Quelles sont les erreurs courantes en matière de relations avec les médias que vous devriez éviter?

Audience is crucial in media relations, if you want to see result. A practical example is; pitching a product widely patronized by Gen-Zs and millennials to baby boomers. Like pitching hair products on a media outlet that is widely listened to by your grandfather's mates. What would they do with hair growth at 80s and 90s?

3 things... 1st, Don't Ignore media inquiries. Delaying responses will create a negative impression and damage your organization's reputation. It's essential to promptly acknowledge and address media requests, even if you're unable to provide a detailed response immediately. 2nd, providing inaccurate or misleading information. Misleading information can seriously harm your organization's credibility. Make sure the information you provide to the media is accurate, fact-checked, and supported by evidence. 3rd, adopting a defensive or confrontational tone when interacting with the media can escalate the situation and create a negative perception. It's important to remain calm, professional, and open to addressing concerns or criticisms.

- No clear goals (and strategies) - Address and mitigate crises right away, don’t think they are going to go away - Don’t underestimate a crisis. Limit the damage to your brand and learn from your mistakes - No monitoring or measurement - Treat the media with respect, they are your allies, not your enemy number one. Give them the time of day when getting press inquiries - Among others.

First and foremost, understand that media relationships can't stand on a shallow ground. You have to give it a solid base of merit-based stories. That's all that journalists need. When engaging with journalists, discuss your stories upfront and seek a clear yes or no. If the answer is no, step away. Pushing hard won't help. Wait for the next story opportunity to engage with the same journalist. When given a deadline, make sure to submit your response within that. If you can't meet the deadline, seek an extension in advance. Journalists will respect you for that. In the case of negative stories, choose facts over allegations. Offer the facts and data to prove your point. This will create space for discussion and a possible correction.

Journalists are interested in news. That's the first and most important thing to remember. A press release or, more accurately 'news' release should contain news. Sounds obvious, but many don't. In fact they become an end in itself rather than a means to an end. Anything which doesn't contain news is just spam and should be avoided at all costs. Why? Because journalists are flooded with spam press releases that mean nothing. Also because you don't want your business to become the boy who cried wolf. You don't want to be ignored when you really do have news you want to share.

It is also important to recognize when something simply has no news value. Pushing meaningless articles that lack the human touch or the "what's-in-it-for-me" element will erode your credibility and reliability as a news source.

Don’t waste a single media opportunity. Your goal as a spokesperson must be to deliver the most important messages in every media interview. Don’t just answer the reporter’s questions, be ready with 3 messages that resonate by including what your audience wants or needs to know with your main points.

Just like Arjun needed a clear focus during the battle, your media strategy requires a well-defined goal. Without a clear objective, your efforts can become scattered and ineffective. Whether you’re aiming for brand visibility, crisis management, or thought leadership, make sure your goal is clear from the start. This will guide your entire approach and ensure every action you take is purposeful.

Getting positive news coverage isn't an end goal in and of itself, and media relations is not a strategy in and of itself. Before undertaking any kind of media engagement, your business or (for agencies) client need to nail down specific big picture goals and a big picture strategy for achieving those goals, then determine how media relations will support that strategy. Otherwise you may end up telling the wrong stories, using the wrong message, or pitching the wrong outlet. The same goes for pretty much every big undertaking, not just media relations. Not knowing what you want to accomplish and where you want to be afterward is a recipe for failure.

It is important to treat media with respect, which includes a high degree of responsiveness in meeting their timelines and satisfying their questions. It's also good to be honest if you don't have the information or are not able to share it.

Some clarity here is crucial: The most compelling, relevant (to the journalist/platform/beat) and timely delivered pitch “wins” nearly every time regardless of any personal relationship with a reporter. If I’m a reporter, you could be my best friend but if it’s a snoozer of a topic, I’m not writing on it. The key to establishing trust and getting pitch emails opened and calls returned is understanding mutuality and value. This begins by engaging regularly with key reporters when you’re NOT pitching. It means sending useful background info, engaging with their content on social, invites to client events without expectation of coverage, connecting them with relevant sources and research, saying happy birthday, etc.

This is all true. But while building relationships certainly helps, the most important thing is to be able to provide the reporter the story he/she is looking for at that time. I've gotten coverage from reporters I've never spoken to before, and I've had pitches rejected by reporters I knew well.

Read what reporters write/tweet/thread - and develop relationships before you need them. An informed media relations pro understands what the reporter needs not what a client want to sell.

I wish more companies realized how simple it was to get media to partner with you: just be available and easy to work with. I used to fight not to go to the same 'expert' sources repeatedly because when you're on deadline, it's so easy to call the sure thing who's going to pick up the phone and line up the interview. If more companies were willing to offer their expert advice, the PR ramifications would be tremendous.

Doing research and/or regular scans of media, social media and issues will help to avoid being caught without a plan or talking points.

A big mistake spokespeople make is treating a media interview like a conversation. It's not a conversation, it's a high-stakes opportunity to get your message out so you need to be prepared. Here are my 7 steps to prepare: 1. Interview the producer to learn as much as you can about the story, potential questions and others being interviewed. 2. Research the interviewer to find out what type of questions they ask, what's important to their audience and how confrontational they get. 3. Identify 3 key messages along with stories, statistics and soundbites to support each one. 4. Create file cards with bullet points outlining #3 5. Draft potential Q&A's 6. Practice answering questions out loud 7. Check relevant news before the interview

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail—this old saying rings true in media relations. Whether it’s not having your key messages ready, not anticipating tough questions, or not having background materials available, lack of preparation can quickly derail your efforts. Like a warrior going into battle without armor, always ensure you’re fully prepared before engaging with the media.

Make sure you know who's the most relevant person at each media channel, when and how they like to be pitched. Also, don't send emails with attachments to media unless they ask you to - you may fill their inbox and general addresses such as News@ are often set to block emails with attachments.

If you are aiming for on-the-record interviews, it's imperative you prepare a Q&A document for your spokesperson that not only has expected Qs (along with the necessary As) but also key messaging. In an ideal world, journalists' questions will be nice, straightforward and only about the topics you want to discuss. In the real world, journalists will care about how your client is relevant to the bigger picture therefore your Q&A document must include bigger picture topics. You *must* read the news the morning of the interview because big stories about the economy, your client's sector, macro trends, etc will inevitably find their way into the questions. You'll want to brief the spokesperson so they're well prepared.

I agree that this can be very damaging. Trust is hard to gain and easy to lose. It will take a lot of work to regain the media's trust.

Ignoring their calls or leaving them hanging, waiting for you to finally do your part of the job is also a big no. If you have bad news for them, like declining an interview offer, give it to them early on.

Don't lie. It's a big no-no and chances are, you're going to get caught. Then you're going to look like an idiot or worse, slimy. No one likes that. Regaining trust from media after something like that is very tough. Especially if you want positive coverage for yourself or your brand in the future.

Lying to a reporter is one of the worst things you could do. It’s a reporter’s job to find the truth and they’re good at it. Instead, be as honest and transparent as possible. If there’s information you can’t disclose tell them why. If that’s not possible, make sure you have good media training so you can smoothly bridge to a message you do want to talk about. Never ignore a question. Acknowledge it and move on. If the reporter keeps asking the same question it’s ok to give them the same response. Just make sure you do it calmly and don’t express anger or frustration.

One of the biggest mistakes in media relations is sending generic or blast press releases to journalists. Instead, focus on categorizing journalists based on their beats or areas of specialization and tailor your content accordingly. By doing so, you demonstrate that you respect their time and provide them with valuable and relevant information. Also, sending out press releases or pitches that lack newsworthy content can damage your credibility and waste journalists' time. Ensure that the information you share is genuinely newsworthy and relevant to the media outlets you are targeting.

Media relations teams often don’t follow up, which shows us that we were just a box on their to-do list. They blasted us with their press release, and never followed up! That create distrust, and cracks away the foundation of any relationship we may have had.

A follow up should be considered with as much thought as the original pitch, otherwise it can damage the relationship by just coming across as annoying. Your email may have just been missed on a busy day - check if they did a big story lately to understand why they might have overlooked yours - and follow up early in the morning when they hopefully won't be slammed with deadlines yet. Allow a few days from initial contact, and make sure to look for any relevant news in the time between so that you can mention it when you follow up, adding to the value of your story rather than just repeating something the journalist hasn’t shown interest in.

I call this "The Power of F.U". Many people never find out if their materials ever made it through. That’s a problem—for the sender. How will they know if the editor or reporter got the news? They won’t in this case. Too often, the sender thinks it got there when it could have been sent into spam, misdirected or kicked out for other reasons. Also, following up takes a lot of time. If someone tries just once or twice to reach somebody and nothing happens, then they stop. They lose their chance to prove their story’s worth. This is where a professional with experience in marketing, public relations and/or media relations can make an impact. They are trained in dealing with editors and reporters and can help move a story.

Your first email may have arrived at a bad moment. Research shows most journalists are fine with one follow-up, but not more than that. And make sure it's at a time they won't be too busy to read it.

The most common mistake I noticed clients do when it comes to media relations is not responding to journalists questions in time or missing out on the media opportunity all together. Journalists work on very tight schedules and in some cases they will go with the first qualified source and move onto the next story. If you can answer journalist questions and provide value, jump on it immediately.

To summarize, I'll write down what NOT to do when working in PR: 1) Send the same article to several media outlets at once, claiming it's an exclusive. 2) Use ready-made bases with contacts of journalists and editorial offices. 3) Prepare articles using fictitious topics, figures, and facts. 4) Use text without the client's approval. 5) Miss deadlines, ignore emails and calls. 6) Not responding to a crisis situation and not trying to resolve it as soon as possible.

A HUGE mistake spokespeople make is not being ready for the interview. My advice: 1. Go into every interview with 3 main points that serve both the audience and your business (in that order). 2. Know how to authentically state your main points no matter what questions you are asked. 3. Hire a reputable media trainer before you make mistakes.

Perhaps media relations can be summed up in my slogan: tell it right, tell it well and tell it to the world. It boils down to tell the truth (and nothing but the truth) and answer all questions. If you don't know the answer, say so. Then, promise to get an answer and get back to the reporter(s). If you can't reveal an answer, say so and tell why you can't reveal it. Be complete -- or as complete as you can be -- in your information. Honesty is always the best policy.

1. Failing to tell a good story: Tell a compelling story by crafting persuasive narratives that resonate with your target audience. One way to do this is to focus on the key issues that your prospects are facing and champion causes close to their heart. 2. Relying on any one form of content: There is no one-size-fits-all approach to PR content. Use a variety of content i.e. press releases, viewpoints, news hijacking, forward features, infographics, interviews, and white papers.