Should You Trade the Trade Show for Your Own Event?

This idea might be a wiener: hosting a solo exhibition or road show



We’re busy making final preparations for two big trade shows this month involving our clients. It’s exciting, because trade shows still offer a great marketing stage for manufacturing and other B2B companies.

However, advancements of the Digital Age present new opportunities to connect directly with customers at a fraction of the cost. It’s now more affordable than ever to drive the necessary publicity to host your own successful event.

Open houses, road shows and other self-styled exhibitions have distinct advantages:

• Focus – Without the distractions, noise and competition of a typical trade show, you have the captive attention of your guests.
• Depth – As the exclusive presenter, you have the floor, allowing for detailed presentations tailored to specific needs, rather than a quick, condensed overview at a trade show booth.
• Diversity – Your company likely serves more than one market. Your event can appeal to all your customers – demonstrating the full array of products, services and expertise you offer.

Realizing these advantages, however, isn’t necessarily easy. Even more so than for a trade show, you must attract the audience to make it all worth your while. All the strategic planning, preshow promotional emails, landing pages, media kits, etc., become even more important.

For example, these events typically target a certain geographical area, making local newspapers a critical communication channel. To gain national attention, many companies have taken their shows on the road. Consider the classic Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. Or General Electric Co.’s mobile truck, a great success when it launched the company’s new FlexEfficiency 60 power generation technology.

With the right preparation and publicity, starring in your own show can be a cost-effective and powerful way to interact with customers face-to-face and deliver an unforgettable brand experience.

3 Keys to Creating a Great Online Newsroom

As promised, here is a follow-up to last month’s post on 3 Reasons Why Your Website Needs a Newsroom. Building on the basics of what a newsroom is, what it isn’t and what it can accomplish, let’s look at three best practices of successful online newsrooms and a client example.



1. Keep it simple: Facilitate easy browsing and discovery.

Make sure the newsroom is easy to find and can be accessed from any page on your website, and vice versa. Done correctly, a newsroom will be one of the most visited pages on your site. Get more out of that traffic and enhance the user experience by linking visitors to other sections of the site. The user experience is more than just site navigation – it also involves strategically planning content. Think like your audience: What are they most interested in? Where will they look first, second?

2. Add more substance: Content equals more than just words.

Use digital media such as videos, images and graphics. Use original photography or develop simple graphics to add visual stimulation and excitement. But, be conscientious about balancing your message and using complicated images or technologies. Many users will view your site on mobile devices and tablets, so don’t be too flashy (literally, don’t use too much Flash video) and make sure all essential elements are easily viewable on different devices.

3. Let them see the real you: Showcase your personality with social feeds and other information.

If you maintain social media channels, bring your newsroom into the mix, housing feeds from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other networks. These not only provide strong calls-to-action to engage with your company, but they often show more of your company’s personality. Link to related research, educational materials and industry articles, as well as tradeshows you’re attending, events you’re speaking at, awards you’re receiving, etc. If someone wants to start a conversation, let them know what you’re up to.

In general, keep in mind that newsroom visitors are your potential or current customers, employees or media contacts. Make sure they know something more about your company after stopping by.

Selecting the Right Spokesperson for Your Organization

[HINT: It doesn’t have to be someone from the C-Suite]

Consider this: how long does it take you to form an opinion of someone?

(Three…two…one…)

OK – pencils down. What’s the answer? Just one-tenth of a second, according to Noeleen McGrath, award-winning journalist and founder of McGrath Communications.

That’s why it’s important to select the right spokesperson for your organization. With that in mind, the Southeastern Wisconsin PRSA chapter invited McGrath to present at its most recent luncheon on how to choose the right “face” or “voice” for a company.

So what should you look for in potential spokespeople to create that desired first impression? The decision should be based on three elements: message, audience and experience. What message do you want to communicate, to whom, and what experience is necessary to support that message?

While typical spokespeople tend to be CEOs or other C-level executives, they’re not always the right fit. After answering the questions above, the right spokesperson should meet the following criteria:

Appealing:

While it may sound shallow, the truth is that looks matter. By nature, people want to listen to attractive individuals. That said, it’s important to wear the right outfit on camera. After grabbing someone’s attention, you don’t want viewers to lose your message due to distractions (e.g., a lot of accessories are a no-no). McGrath suggested wearing bold, solid colors, which film well on screen.

Confident, trustworthy & knowledgeable:

You want someone who can stay cool, calm, collected and comfortable in front of the camera, which comes through with confidence and knowledge. As a spokesperson, it’s important to never get emotional or aggressive. Once you expose your emotions, you leave yourself vulnerable to providing poor responses to other questions.

Likeable:

Again, it’s important to remember that not everyone is fit for the job. Therefore, cast a wider net within your organization and find “average joes” who can relate to your specific audience. Establish trust by finding someone who can connect with them on a more personal level – do they have kids, live in the same community, or participate in similar activities?

It’s these three key traits that will gain – and maintain – your audience’s attention, helping to make the right first impression. Aside from these points, what else would you suggest when considering spokespeople?

3 Reasons Why Your Website Needs a Newsroom

Years ago, maybe your company could have managed without an online newsroom – a home base for releases, media coverage, byline articles, event information, team biographies, fact sheets, media contacts, images, logos, etc.

But in the information age, it pays to make as much information as possible available and easy to find.

Here are the top 3 reasons an online newsroom is a smart investment and a crucial component of a successful marketing communications strategy.

Reason #1: Real-time reporting and shrinking staff.

At a time when overburdened media members are facing tighter deadlines than ever, if you don’t make information easily and quickly accessible, guess where reporters, editors or even potential customers are going to go for the information they seek?

A well-developed and populated newsroom turns browsing media into interested publishers who are more likely to tell your story than that of your competitors.

Reason #2: Digital distribution and re-purposing of content.

Remember that release that you wrote, that earned you an interview, which you videotaped and then edited, that you put on your YouTube channel and then announced on multiple social networks?

Well, where is all of that content now? What return is it earning you if no one can find it? All of that owned content should live right there on your newsroom.

• Integrated into social media feeds
• Linked to your blog
• Archived in your releases

Reason #3: Search engines love them.

Search engine spiders are out there crawling for fresh, valuable content. And that’s just what an online newsroom gives them. Quality content built around industry keywords is your ticket to a major traffic spike.

A newsroom also can increase your online real estate – meaning you have more unique pages for search engines to index, increasing the likelihood you’ll be found in search queries.

In a future post, we’ll look at the key components of a successful online newsroom. In the meantime, here’s a pretty good example to shoot for: InsideSH News..

The Dos and Don’ts of Successful Blogger Relations

Like it or not, bloggers are a force to be reckoned with in your PR efforts. But these aren’t your father’s journalists; they must be approached in a different way.

With that in mind, the PRSA Southeastern Wisconsin chapter focused its August luncheon on “Blogger Relations for Dummies (and PR Pros).” Blogger panelists Jon Mueller (@jonmueller) of 800CEORead.com, Nick Chipman (@DudeFoods) of dudefoods.com, and Heather Blessington (@mamaVISION) of mamavision.com shared insights from their interactions with PR pros.

To recap, we’ve outlined a few of the key takeaways:

Do:
• Research, research, research – Rather than crafting the “perfect” pitch, spend more time researching the blogger(s) you’re targeting. What’s the focus of their blog and who is their audience? Read a few of the posts to get a sense of their writing style, and more importantly, learn about their passion(s).
• Make a real connection – Bloggers have a platform and a passion for what they do, so tap into their interests. Point to a specific post you’ve read. Why did it grab your attention?
• Be selective – Narrow down your list for blogger outreach. Select key bloggers who are influential to your target audience.

Don’t:
• Be generic – Personalize your communication. “Dear Blogger …” doesn’t encourage anyone to learn more about your client or its product/service. Simply put, don’t take a cut-and-paste approach. Would you want to help someone who didn’t take the time to learn your name?
• Beat around the bush – Identify what you’re looking for up front. Plant a seed. Collaborate with bloggers to share your story.
• Use industry jargon – Talk to them like a regular person. For most, blogging isn’t their full-time job; they’re also business savvy and know the usual promotion lingo, so don’t invite them to be a “brand ambassador.” It won’t work.

Want to learn more? A video post is now available on the PRSA SE WI blog at: http://prsawis.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/aug-25-2011-pitching-bloggers-luncheon-recap.

Is blogger outreach part of your media relations program? What advice would you give to fellow professionals?

Toyota’s Classic ‘No Comment’ Conundrum

Blunt piece in AdAge this week hammering Toyota’s handling of its massive case of recallitis.

James Treece’s argument boils down to one we’ve made more than a few times on this blog: “no comment” is a terrible crisis communications strategy.

Akio Toyoda’s congressional testimony last week was a decent attempt at a new era of straight talk and openness from the historically secretive multinational that his grandfather founded.

But it'll take more than one contrite appearance on Capitol Hill to overcome what we now know were decades of denial about major safety issues with the company's products--problems that the company knew of for quite some time, yet chose to remain silent about.

Toyoda left many questions unanswered, and the company still has lots of work to do in terms of transparency and responsiveness if it hopes to regain the reputation for reliability and quality that shot it to the top of the heap.

Factory shooting underscores importance of solid crisis communications planning

Yesterday’s tragic shooting spree at the Atlantis Plastics plant in Henderson, Ky., serves as an unfortunate reminder that disaster can strike at any time.

Fires, explosions, natural disasters, chemical spills, manufacturing accidents, labor strikes—every crisis threatens a company’s stability, its reputation and, in the worst case, its survivability.

That’s why, when a crisis occurs, your response must be swift and effective. And the secret to taking quick control of a crisis? A sound crisis communications plan. It’s a strategic roadmap to get you through a situation, while minimizing potential damage.

Here’s a primer for developing your plan.

Getting started

Set your crisis management team. Include the CEO, department managers, public relations team members, legal representatives, security and human resources personnel.

Outline your protocol. Work with your internal or external communications team. Get the necessary resources aligned. Work through the possible contingencies and conduct a crisis audit.

Determine your communications process. Identify your audiences and how you’ll communicate with them—face-to-face, telephone, e-mail, etc. Prompt, proactive communication is essential.

Anticipate common questions. Prepare responses that can then be modified based on the nature of the crisis.

In the moment of crisis

Never provide a "no comment" response. Such evasion is often interpreted as though you have something to hide.

If you’re still gathering information, say so. Share what you know and pledge to provide additional information as soon as possible. You’ll show that you’re actively working to stabilize the situation.

Never lie or speculate. Stick to the facts that you can speak to with certainty.

Exude calm. Your demeanor can directly affect public perception of the situation and your company overall.

And here’s the best tip we can give you, by far: If you don’t already have a crisis management plan, start developing it right now.

Favre retirement frenzy highlights the new-media era

Hey, did you know Brett Favre retired?

Of course you did. I’d link to a story, but I wouldn’t know which of the hundreds of thousands of articles and blogs to choose. Besides, the news is so three days ago.

Few events could have better demonstrated how the media cycle has accelerated, and the landscape changed, than Tuesday’s leak of the “Favre-gone conclusion,” if you will. And B2B marketers need to adapt.

Some of us in this office first learned of the Favre bombshell via a Blackberry news alert from the Small Business Times, just minutes after the story broke (on FOXSports.com). The SBT isn’t the source you’d think of first for breaking sports stories; rather, it’s a relatively new, niche publication that covers—you guessed it—small business.

But this is Wisconsin; most news outlets would have bumped the moon landing for No. 4’s farewell. That’s partly why it made sense that the SBT was out in front on this story.

It also made sense because of how news spreads today. The cycle is dramatically different from the way stories moved in the heyday of big-city papers and other MSM. Today’s media landscape is populated more by the likes of smaller, nimbler organizations built from scratch to communicate through electronic means—email, Internet, text.

Of course, in B2B, we don’t often have a story with the earth-shattering magnitude of the Favre announcement. But that doesn’t mean we can ignore the changes in the media dynamic. There’s now an online community for every niche interest imaginable, including whatever widget business you’re in. These communities seize upon relevant stories with great zeal, albeit on a much smaller scale.

That’s why, as B2B marketers, we also must embrace new media. It’s a great challenge and, as the Favre saga showed, also a great opportunity to spread messages to more people more quickly than ever before.

Getting Noticed with Niche Focus

During difficult times for many North American manufacturers, some companies are still thriving. How? By having the courage to focus aggressively on a niche, and by exploiting and emphasizing that niche expertise in every way possible.

Our client Donnelly Custom Manufacturing LLC, a finalist for the Plastics News Processor of the Year Award, is a great example.

Donnelly specializes in short-run injection molding, which involves lower volumes of more complex parts. The company’s customer-intimacy business model—fewer, more involved relationships—dovetails with the advanced engineering and sweat-the-details service that short run often requires.

But it’s not enough to have a competitive advantage; you have to exploit that edge by constantly reminding audiences about it. That’s another thing the Alexandria, Minn.-based Donnelly does well, through public relations efforts, an online newsletter and, to a lesser extent, going after an award like Processor of the Year.

Donnelly seizes every opportunity to reinforce its position: that it’s the standard-bearer for How Short-Run Is Done. We’re proud to be part of that effort, and we think Donnelly’s unity of purpose can and should serve as an example for manufacturers across the country.

Good luck, Donnelly, as you strive for the top Processor of the Year prize, to be announced March 11.

How Can We Bring Clarity to a Cluttered Media Picture?

There’s a lot of professional soul-searching going on among media types these days, and people in the public relations realm are joining in.

Whom to pitch to? Where to plug?

A decade or so ago, all you had to do was pick out your strategic targets from a list of trade pubs, major newspapers and TV stations. You nurtured relationships with a few VIPs, and spread your message to large swaths of target audiences through outlets those people generally trusted for credible information.

The game isn’t so simple anymore, mostly due to the Internet—blogs, social networking sites, etc. Today, the media landscape is dramatically more fragmented and commoditized. Meanwhile, the public’s trust in traditional, mainstream media appears to be waning.

This is not to say that traditional media are out of the picture. It’s just that the picture is a lot larger and more cluttered than before. Now, people can go just about anywhere to get their news, and they do. And we can go just about anywhere to share that news, and we must.

But how do we sift through all those blogs and websites and online communities to find the ones that are relevant to our clients’ objectives and credible to the people they need to reach?

The task may be considerably more convoluted, but it’s still all about the same due diligence we’ve always given to each client’s needs. Start with strategy, and keep working from there—because the days of measuring success in column inches in a newspaper, or sound bites in a newscast, are long gone.

The Greatest Stories Never Told

North American manufacturing is a lost cause, right?

At least that’s what I was expecting to find during a major research project we conducted for a client recently on the state of the industry. But it turns out that the dark and dreary picture painted in most media isn’t all that accurate. There are, in fact, many North American manufacturers who are doing well.

They’re employing the latest in equipment and technologies and using Lean manufacturing to control costs. They’re diversifying with new offers such as product design and project management for overseas sourcing. At the same time, they’re developing market niches ranging from product specialization (miniaturization, high tolerance) to market specialization (medical, packaging). These differentiating moves exponentially increase their value to customers.

So why aren’t we all aware of this good news? Because most manufacturers—even those who are enjoying success—aren’t telling their story. There’s some truth to the old adage, “If you don’t tell your story, no one else will.” Perhaps more accurate is, “If you don’t tell your story, no one else will tell it the way you want it told.”

If you’re a manufacturer, what’s the story being told about you? Have you identified your value proposition? And are you communicating it? Brand-based marketing communications can help you tell the story of what your business does better than the rest. Time after time, you have to tell it to employees. To customers and prospects. To the media. Don’t miss the opportunity to exploit your value proposition … and to dispel the myth that North American manufacturing is on its way out.

Sorry Karl, There’s Evidence that Bad Publicity Does Exist in Hollywood

In case you missed last night’s episode of The Office on NBC, Dunder Mifflin office supply company was in crisis mode. A disgruntled paper mill employee inserted an obscene watermark into over 500 reams of paper delivered to customers. Responding to the controversy, Michael the manager decided to take charge of the situation by calling his own press conference…

The episode quickly becomes a case study into what not to do in a public relations crisis. This led me to recall Karl’s post from last week. Turns out there is such a thing as bad publicity in Hollywood—at least as far as fictional characters created there are concerned.

At a fictional company and in the real business world as well, anytime an unforeseen publicity problem pops up, there’s an urge to respond swiftly that can lead to further gaffes. It’s certainly a good idea to get right out there and control the message, contact important customers and share reliable information. But in the rush to respond, your organization’s overarching goals and strategies can be obscured.

Rather than trying to handle the pressure and confusion all on your own, it’ll always pay off to contact a professional who can provide expert, objective advice on how to proceed.

JetBlue’s Brand Repair Genius

Just about every promise embodied by the JetBlue brand, namely unparalleled customer service, was broken last week by Mother Nature’s winter storm that grounded 1,000 flights in New York. When a brand promise is broken, the brand is broken—regardless of divine intervention or mere mortal mistakes.

Companies of every stripe can learn from JetBlue about repairing brands when adversity strikes. But executives also can learn what JetBlue should have been listening for from customers before problems arose.

JetBlue’s Customer Bill of Rights, for example, shows forward-thinking, differentiating industry leadership in the mind of this air traveler. Shortly after JetBlue issued what most travelers will view as a victory for those of us who suffer long tarmac delays without explanation or recourse, the headlines began to focus on brand repair efforts rather than disgruntled travelers with stories to tell of missed bar mitzvahs, weddings and birthdays.

Watch and listen to JetBlue CEO David Neeleman speak to customers about the issues. The lesson learned by JetBlue: don’t wait for a crisis to listen and act on what your customers want.

Ultimately, I believe JetBlue’s travelers’ travesty will become a triumphant case study in crisis management and communication. But it could also serve as an opportunity for other executives to place their companies in JetBlue’s cockpit to explore where brand vulnerabilities exist within their own organization.

Anna Nicole & TrimSpa: A Case for Brand Scenario Planning

B2B companies typically are insulated from the kind of multi-national, media onslaught being experienced by consumer-facing, diet company TrimSpa. B2B companies typically do not have celebrity endorsers either. But, B2B companies do have brand identities to protect and, at times, celebrity CEOs at the helm.

Anna Nicole Smith’s unexpected death serves as a reminder for businesses heavily dependent on a single person. Brand identity closely tied to an individual creates opportunity for chaos. Iacocca and Chrysler. Welch and GE. Kozlowski and Tyco (TYC).

Tyco is a B2B brand most notably tied to former CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski. His high-flying largesse with corporate funds and rapid deal making made him synonymous with the Tyco brand. That association led the company to a near-death experience when he was convicted of grand larceny, conspiracy and a spate of other charges.

The TrimSpa-Anna Nicole Smith relationship illustrates the need to plan for brand vulnerabilities, regardless of B2B or B2C designations. The most telling indication of this resonates in the following words of TrimSpa CEO Alex Goen during an interview with MSNBC discussing the future of his company.

“You know from a company perspective you want to be friendly to the media; you want to be treated well by the media, so you want to cooperate whatever you possibly can. So we’ve got, I’ve got an issue, that I have to deal with business-wise. My back is against a wall. I’m certainly concerned about whether or not we can make it. I think the odds are right now possibly against us. I mean we are going to give it all we have,” Goen said.

Sounds like a company unprepared for when celebrities fail, sputter or fall and the intense media scrutiny that affects nearly everyone and every entity associated with them. The bigger the star, the wider the impact. The same holds true for companies run by dominant, highly visible individuals. One misstep without the ability to effectively right the wrong and manage the fall out afterward, and the entire brand can go down with the individual’s reputation.

Companies such as TrimSpa, which led to the ebb in Anna’s yo-yo weight situation, discovered this firsthand. Subsequent media coverage discovered competing product Slimfast in her refrigerator and extended news reports of a Federal Trade Commission settlement of alleged unsubstantiated weight loss claims. Tie this with all the rest of her much publicized exploits, and I’d be curious to know if anyone took the time to think of all the what-ifs of having her as a spokesperson.

Through some quick web research, though, it seems TrimSpa and CEO Alex Goen are making moves indicative of sound scenario planning. But at this point it might only be fancy reactive footwork. The TrimSpa website quickly became a tribute to Anna. News reports indicate the company already was transitioning to find a new spokesperson with Anna’s help. This seems to conflict, however, with other reports citing TrimSpa President Tony Azzizzo, who said brand spokespersons now would focus on “your neighbors, friends, family members.” Does anyone know where the brand is headed?

Regardless of the whether TrimSpa planned for this scenario in advance and emerges from this tragedy in tact, or tap dances a reactionary waltz to obscurity, one thing is certain: brands tied closely to individuals require constant assessment of whether that person represents the appropriate image for a brand. One might argue Anna Nicole Smith did portray an appropriate brand image for TrimSpa. Nonetheless, a thorough assessment of brand vulnerabilities and how to save the brand, should those threats become reality, would have given TrimSpa a fighting chance.

Well City, Let’s Go!

If a committee I’ve recently joined is successful, here’s something you’ll be hearing a lot more about: Milwaukee’s Well City initiative. For now, I’ll just start with this post.

The Greater Milwaukee Committee and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce have come together to spearhead an initiative that could earn Milwaukee boasting rights as one of the healthiest cities in America. Right now we’re designing a marketing program that makes sure the initiative gains momentum.

Well City USA is a program developed by the Wellness Councils of America (WELCOA), an organization dedicated to helping businesses lower health care costs by cutting the demand for health care services. We are trying to help Milwaukee join the nine cities nationwide that have received the Well City designation and the six cities with projects under way. We’ve already achieved the prerequisite that at least 20 companies covering a combined minimum of 52,000 employees must commit to meeting WELCOA’s Well Workplace certification criteria. We’re now awaiting approval on the recently submitted application for Milwaukee to enter Well City’s three-year certification period.

So why is all this worthwhile? We believe it’s essential not just for the sake of encouraging us all to live healthier lives (although that’s pretty worthy in itself), but for the economic health of the entire Milwaukee region.

For one thing, I’m sure you’re familiar with Milwaukee’s comparatively high health care costs. Reducing demand on the health care system through wellness programs is one way to lower those costs. In addition, healthier people make more productive employees. Finally, the Well City designation could do wonders for marketing our region and our companies—helping us all to recruit the healthy, talented and productive workers we need.

But first, businesses of all sizes have to get on board to make Well City happen in our town. If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to act now by getting your company to commit to being a Well Workplace.

WELCOA is making it easy. It’s not that expensive. And the ROI can benefit your company, your people and our region as a whole.

Think Like A High-Profile CEO When Watching The Bottom Line

Media coverage of some of the nation’s leading CEOs recently was analyzed by Factivia, a part of Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive. GM’s Rick Wagoner received the most coverage, but more importantly the media portrayed him as a leader associated with turnaround and leadership.

For someone like me, who counsels CEOs on the value of effective communication in creating positive corporate outcomes, the study revealed much more.

• Think about the value of a CEO’s time and what it would cost to re-communicate what’s already been said. Depending on what you read, CEOs indicate communication accounts for upwards of 40 percent of their time. Or worse, if the communication was not received accurately initially, which led to costly missteps, how would that impact the bottom line? In the case of the media, if a CEO is not communicating messages on strategy, costly misrepresentation and confusion often are the result. Employees, investors, analysts and other key stakeholders act and react to what they see or don’t see in the media.

• Regardless of a CEO’s profile, every company leader functions in an environment covered by media who can influence perception. For those CEOs of smaller companies who believe no media coverage is good media coverage, remember this: media coverage can work to the advantage as well as the disadvantage of your company. Therefore, not engaging the media can stymie the growth of your company as much as harmful, negative coverage.
  

• The higher the profile, the more a CEO pays attention to perceptions. Fortuity does not lead to consistent messaging in media coverage. Preparation for media interviews with a clear purpose in mind leads to consistent coverage and perceptions.
  

• CEOs of every magnitude can learn a lot from watching the best and the brightest. Many CEOs frequently study their high-profile counterparts, but it’s my sense they don’t realize these superstar CEOs work diligently at becoming excellent communicators.

Smash Mouth Interviews: Should You Attack Journalists?

National Public Radio’s Morning Edition recently broadcast comments from President George W’s chief strategist Karl Rove and embattled Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. Below you can read about the good, the bad and the ugly parts of the six-minute segment. This is a great opportunity for learning as you prepare for your next media interview.

Listen carefully. Rove attacks NPR’s Robert Siegel out of the gate. Generally a major mistake toward getting a fair shake during the interview and for ongoing reporting and relationships with the media. But, in this instance, I’d say a savvy move. Savvy from the perspective that Rove needed to ensure listeners immediately recognized Siegel did not see the same polls as Rove, thereby diminishing Siegel’s credibility and argument that Republicans are in danger of losing one or both branches of the legislature during the interim elections Nov. 7. Another reason for the distinction of savvy versus stupid: Rove is not running for re-election.

The piece then shifts to Sen. Santorum (R-PA) after a brief comment from his opponent. The Keystone State senator picks a fight with interviewer Steve Inskeep when he asks “Is that a shock to you...Is that a shock to you? I’m asking you a question.”

Not a wise move in this case. Santorum is in a close race. Some consider his senate seat the most vulnerable in the Republican stable.

Santorum did show some wisdom, however, surrounding an exchange with Inskeep on Iraq. The exchange follows.

Inskeep: “So you’re saying we need to adapt, that things are going poorly, that things are getting worse….”

Santorum: “I don’t think I said either of those words. What I see is….”

Santorum goes on to clarify his position and what he actually said versus what words Inskeep attempted to put in Santorum’s mouth. In a live broadcast interview, always clarify immediately when an interviewer paraphrases your words in a way that is out of context. The immediate response closely ties accurate information to misinformation. Immediacy also ensures your comments are part of the broadcast. Interviews end abruptly at times, leaving you without the opportunity to respond.

Taped broadcast interviews and print media interviews also require clear concise messaging and delivery to ensure you are not taken out of context. Editing plays into these interviews. When editing is involved, you won’t know what part of the interview is selected for broadcast or print as you do with a live interview broadcast in its entirety. Staying on message is crucial to all interviews, but especially when editing leaves you vulnerable to interpretation. (See my June 12 blog entry entitled “Who’s to Blame for Misquotes…You or Them?” Scroll down through the June blog archives.)

Who’s to Blame for Media Misquotes … You or Them?

When coaching clients on how to work with media, I start by asking for each participant’s greatest fear. Inevitably, the majority say being misquoted.

Of course, most of the blame for being misquoted is placed squarely on the shoulders of the reporter. Rarely, if ever, do we look inward for the source of disconnects between what we say and what the reporter captures and writes into a story. But most of us should.

More than likely our responses to reporter questions are too long, too convoluted and too sprawling in scope. This allows the reporter to determine what information is important, why it is important and how it should be used.

To combat this crap-shoot outcome, we must accept our role in the process and make time to prepare for the interview. Preparation allows us to anticipate questions and formulate answers using key messages designed to advance our point of view.

Once we anticipate and answer the questions, we are in a much better position to coach the reporter on the context surrounding the information we impart during an interview.

Follow this tip and your “quotability quotient” should improve exponentially.

Considering a PR Campaign? Building Credibility, Relationships Takes Time

The essence of public relations is building credibility and relationships. Both take time, commitment and nurturing.

Whether attempting to build brand awareness through media channels or winning over the local planning commission for a new development, the end goal of public relations is to establish credibility for yourself, your product, your organization as a means to building mutually beneficial relationships with influential audiences who affect whether your agenda flourishes or dies on the vine.

Strategic public relations counsel, therefore, requires more than a press release to local media. Public relations—in its most valuable form—requires thinking about what actions to take, when to take those actions, how to communicate about those actions and with whom to communicate to ensure two-way communications and, ultimately, understanding result.

In short, strong communications from credible sources helps build strong relationships.

Re-Thinking “No Comment”

Fans of television legal dramas understand “no comment” to be a cornerstone strategy when confronted by media.

No comment, in fact, is a phrase coined by lawyers to win in the court of law. The thinking goes, “If you don’t say the words, those words cannot be used against you.”

The court of public opinion, however, has little tolerance for lack of transparency and far fewer rules to follow in reaching a verdict.

Saying nothing creates an aurora of mystery, intrigue and deceit, which leaves media audiences craving an explanation. You can be certain the media will give them what they want—it’s their job, and a vital one for democracy.

So what, you might ask.

With or without your input, the story will be told. But, if you’re not telling your story, you leave the story telling to others. Someone else will specify how you, your company, your products are positioned with media and perceived by their agenda-affecting audiences.

No comment may win in the courtroom. But in the court of public opinion, the famed phrase has led to perceptions of distrust, uncertainty and instability. These perceptions can lead employees to quit, analysts to turn a cold shoulder, vendors to focus attention elsewhere, board members to resign and customers to stop buying.