In today’s fast-paced media landscape, every word matters. Whether it’s a high-stakes interview or a casual podcast appearance, how your message is delivered can make or break your brand’s reputation.
Without adequate preparation, your ideal media opportunity can be scary. That’s why media training is an essential part of your communications strategy. Media training involves many components, from honing your brand’s key messages to preparing statements for “gotcha” questions to rehearsing until everything seems natural.
Ultimately, media training will ensure you and your team are equipped to tell your brand story in a consistent and compelling way. By the end of this blog, you’ll know what it takes to make your next media engagement a success.
The risks of “going in cold”
Benjamin Franklin famously said, “If you’re failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” This rings true when it comes to interacting with the media.
Lack of preparation can result in much more than just negative publicity, which is bad enough. Proper media training can help you avoid legal issues due to statements you make to the press, understand what is considered on and off the record, and avoid doing damage to your brand’s reputation.
Permanent reputation damage can stem from mishandling tough questions in the wake of a crisis, speaking poorly about competitors, leaking confidential information, or providing inconsistent responses that conflict with those from another company spokesperson. There are many ways things could go south, and even seasoned pros are susceptible to anxiety and stress during an interview.
Understand what the media wants
Today’s media landscape is incredibly complex. For one thing, there are more media formats than ever before, as short-form videos and podcasts have become just as popular as traditional news coverage. Media distribution channels and independent creators with large follower counts have proliferated as a result.
With all these variables, it can be difficult to prepare comprehensively for any and all forms of media coverage. It’s also increasingly difficult to know who to trust.
Some media outlets value timeliness, as they want quick factual information to craft their story for their audience. Others provide longer lead times and look for unique, personality-driven content. In both cases, they’re often faced with limited resources, a 24/7 news cycle, and the need to juggle competing interests.
That means you’ll need to understand the reporter, the outlet, and the style of every media engagement you agree to. There are some common threads: Every media property values exclusive content, they appreciate advanced or embargoed information, and they want to entice readers to engage and subscribe on the brand’s social media channels.
They also want an interesting interview and quotes that go beyond your company’s boilerplate and existing public statements. Media training can bring personality, relatability, and context to your brand messaging while retaining the same core ideas – and if you do it well, you will likely be invited back for more interviews.
Take an active part in the process
Through our years of experience in media relations, we have helped executives position themselves as trusted voices in their industries through a variety of media training tools. The value of media training lies in three main areas:
Key Message Consistency
Your brand likely has key messages that help you stand out in your competitive landscape and explain your value to customers. (If not, Airfoil can help you develop a compelling messaging framework.) Do you know your brand messaging inside-out? Do your employees? Aligning your teams on how they talk about the brand externally ensures your positioning is clear to the market and most importantly, consistent. Avoiding mixed signals from multiple company spokespeople is critical for building brand integrity and maintaining trust.
Interview Preparation
While not every associate that goes through media training will be a spokesperson, every spokesperson should be media trained. This will ensure they are representing themselves and the company in the best way possible. Anyone who could be interviewed or quoted should at least have a solid understanding of the company’s key messages, differentiators, and target audiences. They should also feel comfortable being on camera and understand what not to say during an interview. Remember that everything you say or write to a reporter should be considered “on the record.”
Reputation Management & Crisis Communications
All companies are susceptible to risk, heightened scrutiny, and unfavorable news coverage that can quickly spiral out of control. Media training can’t eliminate the likelihood of these types of crises, but it will help your team be more composed, more consistent, and better equipped to manage these types of situations. It begins with creating holding statements that can be adapted to various situations, as well as creating a spokesperson matrix and communications plan for crisis situations. Having these plans in place before the worst-case scenario hits the headlines will help you mitigate reputational damage.
Types of media training
Media training can take many forms, including one-on-one coaching, group training, and active crisis communications. Each of these training formats serves a specific role in your brand’s overall media and communications strategy.
The media training that will best serve you and your business depends on your intended outcome, your team’s media experience, and the opportunity at hand.
One-on-One Coaching: One-on-one coaching sessions are ideal for companies with just one or two key spokespeople – such as the CEO and COO – and can be geared toward individual media opportunities. For example, maybe you’ve secured an interview on Bloomberg TV or a profile in Fast Company. To prepare for an interview with a specific reporter, these one-on-one sessions involve in-depth briefings, interview run-throughs, detailed info on the reporter’s beat and style, potential questions, and consistent well-crafted responses.
Group Training: Group training is more suitable for a team of employees, and it is often more general in nature. These training sessions provide a broad understanding of how the media works, what employees should do if they receive incoming media inquiries, an overview of relevant outlets for their industry, and a key spokesperson matrix for your brand. These sessions can be recorded and included in relevant employees’ onboarding materials, making it easy to train and inform remote and future employees.
Crisis Communications Training: A crisis is something no one wants to worry about, but preparing for one well ahead of time is absolutely critical. Whether it’s unwanted news or a dangerous situation on your premises, crisis communications planning will help make your communications clear and consistent during times when emotions may be running high. In addition to preparing a written crisis communications plan ahead of time, you should provide on-the-spot training for key spokespeople—including key message overviews and practice interviews.
Taking action
Your brand has a story worth telling, and earned media coverage will help you tell that story to your target audiences and the general public. Media training adds value to that process by helping your team articulate a consistent and compelling message, turning every media interaction into a brand-building opportunity.
Let’s start making your brand media-ready. Get in touch today.
