Putting Your Company’s Best Face Forward
It’s a pretty good bet: your business will meet the press.
Who will your spokesperson be? The answer may not be obvious.
Media interviews can be intimidating; even if you WANT the news coverage.
Whether the circumstances are good (new services, awards, blue-chip talent hires) or not so good (product recalls, fraud, layoffs) you need to be ready for media coverage. I’ve put together a basic prep list.
Pick a spokesperson
Many companies choose the CEO as their “face.” That’s natural. The boss should lead. But there are some company leaders who shouldn’t be speaking or getting camera time.
Some great entrepreneurs might be fantastic one-on-one, but lousy in a group setting—they’re just not good with a horde of cameras and microphones when making a big announcement or addressing a crisis.
What should you do if your CEO isn’t the best choice for consistent media presence?
Two remedies:
a) use a service or agency to get training and become a better spokesperson
b) choose someone on staff who’s able to handle addressing a crowd to speak for the company
Make the message fit
The tone of company communications has to match its situation, to read the room.
During the BP Deepwater Horizon oil platform disaster in 2010, BP CEO Tony Hayward was infamously quoted saying he wanted his life back. This came after 11 employees’ lives had been lost and millions of barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a textbook case of a corporate leader losing sight of what’s important.
Your company may not have to deal with a disaster on that scale, but keeping your message accountable and proactive is a good way to make the message fit.
Define the conversation
There’s an old saying in the PR world: don’t answer the question they asked, answer the question you wanted them to ask. That’s known as pivoting, and it’s a great way to drive dialogue and define conversations.
If an interviewer asks how many Super Whacker Okra Cutting Blades your company has produced and you don’t have that info in front of you, pivot using a phrase like, “thousands, and it’s important to remember that our Whacker makes the okra harvest three times faster than before.”
For more information regarding public relations for your small business, check out Episode 13 of Season 6 of our Couples Inc Podcast. We discuss the 3Cs of PR and talk about getting on TV with a local news producer.
