Reboot Your Reputation
Better Media Coverage
– in just two months
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Are you worried that your competitors seem to be in the news more than you?
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Has the quality and quantity of your media coverage started to decline?
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Does the Dean often ask you why your school doesn’t have a better media profile?
About you
Imagine getting an email from your Dean one morning – congratulating you for an excellent piece of press coverage in The Economist that has already been viewed by over 500 people. Later in the week, it transpires that the piece has also been noticed by a government advisor, leading to a potential research partnership with a government department.
You’d feel pretty great, wouldn’t you?
But how close is this to your own situation?
The reality is that, after a while, many business schools experience ‘media relations fatigue’.
Despite an established press office and regular ‘activity’, your stories don’t seem to be getting picked up as much as they were. Journalists aren’t emailing regularly and interview opportunities for your faculty have dropped off. What’s more, your messages and what you really want to be known for are not coming across.
Sound familiar?
The truth is that just ‘doing more of the same’ is not the answer. If you really want to deliver regular, sustainable media coverage, you need to look deeper at how your stories are generated internally AND how you choose to liaise with the press.
This involves:
- Educating faculty and internal stakeholders about what makes a good story, so that you don’t waste time and energy on things that aren’t newsworthy
- Establishing a mutual rapport with faculty and internal heads to ensure a regular flow of quality stories, avoiding gaps in your media relations schedule
- Agreeing on your strongest topic areas – rather than trying (and failing) to be all things to all people
- Focusing on organisational outcomes – rather than generating media coverage for the sake of it
- Understanding journalists’ editorial schedules, instead of losing opportunities because of bad timing
- Smart media targeting, rather than a scattergun approach
- Achieving clarity on your messages, avoiding inconsistency and doubt
- ‘Outside-in’ thinking so that you can tap into what journalists care about and avoid the ‘so what?’ factor. #TIP – it’s all about their readers!
- A pro-active, flexible mindset, constantly spotting new journalist contacts and media opportunities
- Effective project management – keeping you on track and ensuring a consistent drip feed of activity
Reboot Your Reputation
A five-step programme over two months, which will:
- Carry out an independent assessment of your media relations activities and how they could be better delivered
- Identify and recommend ways of unblocking internal barriers to the flow and quality of stories in your school
- Clarify how key internal and external stakeholders really see your reputation
- Identify where internal stakeholders need a better understanding of what the media wants
- Provide tangible results – deliver one media relations campaign from start to finish