Dave Mason’s broadcasting career in radio and television spans 30 years having worked as a correspondent at BBC News, and a presenter, reporter and producer at HTV, ITN, GMTV and ITV News.
For a decade, Dave’s coached members of major private and public sector organisations during high profile media crises. A visiting lecturer in journalism at three universities and an in-house trainer, he is author of the book “Handling the Media in Good Times & Bad”. Here Dave shares some top tips for those about to engage with the media in the face of a crisis:
1. Narrative – what do we want the public to think / feel / do?
- Pinpointing corporate positioning and prepare key messages in advance (four to five max.)
- Test it from the perspective of the audience – will the messages resonate?
- Have an embedded call to action if you can
2. Be authentic
- Respond authentically. What you say and how you say it should reflect your values as a brand / business
- Acknowledge responsibility, if you need to do so, but stay action focused on what are you doing to address the situation
3. Be factual
- Deal in what you know and use reliable, trusted sources
- And be honest about what you don’t know – conjecture does not have a place in crisis communications
4. Ensure heads of comms are at the top table
- Every decision has a comms implication, exploring scenarios up front will help you to identify reputational risks early
- Include your senior comms lead from the off, do not make them an operational after- thought
5. Replace your reactive media strategy with a proactive one
- Effectively build trust by being visible and available
- Careful executive positioning can inoculate an organisation against future scrutiny or crisis
6. Ensure your SLT is media trained so that you have a cast-list of options
- Media enquiries may come thick and fast, having only one spokesperson could limit your opportunities to engage
- Have a range of personalities – the empathetic one, the inspiring one, the hard liner (think John, Paul, George & Ringo!)
- Ensure your spokespeople are credible, expert and confident – media training can help
7. Keep reputation management at the heart of your comms function
- Ensure that you have a Reputation Management Group comprising decision-makers on its board
- Meet regularly to spot risk issues that may affect reputation down the line
- Ensure it has power to act and is not just a ‘talking shop’
8. Listen and respond to feedback from staff, customers and stakeholders
- Monitoring dialogue at all levels is key to understanding where issues lie – establish listening platforms early on
- Feedback from your teams will help you gauge public/media perception and adjust your communications accordingly
- Be empathetic and prepared to flex and respond to those important to your business
Tags: CoronavirusCovid-19mediamedia relations
