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By Scott Mills, APR

July 2, 2009

CUES' Credit Union Management's online-only "PR Insight" column runs the first Thursday of every month.

Once you have established a professional relationship with a member of the media, there are proven steps you can take to maintain and grow it. The ultimate goal with any media relationship is to find a permanent, recurring place in that reporter's Rolodex. You want to prove that you are a reliable, trustworthy source of valuable information … one that the reporter comes back to again and again.

If you are in a position to receive and respond to an inquiry from a reporter on your credit union's behalf, here are some general guidelines to help make sure you and the media meet each other's expectations:

• Make yourself easy to contact and readily available. This is where your credit union's online pressroom can come into play. Every good online pressroom should contain a direct phone number and e-mail address for media inquiries.
• Respond quickly. In many cases, the first source(s) a reporter talks to will set the tone and direction of a story. In media relations, the old saying that the "early bird gets the worm" is often true. If you are unavailable for an immediate interview, respond quickly to the reporter and thank her for her interest and provide times when you will be available.
• Confirm the reporter's deadline. Publications come in different formats (print/electronic) and with different publication cycles (daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly), so keep this in mind when responding. If a daily publication's reporter reaches out to you, the window of opportunity for being included in the story is likely much shorter than it would be for a monthly.
• Learn about the publication and the reporter. The Internet is a great, economical way to find out about a publication's mission, readership and editorial focus. You can also readily find information about specific reporters and usually gain access to previous articles to get a feel for their journalistic style beforehand.
• Be prepared. A thoughtful response to reporter inquiries is to ask if there are specific types of information they are looking for or specific questions they are interested in before the interview takes place. This provides you with the opportunity to a) confirm that the story is a good fit for your credit union and b) compile information before the interview to make the best use of everyone's time during the interview.
• Find a quiet location for the interview and avoid distractions during the interview (i.e., mobile phone, e-mail, etc.)
• Don't work alone. It is usually preferable to have your media relations representative or staff person on the call to take notes and make sure you provide all the information to the reporter that you intended to.
• Once on the interview, confirm the amount of time the reporter has and use the "mirroring technique." Different reporters have different interviewing styles. A rapid response technique will tend to work well with a rapid questioning reporter and a more conversational response technique tends to work well with a more conversational reporter. Try to match your tone and cadence to that of the reporter's.
• Speak to the readers, not just the reporter. If you always keep in mind that you are communicating to the readership of the publication through the interview with the reporter, your responses will tend to be more insightful and more likely to be included in the story.
• Recognize the value of insightful information. A reporter's job is to find things out that his or her readers do not already know, so any new information you can share about the credit union, your local community, the financial services industry, etc. will help the reporter put together a better story.
  
• Embrace the role of subject-matter expert. Often, a reporter is looking to you to help educate himself or herself (and the publication's readers) on a particular subject. The more effective you are at positioning yourself as a trusted resource on issues that impact the community, the more your credit union is perceived as an organization dedicated to the greater good of its community.
• Unless the story is about your credit union specifically, avoid the temptation to turn a media interview into a sales pitch about your credit union, its products and services.
• Take full advantage of the "gift question." Most interviews will end with a question like: "I think I have all the information I need. Is there anything you would like to add?" Do not let this slip by. This is your opportunity to paraphrase what you feel was the most important information from the interview.
• Finally, be sure to follow up with reporters to thank them for their time and interest, to confirm that they have everything they need and to provide any information you promised during the interview. Feel free to ask when you may expect to see the resulting article.

Reporters like to work with sources who clearly understand the journalistic process and who can provide them with the type of information that best fits their publications' editorial needs. By following these proven guidelines with your key media, you too can establish a permanent residency on their Rolodex.

Scott Mills is president of Atlanta-based William Mills Agency, Atlanta, a public relations agency serving the financial services industry. I invite you to join me on LinkedIn and follow William Mills Agency on Twitter.

• Go to the current issue of Credit Union Management magazine.