PR Best Practices

Media Advisories

A media advisory is more brief than a press release and should be used when inviting the media and/or the public to an upcoming event. Key components of a media advisory are who, what, when, where and why. A media advisory needs to be:

• Brief and to the point
• Contain a captivating headline
• Contact info
• The five W’s listed above

NOTE: Media advisories should be distributed to the media 3-5 days before the event taking place. A follow-up phone call to the media outlet is a good best practice so you know they received the advisory

Download a Media advisory template here.

Press Releases

Press releases serve a different purpose and are more detailed than media advisories. A press release is an official announcement that is issued to the media reporting on something new or noteworthy happening within your business. Press releases should read like a news story, written in third-person. It resembles a short news article with facts, quotes, and important details that help generate a story that reporters can use to guide their writing. A press release should include:

• The main reason for alerting the media
• An enticing headline
• A dateline, including the city and the date of distribution
• Quotes from important persons involved in the story

Download a press release template here.

Newsworthy topics vary depending on the publication. Always keep audience in mind.  A list of topics that are generally considered newsworthy:

• Mergers
• Acquisitions
• New branches
• Dividend payouts
• Notable anniversaries (20+years)
• Charitable giving
• Significant donations
• Impressive or ongoing sponsorships
• Large community initiatives (e.g. Fill the Freezer, Garage Sale for Good, Pack the Valley Van, #KindIsTheNewCool)
• Post-event results
• C-level promotions and new hire announcements
• Retirements

Who do I pitch?

Pitching in PR terms is an effort to reach out members of the media with a story idea. Who to pitch depends on the angle of the story or piece of content of which you are trying to garner publicity. Know your viewing and reading audience. If you have a local community story then you are going to want to pitch your local publications and new stations. If your news is relevant to the credit union industry, you can take your pitch to the industry publications.

• Broadcast
  • News Desks
  • Producers
  • Only reporters who fall within the beat you are looking for
  • Reporters who have covered the topic in the past
• Radio
  • News Desks
  • Producers
  • Only hosts who fall within the beat you are looking for
  • Hosts who have covered the topic in the past
• Print
  • News Desks
  • Editors
  • Only reporters who fall within the beat you are looking for
  • Reporters who have covered the topic in the past

If you are looking to take you media outreach to the next level, consider the following:

• Write letters to the editor
• Offer yourself as a guest speaker on relevant podcasts
• Write and submit content as a contributed content piece to relevant publications
• Reach out to organizational magazines to offer information that would apply to their readers
• Reach out to the local op-ed editors

How to write a pitch?

When writing a pitch to accompany your press release or media advisory it is crucial that you know who you are pitching. Reporters and editors get hundreds of pitches a day; yours need to catch their eye and it needs to be relevant to the beat they cover.

• Tell them why your information is perfect for their Reference a previous article they have covered that relates to your angle
• Be clear in your ask. Determine what it is that you are trying to accomplish such as having them attend an event, interview someone, or cover something happening at your credit union. Always have a call to action
• Customize each pitch to who you are pitching. Reference previous articles they have covered. Make it personal but professional
• If you don’t get a response to an email pitch, politely follow-up with a phone call
• Connect your pitch to timely and relevant news that is happening in the industry or locally

A crisis can disrupt your business operations, threaten your success, damage your reputation, and negatively impact your company finances. When a crisis comes up, and it will, you need to be prepared to mitigate the situation. Whether there’s an injury in your parking lot, a robbery, accusations of employee misconduct, or stolen data, it is important to first, identify all stakeholders that may be affected. Stakeholders may include, employees, media, the board, investors, and neighboring businesses – depending on the crisis. Once stakeholders are identified, you will need to determine the most timely and effective way of communicating with them with messages that protect your employees and company’s reputation.

If emergency response is required, follow company protocol in involving your credit union CEO, human resources, first responders if needed, and put a rapid response plan into action. If you don’t currently have rapid response plan, we suggest one is developed and shared with all employees.

Handling the crisis at hand

Defining the specific crisis scenario on hand will influence your next steps.

• Personnel crisis: This is when an employee or someone associated with a business is involved in activity or conduct where they are physically harmed or that’s considered unethical and/or illegal. This misconduct may occur in or out of the workplace and can be related to the work life or personal life of the individual involved.
• Organizational crisis: This is when a business has wronged their members by taking actions that negatively impact their members. Examples may include withholding important information from members who have the right to know the details about a specific topic or exploiting members.
• Technological crisis: This is when software crashes, servers go down, or another crucial technological system stops functioning properly. It might cause a business to lose large amounts of revenue, make members question their reliability, or tarnish their reputation. Data breaches also would fall under this category, in instances where you would need to reissue debit or credit cards to your members when they’ve been victim to fraudulent behavior.
• Natural crisis: Hurricanes, tornados, floods, and winter storms are all examples of natural crises that can cause detrimental to a business’ office space (or any area owned or used by a business). A company’s location can cause them to be prone to various natural disasters occurring throughout the year.

Determine the potential impact of each type of crisis

Once you’ve identified the crisis on hand, the next step is to play out the impact this could have on any one of the stakeholders of your credit union. Examples include:

• Drop in sales
• Member dissatisfaction
• Tarnished reputation
• Drop in membership
• Decrease in member loyalty to your credit union

Manage the media

It is important to your credit union that the media only speak to those from your organization who are designated spokespeople. Doing so will help provide the public with consistent crisis messaging that protects your company’s reputation.

When credit union personnel are approached by the media via telephone:

• Ask which media outlet they represent
• Ask for their contact information
• Ask if they are on deadline
• Let them know a spokesperson will get back to them with accurate and up-to-date information
• Politely hang up, and give yourself time and space necessary to work with your CEO, HR and spokesperson to determine your best course of action
• When prepared, the spokesperson should return the call or provide the media with a prepared company statement

When credit union personnel are approached by the media in person:

• Ask which media outlet they represent
• Ask for their contact information
• Ask if they are on deadline
• Let them know a spokesperson will get back to them with accurate and up-to-date information
• Politely ask the media to leave the premises to give you privacy and time to work through the situation. If they refuse to leave, ask the CEO, HR manager or spokesperson to remain with the media to make sure they don’t randomly interview other employees or walk around at their leisure

Managing other stakeholders such as employees, members, neighboring businesses, the board

• Create a company statement
• Tailor it to the needs of each audience
• Distribute message in a timely and professional manner
• Assure all stakeholders that you will keep them apprised of updates around the situation until there is resolution
• Ask that any concerns or questions be brought to the attention of the CEO, HR or spokesperson