10 Easy-to-Get News Stories that Can Inoculate Your Agency From a Bad Reputation

Transcription

1 10 Easy-to-Get News Stories that Can Inoculate Your Agency From a Bad Reputation Josh Weiss, President, 10 to 1 Public Relations Title: Enter title of your presentation here Presenter: Enter your name here

2 Goals of this Session After this session you will: Understand The Need for a Good Will Bank Recognize your TRUE Audience Embrace what Reporters Need Identify 10 Easy-to-Get Stories From Opportunities Your Agency is Likely Already Doing Outline your Media Emergency Response Before You Need It

3 It s inevitable that a negative story (legitimate or false) will occur. Therefore it is essential to build up a good will bank to protect your agency s image.

4 Understanding your your TRUE TRUE Target Audience When talking to a reporter, who are you really talking to? Current Customers/Clients Potential Customers/Clients Community Decision Makers Elected Officials/Procurement Current Employees Potential Employees ZOLL SUMMIT

5 Understanding your TRUE Audience Before any media-related effort, you need to decide: What do you want your TRUE audience to gain or learn from your story? Example takeaways: Why they need your agency/service Employees are good people trying their best The agency cares about the community Build trust in your employees and services Increase transport requests Agency is better than the alternatives/competition Stop a bad impression from getting worse

6 Identifying Stories You Already Have to Tell Increasing media interest What are reporters looking for? Visuals Action oriented Timely Puns and hooks Make it easy to cover where the Sound byte or visual tells the story and paints your agency in a good light.

7 Identifying Stories You Already Have to Tell Recognizing your Unique Selling Point What makes your product unique? What visuals are synonymous with your product?

8 Identifying Stories You Already Have to Tell Recognizing your Unique Selling Point What makes your product unique? What visuals are synonymous with your product?

9 10 Easy to Do Media Ideas 1A) Use the Calendar and Hard Dates Insert your unique selling point/visuals with dates on the calendar. Why it matters: Media are going to cover holidays anyway, by giving them a new angle the chance of coverage increases.

10 10 Easy to Do Media Ideas 1B) Use the Calendar and Soft Dates/Events Holiday seasons, start of school year, prom, these times of year makes it easy to insert yourself. Why it s important: Media love time-appropriate stories. Participate in things already occurring, but if you can offer a new way to talk about a time of year they re going to talk about anyway your chance of a pick up increases significantly.

11 10 Easy to Do Media Ideas 1C) Use the Calendar Events like EMS Week EMS Week is a gimme story for agencies. What are you going to do? Why it s important: Media want to find a way to cover and acknowledge EMS Week- so give them something visual that s worth covering.

12 10 Easy to Do Media Ideas 2) Special Transport Stories Is there a special event in town? Can you take the Special event somewhere? Why it matters: The community and media love these stories And it allows your agency to make friends with hospitals, Community groups and others.

13 10 Easy to Do Media Ideas 3) Donations Does your agency donate old ambulance or supplies? Do you organize any item drives? Why it matters: If you re giving it away anyway, you might as well get credit for it.

14 10 Easy to Do Media Ideas 4) New Hire Announcements and promotions Not just for senior leaders, but for EMTs, Medics, RNs, Fleet, Warehouse, etc. Why it matters: Tells the community you re growing and investing in their care. Sends a statement to new employees that you believe in them, making them more loyal to you from day one. Grows loyalty and support within the community- especially when they know the person featured.

15 10 Easy to Do Media Ideas 5) Show and Tells Send photos to local media after a touch a truck event, after visiting with a boy scout troupe, etc. Include a recommended caption that includes the names of your employees and that describes the event. Why it matters: It demonstrates your involvement in the community. Will lead to more requests. People remember these non-care related interactions and it allows the community to grow its pride in your agency.

16 10 Easy to Do Media Ideas 6) Show Off New Equipment Take new Equipment to a City Council meeting or to your customer and show it off. Host a simple ribbon cutting type event, even for equipment. Why it matters: It shows the community you re investing in order to better serve the community.

17 10 Easy to Do Media Ideas 7) Patient/Crew Reunions Baby born on board? Great job by a Dispatcher that Saved a Life? Motorcycle Victim Saved by Medic? A Cardiac Save? Host an event where the patient can thank the dispatcher or crew. Why it matters: Media and communities love these feel-good stories. It gives community leaders an opportunity to praise your crew and services, and it emphasize to the community that your service is top notch. Plus, it makes your employees feel great.

18 10 Easy to Do Media Ideas 8) Partner with another group Show off your community partners to gain credibility and raise awareness of important issues. Why it matters: It shows your care, builds community supporters, and makes it a lot easier to get media to care and cover your story.

19 10 Easy to Do Media Ideas 9) Partner with a Business Your ambulance is a moving billboard. Can you use it as a delivery truck to promote a message or cause? Why it matters: It shows your are involved in the community, but also demonstrates you have some personality.

20 10 Easy to Do Media Ideas 10) Training Events Do you offer any community classes? Are you promoting Attendance? How about creating special training events? Why it matters: It shows your are involved in the community, and trying to help it. Done creatively (and visually), it creates stories media are willing to share.

21 Using Your Good Will Can you Minimize the Negative? Anything positive to include?

22 Using Your Good Will Can you Minimize the Negative? Are there any factors that could influence how the public views the story?

23 Create a Media Emergency Playbook Sometimes there s no prior warning, But you can still be ready in advance. Create a playbook of pre-approved responses that you can use as a guide. Pre-writing possible responses will save valuable time, and will help shorten the media cycle.

24 Final Thoughts and Questions

25 Josh Weiss, President Phone: