Media Relations Training at 2009 ALA Conference

Media Relations Training at 2009 ALA Conference One great session at the 2009 ALA Conference was presented by Chicago broadcaster and media trainer Dave Baum. He shared tips on how librarians can effectively deliver key messages and get favorable media coverage. He stressed the need for understanding the interview process, preparing for the interview with clear positive messages, and using communications skills and techniques to improve media interviews and contacts. Tips included: 1. Despite the changing face of media, successful communication still consists of managing: • The delivery of the message to the audience • Acceptance that perception is reality—at least for the moment 2. Build a business relationship: Librarian helps Reporter do their job and look good > Reporter helps Librarian look good > Librarian gets on the Reporter’s A List 3. Reporters are looking for stories SO be a story-teller and always put a face on the story with a real person’s story, if possible 4. Listen, watch, read the news…and relate to current events with our library angle and our customer’s story (give the reporter people to interview, B-roll, etc.)…localize the story. 5. Prepare up-front for the questions that you don’t want to be asked and figure out the truthful responses to those questions…strong, positive points—positive action steps to solve the problem and then go straight to the for example…story of the real person. 6. Keep asking the reporter, “Do you see what I mean?” Let me put it to you this way…tell a story of a person/customer. 7. In order to avoid being taken out of context, don’t repeat the words with the negative content that the reporter or anyone else might use. 8. Be sure to use the best presenter and the one that projects “I’m happy to be here and I have some great stuff to share with you.” 9. Shoot for the night-time talk show: target the audience (for example: Seniors), prep by brainstorming what you think they know about services for them in the library (be brutally honest), say in ten words or less what we want the target audience to know… “We have something free for Senior Citizens in our community.”…add specific examples from the heart, not the head…no jargon (tell the story of the grandma who learned to use e-mail to communicate with the grand-daughter in Iraq, etc.), then…punch the take-away/whatever you really want them to remember (Senior Citizens are invited to learn to use e-mail on Monday nights, from 7-9, college student volunteers are standing by to teach you). 10. Q & A: People usually answer questions in a linear fashion. Instead build answers in advance that create a circle of communication. Start with the 6-10 second lead: short, sweet, truthful, 15 words or less sound bite (“We are really excited to tell our community that we have something free for Senior Citizens in ______town.”). Then bridge or transition to providing more information by telling the story, using “for example”……tell the real story. Of course, the session was peppered with real-life anecdotes and cautionary tales. Library staff and supporters practiced answering the tough questions and planning their media strategies—almost everyone can think of a local radio or t.v. talk show that they could contact. Do these tips ring true? Are they applicable in the real-life world of working with the media? Click on Comment below to share your experience with communicating with the media.