New to the Media Spotlight? Give a Little, Control a Lot

In the early days of being a spokesperson and, I’ve learned, even in the latter days - one is easily lulled into a role of congenenial accomodation. What I mean is, reporters seem to be clear about what they want from you and, because you want to be respected and liked, you try your darndest accomodate their needs. And ignore your own.

There are four things every reporter needs every time:

• COLOR
• CONCISE ANSWERS
• CUSTOMIZATION
• CONFLICT

The color, customization and conflict are simply the elements of any good story. The color makes it interesting, the customization is important to show they know their audience and the conflict is what gives any story a tantalizing twist. The concise answers part is, to them, really just a way to make their job easier (read: they don’t want to listen to you any longer than they have to).

The interesting thing is that these four elements are equally important to the spokesperson. As you craft your messages, make sure that they are colorful (hint: your customers are WAY more interesting and colorful than your products, so talk about them!). Find a way to say what you mean in a brief, compelling way. If you are blathering on for more than 20-seconds or so, you are, well, blathering on.

Just as reporters need to customize their article to appeal to their readers, you want to tailor your messages so that your customers hear them. The conflict part is a little trickier, because the conflict that the reporter really wants to hear about is not the conflict that you want to talk about. With that in mind, try to build- in conflict that is relevant to your customers, but not damaging to your company.

For example, if you are the CEO for ACME Cloud Security, the conflict the reporter wants to talk about is your recent Denial of Service attack.

The conflict you want to talk about is the conflict your customers deal with everyday: managing lightening-speed growth while keeping their systems safe.

So here’s the deal. what you really want to do is create the illusion that the reporter has control, because he seems to be drawing out of you the color, customizaion and conflict that he needs. In fact, you have pre-arranged where to insert color, customization and conflict into your messages – and have control over them. You deliver the messages in 15-20 seconds, and you’ll keep the reporter interested and engaged.

I cringe when I hear, “but the reporter really wanted my to talk specifically about our competitor” . I cringe because it means that the reporter is truly the one leading the conversation.

Never forget this: It’s the reporters job to draw out color, suprise, controversy, or to unearth company dirt. It is not your job to give the reporter everything he wants. Your job is to represent your company in a controlled and customer-focused way. And with plenty of preperation up-front, you and the reporter – and his readers and your customers – will all get a good story.