Getting the Good (and Bad) Word Out; Communicating with the Media in a 2.0 World

1. Getting the Good (and Bad) Word Out; Communicating with the Media in a 2.0 World

2. Develop a Media Strategy • What are you trying to accomplish? • Moving an agenda? • Selling an idea? • Publicity for key players? (To what end?)

3. Who and What • Who do you want to reach? • What do you want them to know?

4. Who Do You Want to Reach? • Elected officials • The public • A slice of the public (the active and influential slice or the teeming masses yearning to remain ignorant and make trouble) • Your own constituency • Potential partners in progress

5. What Do You Want Them to Know? • Is it complicated or simple? • Is it jazzy or dull? • Do you want to reach them intellectually or emotionally?

6. Know the Teams • Part of your job is to know the different media outlets that do/could cover you, including newspapers, radio, television, blogs, electronic newsletters, how they approach you and how approachable they are

7. Who Cares About Public Sector Accounting/Results? • Local paper – easy access (unless it’s the NYT) • Radio (public v. morning morons) – who do you want to reach? • TV news/news programs (PBS v. ”death at six”) – do you want to convey a message or make noise? • Magazines/e-news letters – good niche possibilities • Blogs – very good niche possibilities but need to weigh real bennies/Who cares? Who reads?

8. Fashion Your Pitch • Local paper – local angle/national context • Public radio – peg to a current event/issue of interest • Scream radio – our crumbling bridges! • PBS t.v. – roundtable on budgeting (only your mom will be watching) • Dismemberment T.V. – our children at risk! • Magazine/e-newsletters – tie into trends • Blogs – what’s today’s buzz/this afternoon’s news

9. The Payoff • Allows you to target message/response depending on the issue/event • Particularly important in a field as esoteric (obscure?) as public sector accounting/performance measurement

10. Know the Players • Know the people who do/could cover you – in fact, reach out and establish relationships, if possible (are some prickly players who don’t want to be “buddy buddy” with no public officials – what a $6 lunch will buy) • Edit boards/contact with editors • Take a reporter to lunch

11. The Payoff • You can make direct contact • You can make regular contact • You can make informed contact • You’ll have a shot at shaping the news

12. General Tips • Use English: “SEA Reporting” = yuck • Avoid acronyms generally • Apply the “explaining it to mom” rule • Comparison sells (thank god for Mississippi) • Figure out some angle • Make everyone in your shop “spokesperson” • Tell a story

13. Use English, Etc. • SEA reporting = government that is focused on concrete accomplishments • CIA in my neighborhood • Does your mom get your job; try this exercise at home • Selling the most boring story ever (VA DSS) • Woody Woodruff on performance-based pay • Tell a story – It’s not how much you invest in public safety it’s the cat you pulled off the roof or the kid you pulled out of the well (Beefer puts Ghent on map)

14. Ranking the Brave New Media World • Blogs – C to B (?) (good for you, but is it good for anyone else?) • E-Newsletters/news sites – B+ (where the elite meet to get it) • Websites – F to A (depending on the website) • E-press releases – easy to do so probably worth it—but targeted follow up required

15. Take Away Points • Have a strategy (what message, why and to whom?) • Know the outlets (who can you get in; will it get you where you want to go) • Know the players (call a reporter today) • Hone your message/pitch depending on those three things (back to being strategic)

16. Go to governing.com click on “books” for your VERY OWN copy of Good Press, Bad Press, Depressed