Over the past few weeks, as well as helping people get started in podcasting, or with their public speaking and presentation skills; I’ve also had a couple of clients ask about media training. So – this has become another string to my bow.
However, I realise that it might not be immediately obvious as to what Media Training involves…
Media Training is helping people, or companies, deal with situations where they come into contact with the media (that encompasses radio, TV, print media and online publications). For some clients this is just knowing how to speak when they are being interviewed, for others it’s knowing how to deal with time-wasting customers at a trade show.
It’s like any kind of coaching – life, business, social media etc – it’s informing and educating clients about an aspect of their business that they have never considered, or are unfamiliar with.
A client I was speaking to recently thought that in my role as a Media Trainer, I would help them spin their corporate message. No – that’s a spin doctor you need (does anyone even usethem anymore?), or someone in your Publicity Department.
What I do is help you deliver your company message (however you want to spin it!) – without sounding like you don’t know what you’re talking about, or wandering down conversational cul-de-sac’s. It’s creating a character that looks, walks, smiles and talks just like you – but speaks with confidence and focus whether that’s in front of a camera, a microphone or a notepad. I give clients the tools and techniques that makes them aware of the pitfalls of speaking to the media, without making them too scared to say anything.
On that note – the media is nothing to be scared of. Working for the BBC for the past decade or so has meant that I have come into contact with all kinds of journalists – political, sport, investigative… and all of them are only after one thing – the story.
What I do is make sure that you give them the story you want to give them, rather than letting slip that gossip you heard the other night about the Chief Executive from another company – because then that’s going to become the story. Obviously, if your company has done something wrong and is in the media firing line for it, then that is going to be the story – and I can still help you deliver it in the right way. Again, I don’t deal with the content of the message – many of the industries I work in are outside my own personal sphere of knowledge – but I help you get your message out there, even if that message is “We’ve done something wrong as a company and we’re sorry about it”
So – does that mean that I help clients lie? Not at all. I just make sure that the company as a whole, through the medium of their spokesperson (whether that’s a press office person, CEO or senior manager) deliver their message in a way that is palatable. By knowing how the media works, what journalists and editors (and readers, viewers and listeners!) want, I steer the client towards delivering their message in a way that people will want to read, watch or listen to.
For example, you run a tech company that deals with a small section of PC motherboard construction. The message you want to get out about your component is that it’s more efficient than anything else that’s out there. I’d help you deliver the message in one way for the trade papers, where you can go into as much detail as you like and get all techy; but I’d also help if Woman’s Own came along and wanted to do a piece on your company. The readers of Woman’s Own don’t want anything too techy – they want the read about the human side of it all, so I’d help with that. That way, the message won’t have changed (our component is incredibly efficient), but the manner and story that has been used has.
I realise that this article is one BIG nutshell – but that’s what a Media Trainer does, in a nutshell. Now, I know that some will say “Oh, I don’t do that, I work more like this..” – and that’s fine. Put 5 business coaches in a room and they’ll all describe what they do in different ways. That’s how I operate as a Media Trainer.
If you want to talk more about this, you know where I am.
