PINs workshop: Building Effective Media Relations with Andrea Ellison

Andrea Ellison Communications

TRIEC’S PROFESSIONAL IMMIGRANT NETWORKS

September 28, 2013

“Media Relations Strategy” Workshop

Agenda

• Introductions

• Presentation

• In-class Workshop Exercises

• Conclusion and Final Questions

2

Introductions

• TRIEC

• Andrea Ellison

• PINs leaders

3

Professional Immigrants Networks

“MEDIA RELATIONS STRATEGY” WORKSHOP

Defining a Media Relations Strategy

Media Relations is…

• The strategic deployment of engaging the media to tell your

organization’s story

• The dissemination/communication of your organization’s

objective(s) to your audience(s)

• The transmission of messages via the media

• Working with media to inform the public of your organization's

mission, policies and practices in a positive, consistent and credible

manner

• A three-pronged relationship: the Sender (you/the organization), the

Transmitter (media) and the Receiver (your target audience)

• ALL OF THE ABOVE

Defining a Media Relations Strategy

An important distinction…

• Media relations refer to the relationship that a company or

organization develops with journalists

• Public relations extend that relationship beyond the media to the

general public

Therefore…

• The media is a CONDUIT/VEHICLE to carry your messages and

information to your public/audiences

Skillful and strategic media relations results in…

• Relationships and Recognition

– Publicity: Information about an organization, issue, event, or cause that

earns space and/or time in media that furthers the interest of an

organization or individual without specific payment to that media

Defining a Media Relations Strategy

A Media Relations Strategy is…

• A plan of action developed and implemented to bring messages to

the attention of your audience(s) through the use of appropriate

media

• Part of an organization’s overall communications plan that includes:

– Overarching objectives

– Communication strategies to fulfill objectives

– Identification of target audiences

– Key Messages

– Tactics to reach those audiences

– Evaluation Metrics

Your Media Objectives

Get me in the media…

OR

Keep me out

8

Media Overview: What is News?

• Change – It concerns and interests

• New – Significant and interesting, trends

• Relevant – Affects a specific audience

• Timely – Fresh, new developments, as it happens

• Human Interest – Emotional, people value

• Entertainment – Counterintuitive, amusing

• Controversial – Conflict, challenge

9

Media Realities: Overall

• More consolidation & downsizing

• Increased workloads

• Shorter deadlines

• Content on multiple platforms & properties

• Fewer in-person interviews & press conferences

• Leverage third-party content

• Immediate reader/viewer input

• Social Web interactions

• 24/7 news cycles

10

Media Realities: What Journalists Are Like

• They’ve got a job to do – and under pressure to do so

• Reporters need help – vast range in skill and background knowledge

• They have no time – and sometimes no time for manners

• Photographers know no boundaries

• The media have an agenda – the media’s power to define what is

important

– Agenda-setting based on two assumptions:

• The media do not reflect reality; they filter and shape it

• Media concentration on a few issues and subjects leads the public to perceive

those issues as more important than other issues

11

Why Talk to the Media?

1. Obligation to keep clients, customers and other stakeholders informed

2. Public has a right / need to know about key issues

3. Opportunity to tell your side of the story

4. If you don’t tell your story, someone else will – often uninformed and biased

12

The Four Functions of the Media Encounter

1. Relevance: Get the right people to care

2. Comprehension: Get people to understand

3. Credibility: Get people to believe

4. Urgency: Get people to act

13

Media Relations: Art or Science?

The Answer…

• Both

The Question to Ask Is…

• How can we effectively use media relations to achieve desirable

results?

Therefore…

• What do we want to achieve?

Media Relations: An Art

Media Relations is an art: It fosters creativity on the part of the PR

practitioner who engages in the work process

Media Relations means thinking creatively about:

• What groups of stakeholders (audiences) do we want to appeal to?

• How do we want to appeal to these stakeholders?

• What impression we do want these stakeholders to have?

• What media should we leverage to reach these stakeholders?

• What messages are most appealing to these stakeholders?

• What do we want these stakeholders to do?

Media Relations: An Art

Media Relations: The art of engagement

Engagement works at two levels:

• Pro-active

– Actively reaching out to media via various tools (e.g. news releases,

media pitches, media tours, news conferences, etc.)

• Reactive

– Responding to incoming questions from media about your organization

or an issue related to your organization (e.g. to gauge your reaction to

an issue, to offer expert commentary/be a source, etc.)

Media Relations: A Science

Media Relations is a science: It involves (requires) planning and

measurement

Planning Your Media Relations Strategy:

• Research and Analysis

– Define the problem/opportunity, establish objectives

• Action

– Develop a plan

• Communication

– Implement the plan

• Evaluation

– Monitor the results, evaluate tactics, lessons learned

Your Media Relations Strategy: Art and Science at Work

Media Relations: A scientific art or an artistic science?

Your Media Relations Strategy:

1. Takes the science of plan development

2. Combines with it the creativity of implementing that plan

3. Goes back to the science of evaluating the results

Building a Media Relations Strategy

RESEARCH and ANALYSIS

• The basis from which a strategy is developed

• Identify the problem or the opportunity

• Set objectives – objectives must be results-oriented

Objectives should be:

• Measurable

• Specific

• Realistic

• Time-bounded

• Prioritized

Building a Media Relations Strategy

RESEARCH and ANALYSIS continued

Tips to prioritize objectives:

• Assess current level of awareness

• Determine what people know about you/what you are known for

• Assess public perceptions (positive, negative, neutral)

• Evaluate the opportunities and obstacles in your way

Exercise One: What are your goals? What are you trying to achieve?

Set one or more measurable objectives. For example:

• To create awareness of my organization beyond the ethnic media

and with mainstream media

• To raise awareness for the importance of donations

• To encourage potential future employers to consider the hiring of

skilled immigrant talent

Building a Media Relations Strategy

TARGET AUDIENCE

• Target audiences: any individual or group affecting your

organization in pursuit of its mission

• For PR planning the audience can be categorized as:

– Those who can take action for or against the audience

– Those who can influence what the audience thinks and does

Examples:

• Local government (e.g. city councillors)

• Business associations

• Existing and potential new members

• Media (mainstream traditional, ethnic media, social media)

Building a Media Relations Strategy

TARGET AUDIENCE continued

Tips to help identify your target audience: Think about all the people

and groups you regularly communicate with. Review recent

correspondence, event invitations, etc. and ask:

• What sort of audience are they?

• With whom do you want to communicate with? Why?

Exercise Two: List your target public audiences and try classifying

these audiences as follows:

• Those who can take action for or against the audience

• Those who can influence what the audience thinks and does

Building a Media Relations Strategy

TARGET AUDIENCE continued

• The media is an important “audience” – media are a

CONDUIT/VEHICLE to your end-user audience

• A media relations strategy must include a well-developed media list

• A media list must be maintained – it requires regular updating

• Media can be both an influencer and a group that can take action

for or against your organization

• Types of media to consider:

– Print (mainstream newspapers, magazines, ethnic, industry trades)

– Radio (mainstream and ethnic)

– Television (mainstream and ethnic)

– Social (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, news websites, bloggers, etc.)

Exercise Three: Develop a media list. Think about the different media

and who is appropriate to reach your audiences.

Building a Media Relations Strategy

KEY MESSAGES

• What you need to tell your audience in order to influence, change,

promote their awareness, attitude or behaviour

• Messages should answer the question: Why should we care?

Messages must be concise, clear, easily understood and for media,

quotable

– Simple & Substantive

– Credible & Provocative

– Human & Personal

– Facts & Figures

– Analogies & Examples

– Audiences & Verticals

• A variety of secondary messages can be used to support key

messages (e.g. proof points from industry stats)

Building a Media Relations Strategy

KEY MESSAGES continued

TRIEC Example from 2013 IS Awards:

• The Greater Toronto Region stands to prosper from fully engaging

the contributions of skilled immigrants

– Skilled immigrants help Canadian companies do business with the

world

– Local customer bases are changing as more immigrants settle in the

GTA

– Skilled immigrants bring high levels of skills and education – 51 per

cent of recent immigrants have a university degree compared to 20 per

cent of Canadians

– Skilled immigrants bring innovative ideas and international expertise

Exercise Four: Develop two or three key messages you want to

communicate and any supporting statements. Consider what these

messages mean to your audience.

Building a Media Relations Strategy

TACTICS

• Tactics are the communications tools you use to target your

audience with your key messages

• Numerous tactics in the PR professional’s toolkit, but focus for this

workshop is on media relations tools to engage the media

Important reminder – the media is a CONDUIT/VEHICLE to your

audience. So why are we doing this, why engage the media?

1. Relevance: Get the right people to care

2. Comprehension: Get people to understand

3. Credibility: Get people to believe

4. Urgency: Get people to act

Building a Media Relations Strategy

TACTICS continued

Be strategic – choose appropriate tactics to effectively engage media

• Relationship-building meetings

• Media Alert and/or News Release

• Press Kit

• Need a Source

• PSA (Public Service Announcement)

• Community Calendar Notice

• Media Invitation to an event

• Media/Story Pitch

• Interview Opportunity

• Photo Opportunity

• Editorial board meetings

• Letters to the editor

• Media Tours

• Social Media

Building a Media Relations Strategy

TACTICS continued

Exercise Five: Plan your tools. How do you plan to reach your

audiences and target each one? Strategically choose three or four

media relations tools and consider how each will work for your

organization. Explain why.

Building a Media Relations Strategy

EVALUATION

• Effective evaluation entails putting systems in place to measure the

strategy from the beginning

• Barriers to measurement include:

– Lack of time, personnel, budget

– Lack of knowledge and experience using research techniques and

monitoring tools

– Concern for proving strategy was ineffective

• Why do it? “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

– Allows for readjustments/corrections during a campaign

– Identifies what worked and what didn’t (learnings)

– Creates a benchmark for future communications

– Provides an opportunity to communicate success to your stakeholders

(internally and externally)

Building a Media Relations Strategy

EVALUATION continued

Tips for developing evaluation metrics:

• Revisit your objectives – did you achieve what you set out to do?

• Look at your target audience – did your messages reach them and

if there was a response, was it positive, negative or neutral?

• Learnings – what other tools could you have used, what worked?

• Evaluation is essential, but “how to” remains a problematic issue

within the public relations industry

– The Canadian Public Relations Society has developed a widely-

accepted industry standard for media measurement: Media Relations

Rating Points (MRP). Visit: www.cprs.ca/membership/mrp.aspx

Building a Media Relations Strategy

EVALUATION continued

• Commonly used MRP criteria for assessment of media coverage:

– Circulation/Audience Reach

– Tone (positive, negative, neutral)

– Mention of Organization

– Photo/Image/Colour

– Spokesperson Quotation and Credibility of Spokesperson

– Prominence

– Key Message(s)

– Exclusivity

– Inclusion of Website

– Call to Action

Andrea Ellison Communications

THANK YOU!

QUESTIONS?

[email protected]