When the media calls, are you ready?

Most calls I get from from reporters, columnists and freelancers – many of whom found me because of my online presence in the blogosphere and social media – have incredibly quick turn-around needs. They’re on deadline, they need a response that day, and they’re looking for someone who has their thoughts already gathered.

So it makes sense to have a media preparation plan you can put in place quickly when those mediation marketing efforts pay off.

Joan Stewart, aka The Publicity Hound, offers a terrific post on the subject, Prepare for an Interview with a Reporter These 8 Ways. I always appreciate that Joan’s advice is clear and straightforward, offered in digestible chunks like this one:

2. Prepare your key message.
Always identify the Number One message you want to get across to the reporter and make sure you weave it into your answers several times. You can even “flag” the reporter by prefacing one of your answers like this: “Sharon, the most important thing I have to say about that is…” Way too many Publicity Hounds have kicked themselves afterward for failing to communicate their key message “because the reporter never asked about it.”

You’ll find the 7 other great tips on Joan’s site. It’s a post worth bookmarking for the days when those media calls come in.

Making Mediation Your Day Job by Tammy Lenski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at MediatorTech.com.

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2. All aflitter about twitter: answers to your social media questions
3. The age of conversation is here: are you ready?
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5. Not Ready for Mediation…Oops, Waited Too Long