12 minute read
media reLations PoLiCy
ChaPter 11
tHe CruCiAL eLements oF A 21st Century FrAnCHise mediA reLAtions PoLiCy
Pete burdon | Founder FRANChISE MEDIA TRAINING
About the Author
Pete Burdon is founder and head trainer of Franchise Media Training and author of ‘Media Training for Modern Leaders.” He is a former daily newspaper reporter and government press secretary. This puts him in a unique position, having worked on both sides of the media interaction and understanding the needs of both reporter and media spokesperson. Pete has Masters Degrees in Communication Management and Journalism from universities in New Zealand and Australia and now operates in both countries. Check out his free Online Masterclass: “The Franchise Leader’s Survival Guide to Dealing with the News Media when the Stakes are High,” at www. FranchiseMediaTraining.com
The news media is far more relevant and important to franchises than other businesses for two major reasons. Firstly, they have much more to lose when negative media attention comes their way. This is because it can, and does, impact the bottom lines of every franchise in the network literally overnight. That means they need to be ready for this, even if they think negative publicity is unlikely.
The good news is that the damage can be limited if a Crisis Communication Plan is in place to deal with this. It’s too late to plan when something happens or call in a PR company.
On a more positive note, franchises are in a position to generate a lot more positive media publicity than other businesses because of their name recognition and instant credibility as serious enterprises. This can be done at a State or National level by the leadership and locally by franchisees. More on this later.
Those that take advantage of this develop great reputations. This is not only good for business, but severely limits the damage if negative media does eventuate. If the only time you appear in the media is for the wrong reasons, guess what people will think of your brand?
What does this mean?
All this means that it’s crucial that franchises have a three-pronged media relations policy.
The first element must be the development of a Crisis Communication Plan. If something went wrong at a franchisee outlet and media went rushing in with cameras blazing, are they and you ready to deal with that? How would you all react, what would the franchisee staff do? People are always more concerned how businesses react to negative events and crises than the fact they happened in the first place. This is why it’s vital that any franchise is ready. I’ve presented to franchise groups across Australia and New Zealand and I’m always surprised how few franchises have such a plan, despite the damage that can be caused without one. More about developing this plan in the following pages.
The second element is the ability to face media interviews. This is a difficult task, but there are ways to stay out of trouble and get your points across. But it’s a learned skill and your spokespeople need to be ready before these skills are needed. Once developed, these skills are not only crucial when facing difficult questions, but also handy talking to media about positive issues. Despite what many people say, you do have a degree of control when you talk to media.
Lastly, you or your communications team need to know how to generate media publicity for everyone in the network. This involves far more than writing and sending off a press release. There are many tactics involved.
Over the next few pages, I’ll outline briefly the key steps needed to get these three elements working in your franchise.
element one: A Crisis Communication Plan
A Crisis Communication Plan is a document that prepares an entire franchise to deal with crises or negative situations that can damage reputations and bottom lines.
Lots of franchises don’t have one or have a document that hasn’t taken into account the transformational changes in the news media over the last decade and the advent of social media. There are usually one of two reasons for not having one. It’s common for franchise leaders to think they won’t need one because nothing will happen that could require one. This is a mistake. There are many things that could go wrong that lead to sudden and damaging media and public scrutiny and often, it’s not even the fault of the franchise. Allegations of varying sorts are common here.
The other common reason for not having a plan is the belief that a public relations company or department could be called in to fix the situation. This may have been possible 10 years ago, but not today with the internet and social media. The success of your response will be determined by your speed. That’s why people within the franchise will need to get the response underway.
Media will swoop on a franchisee within minutes, fling a microphone in their face, and that may end up on tonight’s television news. Do your franchisees know what to do in these situations and on social media? Do you have pre-prepared statements on possible issues ready to send to media and other stakeholders within minutes of the event erupting? If you don’t, media stories will say that you “refused to comment.” Those stories will then be spread through social media like wildfire.
These are a few of the reasons why you need a Crisis Communication Plan. It’s like an insurance policy on your reputation, just like an emergency management plan is an insurance policy on personal safety. See the following section for what this plan needs in it.
the 5 Key steps tO Creating yOur FranChise Crisis COmmuniCatiOn pLan
step One: Assign roles for your crisis communication team
There are a number of roles that need to be filled both before and during a crisis or negative event. Someone needs to lead the communication response from head office, media spokespeople need to be identified and trained, while other roles include an Online Manager and Media Liaison Officer. Remember that franchisees will also need to be in the loop as the issue is likely to emerge from one of them.
step twO: predict crises and prepare statements
The best way to plan is to predict what could go wrong and prepare brief holding statements for those scenarios. These can then be tailored on the day and sent out quickly. It’s too late to do it when something happens and it’ll be too late to get a public relations person to write it. The success of your response in today’s world is determined by how fast you react.
step three: Create list of core people
You need a list of everyone you may need to contact in a crisis. Obviously, this includes your crisis communication team, but also other franchisees, a public relations person to help as the situation develops, possibly your lawyer, possibly your insurer and others. Every franchise is different and will have different groups to contact. This may need to be done by franchisees at the local level and the franchisor at the national level.
step FOur: Have multiple ways of contacting everyone
You need two or even three ways of contacting your relevant stakeholders. Obviously, the nature of the issue will determine who needs to be prioritised, but generally telephone, email and text message should be available for everyone. Failure to contact the right people quickly is a common reason for failure during a crisis response. You will want stakeholders to hear the news from you before they hear it in the news media and on social media. This contact information should all be in the same place in your plan.
step Five: places to organise
There are important places to organise before you may have a crisis or issue. If media arrive at reception, who will be responsible for them and where will they be taken? Also, if it’s very serious, you may need to hold a Press Conference. Where would that be? You don’t want to leave these decisions to crisis day. All of this, plus other additional documents such as Staff Guidelines focused on traditional and social media, will form your Crisis Communication Plan.
element tWo: mastering media interviews
The ability to competently handle media interviews is important. Media interviews are like no other conversation, and must be approached in a totally different way. That’s because only snippets of what you say will make it into many of the stories that reporters and producers put together. That’s why so many people complain that they were quoted out of context.
The last thing you want is to be thrust into the media spotlight without the skills to deal with it. In a nutshell, for both positive and negative interviews, you need a three-point message that you focus on and come back to throughout the interview. You make the same points in different ways and always transfer back to them when you’ve briefly answered a question. There are ways to make these points irresistible for reporters, meaning you can have major control over what parts of your interviews make it into the media stories.
There are also invisible traps to avoid when talking to media. See the following section for the 5 key steps to preparing for pain-free media interviews.
the 5 Key steps tO mastering media interviews
step One: Buy some time and find out what they want
When the journalist first contacts you, it’s important that you buy some time. Never do an interview on the spot. But having said that, don’t wait too long. You do have some breathing space if a statement has been sent out, but if you want to control the situation, you need to be available to media.
step twO: Create your media message
The next step is to prepare your media message. This is the three most important things you want to say on the issue. You must be able to sum these up in 25 seconds. They must be of interest to the audience of the media outlet. Your plan will be to transfer back to these throughout the interview so that they become the focus.
step three: predict difficult questions
While your aim in the interview will be to keep using bridging statements to get back to your key points, you do need to answer questions asked of you. That’s why you must predict the difficult questions (in negative situations). Don’t spend hours on this but do look for the obvious ones and have brief answers ready for them.
step FOur: dress up your points in interesting ways
For each of your three key points, dress them up with attractive language. For example, by using analogies, examples and emotion. This gives reporters and producers good material to use in their stories while also maximising the chances of your points becoming the focus. This will also stop you sounding like a broken record because you will have different ways of making the same points.
step Five: practice, practice, practice
This is the most important step of all. The theory is one thing, but putting it into practice is quite another. This is why media training is vital.
In the introduction, I mentioned that franchises have more opportunities to attract positive media attention than other businesses. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, because a business has been franchised, media know it’s credible and media only want to work with credible businesses for positive stories. Secondly, because franchisees are scattered throughout a region, country or countries, there are huge opportunities for them all to approach local media in their patch with the same information.
For example, a press release could be distributed to all franchisees about a simple national fundraising campaign the franchise is holding. They add their name to the release and send it to local media. This can lead to masses of free media exposure in local media across a country or countries. That can’t be done by other businesses. Also remember that we’re talking about news stories and guest articles here, not advertising. So it’s absolutely free and the reputation-building benefits of this can’t be matched anywhere. See the following 5 key steps to mastering this process.
the 5 Key steps tO attraCting pOsitive media attentiOn FOr yOur FranChise
step 1: decide what media to approach
As a general rule, franchisors will focus on state or national media, and franchisees on local media. With franchisees, it may be a single community newspaper, while franchisors might look at niche national media as well as more general outlets. This will depend on the industry.
step 2: Give media what they want
It’s important to give media what they are interested in, rather than some advertisement dressed up as news. As a general rule, they look for things related to topical issues and other things that are out of the ordinary. Obviously local media want stories with local angles. The focus of individual franchises will again depend on their niche and the outlets they target.
step 3: Communicate properly with media
Media generally like to be contacted in the first instance by email. However, there are exceptions. A few prefer the telephone, while a small minority like social media. It’s important to find out what your target media prefer. It’s also important to find the personal email address of reporters and producers, not general news addresses.
step 4: Organise a national campaign with franchisees
There are many ways that franchises can launch national media campaigns. This is a simple job and allows them to get masses of media coverage by involving franchisees in their local communities through local media. The key is to organise an event that would interest media. For example, a fundraising campaign where franchisees across the country organise a quirky event while taking donations for a well-known person in need. It could also relate to a worthy cause in their own niche.
step 5: Create a plan
A simple media publicity plan can be created. This should be sliced into monthly sections, highlighting times where publicity opportunities are greatest for your niche. For example, a florist should plan something around Valentine’s Day. There are other things that should be included in this simple plan such as identifying specific issues in your area of expertise with a plan to comment through the media when they become topical. The plan should also include a schedule of meetings (often monthly) to discuss publicity opportunities.
Conclusion
A media relations policy can make or break a franchise network. By taking advantage of positive opportunities and being ready for the negative, everyone can thrive. But failure to be ready for that media onslaught can be disastrous. Warren Buffett summed this up perfectly with the following quote. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
Pete burDon Founder | Franchise media training
+64 29200 8555 office@Franchisemediatraining.com
www.Franchisemediatraining.com (includes access to the online masterclass)
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