All brands benefit from helping not hindering the press; and it’s easy to do.
This is an extract from?IMTW Issue № 77.
???First, flashback?to last summer when?I advised you to become a B Corp. This week, I would be remiss not to mention that?the organisation’s effectiveness is in queastion.?
???? Now, read on?to learn why:
①?Making the media's life easier?is low hanging fruit for your comms team.
②?You should put yourself in the shoes of a journalist?on deadline.
③?Big American banks?deserve praise while….
④?…UK asset managers?should hang their heads in shame.
⑤?Online advertising?is less effective than it used to be.
⑥?It will take more than Brexit?to keep the City down.
⑦?There is reason to be concerned?about Deutsche Bank.
What's new
Twitter took a turgid - if not turdy - turn this week. Its press email now auto-responds with a poop emoji,?Mashable reports.
- “After firing the press relationship team at Twitter (and nearly everyone else), CEO Elon Musk is once again showing the dirty, rotten media what he thinks of them. On Sunday, Musk announced that?[email protected], the company's address that used to serve for handling inquiries from the press, now automatically responds with a poop emoji.”
- “The man fired Tesla's PR department?in 2020?and seemingly took over to (fairly randomly) address queries of all sorts on (where else) Twitter.”
- “The ugly side of this is the fact that Twitter is?falling apart at the seams?as Musk keeps?firing workers from Twitter, often?offending and denigrating them publicly?while doing so – something which PR departments were invented to prevent.”
Why it matters
Musk’s disdain for the press is arrogant, misguided and foolhardy.
This story matters because it’s a text book example of how not to treat anyone, let alone journalists who play such an important part in your brand building and messaging. Although Musk is in the rarefied position of not needing to rely on traditional public relations to attract coverage, none of us should make anyone’s life harder than it needs to be.
① Some PR truths I hold to be self-evident:
- Earned media - i.e appearances in the press - are still the best way to increase market awareness and build trust with your audiences.
- In the age of online media, journalists work to tighter deadlines than ever, so it’s often the spokesperson who responds first, rather than the one with the most thoroughly thought through and perfectly articulated view, that gets quoted.
- Online publications have unlimited space and a hunger to fill it with media content. Provide it, and chances are it will be used.
Making the media's life easier is low hanging fruit for your communications team and your brand will benefit almost immediately.
What to do about it
Take action
② One of these weeks, we’ll have the ‘PR agency vs doing it in-house’ debate. It’s one I have with myself regularly. But for now, let’s confine ourselves to things your marketing & communications team should be doing regardless. Here is a handful of suggestions:?
- Cultivate relationships with key media:?No journalist worth their salt will write positive things about you unless they’re true. But that’s not why you should stay close to a few of them who really know your segment. They’re invaluable sources of information on market trends, competitive opinions and customer drivers. And, sure, they might be able to help you get an alternative opinion across in short order, should the need arise one day.?
- Provide a dedicated single point of contact:?In the spirit of making journalists’ jobs easier, be sure to have a simple and obvious email address they can send their enquiries to. Don’t rely on online forms, Twitter handles or a PR agency for this.?
- Offer a fully-featured online media centre:?Dedicate one page of your website to journalists. Use it to house everything they might need if they were writing about you. No, that’s not just a repository of your press releases. It’s also a clear ‘about us’ description; a list of your spokespeople - with downloadable bios and high-resolution photography; a set of your logos and branding assets like images, animations and charts; and perhaps some highlights of your past appearance in the press - ideally in multimedia.?
- Have a deep bench of spokespeople at the ready:?To my earlier point about responding first not best, securing regular coverage often depends on your senior team prioritising media relations and understanding the importance of being prompt.
- Maintain an engaged social media presence:?Twitter is no longer the place to build brand, let alone generate leads (was it ever?), but it remains somewhere journalists research/procrastinate their stories. Engage with them there in a timely way and you could well find yourself quoted.
Get help
- Visit InMarketing, my resource library?for leaders in finance or technology who want to innovate, interact and influence.
- Join the InMarketing community, either?on Twitter?or on Substack (you’ll need to?download the Substack app?and head to the chat tab). Either way, you can ask questions of me and fellow senior marketing practitioners.
Help me
If you found this useful?or know someone who would, please share it. It would really help me to grow the community of regular IMTW readers.
More...
For the rest of this issue, including points ③, ④, ⑤, ⑥ and ⑦,?visit my Substack >
About
Written for CEOs, marketers and other leaders in the financial sector,?InMarketing This Week?is a showcase for news likely to impact them - delivered with insight on why it matters and ideas on what to do about it. It’s published every Sunday to give you a head start on the week. Read it?here, or?subscribe?to?have it delivered straight to your inbox at six, before it's available anywhere else.
