Media Relations

So if you’re a large NFP, an advocacy group or a for purpose organisation, you know specialists in media relations. If you’re a business that gets bombarded with media requests daily, or you’re just getting difficult media requests every month or so, it is pretty handy to have a team of journalists on call for you to deal with these media requests in a way that will protect and promote your brand.

For example, we have worked with a lot of peak bodies that might only get a media request every two months or so. This actually requires a board meeting in order for that business to decide how they want to move forward with the media request. Now getting a group of people together for a board meeting to discuss one question from a journalist is an enormous investment in time, energy, and stress when if you had a media relations team on board, they could be coaching you and guiding you.

When working with the Islamic Council of Victoria, we mapped out all of the hard questions and tough issues which were always in the press. This way we can anticipate the media interview requests and the interview questions, and we had statements and a professional approach already written up in advance.This works because the media is predictable. It is cyclical and it’s in relation to your industry, and the tough issues that are always recurring. Basically, organisations that write the story have the opportunity to control the story.

With a little bit of planning, and the right media relationship, you can really increase your profile and strengthen your brand, opposed to being stressed, not knowing what to do, losing an opportunity, and calling big board meetings for really small media requests.