How to work with the media

Grabbing the attention of busy journalists requires planning. A good place to start is to consider what stories qualify as ‘newsworthy’ think of your local papers and magazines, radio stations and online news outlets – what sort of stories do they usually produce?If you or a colleague is involved in an innovative project, you should demonstrate the difference it is making and offer some interesting and knowledgeable people to interview. These may include service users who have benefited from your project, senior individuals from your place of work, or those who started or manage the project.

If you’re launching a new initiative, you should explain the value of it and the difference it will make to your local community.

While there is no set story the media will definatly cover, the media are often interested in good stories about people. Interesting stories are those that are unusual, heart-warming, or about ‘overcoming the odds’. People stories can be a great way to show the value of occupational therapy, as ‘the person’ is the centre of your work. The story doesn’t have to be your own – it can also be that of a colleague, a service user or a project at your place of work. The media ultimately want to publish stories their audience will be interested in – so think about what sort of things attract your attention in the media and why.

It is always useful, where relevant, to connect your story to broader current affairs issues, both locally and nationally. Because those issues are ‘trending’, yours is more likely to as well if it’s related to them.

In general, if you can involve a ‘local celebrity’ in some way, it will increase your chances of your story being picked up.

Your story should be focused on a few, concise key messages. Too many messages that are too long, even if important, can make people lose interest. Try and stick to no more than three.

Your audience may not have the same passion and knowledge in the subject as you, so try and think from their perspective. How can you best explain it to someone who has no prior knowledge of the subject? Think about what you really want people to remember, do and feel as a result of your story.

When shaping your messages, ask yourself these questions.

• Are they purposeful? Make sure you’re clear about why you’re looking for greater exposure. What do you want your audience to do or feel as a result? In other words, what is your ‘call to action’? This should be made very clear to your audience.
• Are they believable? Your messages should be backed up by evidence. To do this, you will need statistics or ‘hard facts’ that show why your story is important. Just saying it is won’t be enough to get your story picked up. The more authoritative and well-known the source of your evidence is, the better.
• Are they understandable? People who are reading, watching or listening to the story should be able to easily understand what you are trying to tell them. Even if the explanation is complicated. When shaping your messaging its helpful to think from the perspective of someone who has no knowledge of the subject.

Your press release is the write-up of key messages into a story. Media outlets are more likely to pick it up and reproduce it as is if you follow some simple steps.

• Summarise your story in the first paragraph. All the essential information (the ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘who’, ‘when’ and ‘where’) needs to be at the top. Anything that adds context should come after.
• Include quotes. These can really bring a story to life, but make sure they are relevant and informative. They can be from senior people within your organisation, service users, or anyone that can add an interesting perspective. If you can get a quote from someone important and/or relatively famous, that will help.
• Keep it simple. Explain in ‘lay’ terms, avoid jargon and get to the point quickly. Ask yourself – would someone like your parents or your next-door neighbour understand it? Imagine you’re writing it for them.
• Keep it brief. One page is generally enough and definitely no more than two
• Avoid acronyms, but if they’re essential, make sure you spell them out the first time they are mentioned.
• Write a headline. This should be punchy and tell the story in a nutshell. Write this as if for a newspaper – it may be picked up as is.
• Include ‘notes to editors’ at the end. This is where you add your name and contact details, web address and social media handles. You can also include background information about your organisation or project.

Think about the sort of questions you may be asked in advance. Prepare and rehearse your answers, ideally working with someone as in a ‘role-play’.

Refer back to your key messages, and ensure that your answers touch upon all of them and reinforce them.

When watching the news, observe how interviewees, especially politicians, answer questions – they are often repeating the same words and key phrases. That’s because they’re sticking to the messages they planned to deliver. You don’t have to be as ruthless as that, of course, but it’s a good example of making sure you’re in control of the interview.

Think about your body language – this will affect the delivery of your messages. Doing an interview in a way is no different to giving a presentation for work, or doing a job interview. A lot of the same principles apply. Make eye contact, convey your enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject, and plan your answers in advance.

If you are planning to do any work with the media the first thing you should always do is to let your employer’s communications team know – they should know what is happening and will be there to support and advise you through the process.

In most cases, you will have access to a professional communications team through your employer. If you don’t know them, have a look on your employer’s website, which will almost certainly include a communications contact. You can also ask your line manager.

You got your story in the news – now you can spread the word on social media. Most news stories, even radio and television ones will appear online – if not as an article, as a video or a sound recording. Ask the journalist to share the link of your news story with you. Ask the journalist if their media outlet will be promoting on social as well. Once you have the link, you can use your social media accounts to promote the story further.

Contact your employer’s communications team and ask them if they can share your post, or even do an original one from their account. The team will also be able to advise you on writing copy for the specific channel – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – so you can make the most of it.