Media Training

It’s the White House calling. Your expertise in strategic communication is needed. They want you to rush over right away. The question on the table is one you’ve handled many times before with CEOs and other C-suite members: What do you advise when the CEO’s 1:1 interviews are a disaster? Should the CEO continue to do interviews?

Regardless of the viewers’ opinions of the Trump/Wallace interview, it did provide several points of instruction for media training. Whether they are working with an executive, small business owner or the president of the United States, it’s important for communications professionals to prepare not only themselves, but their spokespeople, to the best of their ability.

With the novel coronavirus, we see on TV and read in print media the same experts over and over. The public thinks these people are the most-qualified. Sometimes that’s the case. Other times, it’s because they are media savvy. Here are tips that will help make the executives you represent more media friendly.

Public relations crisis management counsels that brands should own their mistakes promptly, apologize when there are victims and communicate how they are making things right. Red Lobster’s CEO Kim Lopdrup did that yesterday. For many… Continued

What to do when you have trouble communicating and there’s an important message to send? Qualification: You’re an ineffective communicator in the eyes of your 25-year-old daughter. And to make things more complex, you happen to be governor of the country’s coronavirus epicenter?

In late February, coronavirus was starting to pierce the US zeitgeist. Garland Stansell, the PRSA chair and a veteran health care communicator, told us then that producing a consistent message is critical to communications during… Continued

Since they are roughly half the population, women should be quoted about half the time in the media. A recent analysis shows women are cited in content only about one-third of the time, however. With Women’s Day approaching, PR pros can help rectify this issue in a variety of ways, from mentoring to formal industry efforts.

Last week, Uber reported $1 billion in losses, despite its third-quarter results beating estimates. This week, an angry social media mob reacted to Khosrowshahi’s comments by keeping the #BoycottUber hashtag trending all of Monday, dragging out many of the company’s skeletons in the process. For PR pros, the latest round of calls to #BoycottUber also contains many lessons around what constitutes good, and bad, investor relations. Here’s what we learned.

Formal media training is important. But its value is lessened when the same formula is used regardless of the client. That’s why PR veteran Arthur Solomon always believed that the account team should play a crucial role in the process and insist that the media trainers not use the “one size fits all” formula.

Interviews on television and social media videos are a fact of life for corporate executives. Yet many executives are fearful when reporters and cameras appear. Fear not. Maura FitzGerald of Vision 2.0 Communications provides a comprehensive review of what to say, how to say it and what to wear while you do.