of my career is winding but fortuitous, so here it goes: I studied communications at Northeastern yet somehow I still feel like I fell into it as my profession.?

I did a few internships at a museum in Boston and I really loved that environment, so by the time I graduated, I wasn’t even sure if PR or Comms was the direction I wanted to go in. I thought maybe I’d teach art classes to young children or go into art conservation. But, as luck and the job market would work out, I didn’t end up pursuing either. Instead, I found myself in New York City, working as an Executive Assistant at a video company called Vimeo, and a couple of friends suggested I participate in the mentorship program there. I was matched with the head of Comms—who is fabulous and bold, and honestly, very different from me—and she brought me onto her team as an associate focused on creator products. I learned a lot from her and was promoted quite quickly—way quicker than I was expecting— because she left Vimeo for another opportunity. The rest, as they say, is history.?

What is your philosophy around media relations? What should comms professionals avoid?

I have a few thoughts about this. First, I think the smartest comms strategies are often the simplest. For me, as someone who is often telling stories about products or technology, it comes down to understanding the ins and outs of those features, and then distilling all of that complex work into one or two sentences about why someone should care. I assume that, when I reach out, no one knows about the products I’m talking about — but I take that responsibility seriously. They should care!??

Next, every great story has conflict — I think it’s important to remember that when you’re pitching. I suppose that sounds a little paranoid, ha, and maybe I am at this point! But reporters who are doing their job well will ask difficult questions to get a good story, so I do my best to anticipate those and pre-emptively answer them in my outreach. As Comms people, we can’t control everything every time, but we can control some things some of the time.?

Lastly, while I don’t have great advice about what to avoid, I think so much about good media relations is just having the right target. You have to do your research; know who you’re pitching and why.?

Who is an inspiration to you? Either someone who prompted you to go into comms or a person that you follow who does it well?

I am impressionable and admire so many people! In general, the people I find most inspiring are the ones who throw caution to the wind and take big swings. I am not like that—not even a little—but I want to be. As I mentioned earlier, my career beginnings can be attributed to other people, my friends and mentors Courtney and Jess, who saw potential in me and pushed me to try something new. I try to be an advocate for others as they were to me. You inspire me, Angela! I love how you write, and how honest and funny you are. My manager Rosa is a brilliant strategist and master of crisis comms —?I learn from her every day. The list goes on. I think I’m probably a patchwork quilt of everyone around me and their great qualities.?

What advice would you give to someone starting their career in communications or someone who is trying to advance in their career?

I believe that the best communicators are better at listening than talking and that you should never be too senior to put pen to paper! So, I guess my advice is: listen, be a reliable and trustworthy partner, and do the work.?

What is your take on crisis comms and what are some words of advice to approach it??

Crisis communications can be such a stressful part of the job, but I’ve tried to reframe my thinking around it. Partly because it’s so inevitable! Someone I worked with recently said something like, we don’t need to map out every potential outcome — just the worst-case, and then the most likely. I found that thinking helpful, and a good reminder that those two scenarios probably (hopefully) aren’t the same.?

Maybe this is obvious to say, but to be good at communications—especially crisis comms—you need to understand people and why we behave the way we do, individually and collectively. I think if you approach any crisis intending to understand why, then the path forward is often a little clearer.?