Last week my PR mate, Bob Lawrence and I caused a flurry of talkback on the ABC’s Spin Doctors, by explaining to the audience how to use the media to become community activists (Thursday 4th March).
Below are my seven tips on getting your cause into the media; however, first up, getting your name or cause up in lights is hard work, and feeling disenfranchised is pretty universal – it’s spawned political movements, including our own crazy fish ‘n chip lady, Pauline Hanson.
However there are simple rules of engagement with media. Here’s a good place to start: think like a tabloid journalist – how is this story going to increase his/her ratings or circulation – if you can’t answer that nor will the journo, who’ll simply find another story. Buying a paper and studying the types of stories being written might help here.
Prepare: What does success look like? Think of what you want as an outcome – your aim: define it, refine it; write it down. Then think about the audience you want to influence – we call them stakeholders: the people in your community; your local councillors; your Minister for Roads. Define an achievable objective for each stakeholder group. Then research your brief – do the hard yards on putting together facts and figures to support your aim.
Strong leadership: A lot of community campaigns fail for one of two leadership reasons, disunity or lack of stamina. It’s silly, but many community campaigns never get to fight their opponents because they’re fighting amongst themselves.
Strong messages: Do you have the winning argument? It’s not enough to win a campaign, but it’s critical and often not thought through. Write down your winning key messages; hopefully there will be 3-4 of them. Are your messages fact based and value driven? Are you being open and honest? Are your audiences going to perceive you as trustworthy? An alternative to this is to do what PETA does (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals). Their campaigners use sex – nakedness to sell stories as well as maximum emotion and minimum facts. It works in the short term, but most of the time strong facts and good science eventually wins out.
Strong spokesperson: Think politically for a sec. In presidential style campaigns it’s often the best spokesperson who wins – sometimes even regardless of the argument. In Canberra it Kevin Rudd; in the US it’s …… and so on. First rule for a good spokesperson is desire – find someone who really wants to be spokesperson. If your spokesperson if prepared to be pilloried in the street and otracised by her teenage kids – then she’s you ‘face’. Then grill her; put her through the tough interview; test your key messages.
Keep it simple: Now just get the basics right. A simple media campaign involves staying focused on a good headline, a good story and good pictures. Form solid relationships with journalists; have a well written briefing note – those are the basics. Don’t try to be smart or cute – you’re wasting time, your own and the journalists’.
Keep it nimble: The early birds gets the….. React to situations quickly. In these days of online media, minutes matter. Generally if you are first with the angle, you win the day.
Budget: Be realistic. Not too high, not too low.
Sounds easy? ‘fraid not, unfortunately experience matters. Otherwise we’d all be in PR.
