CEO Experts - Part 3: Do a Media Briefing
Linking your CEO with an editor or reporter who covers your industry can be as simple as calling the media person and telling them your CEO would like to brief them on industry trends.
Okay, you’ve called and the reporter said yes. You can’t believe your good fortune. You feel like you’ve just hit a home run. Now what? Do your homework (actually you should do this BEFORE you call). In any case, these tips may help you prepare:
•Find out what the reporter has been writing and and what her/his interests are and assemble a briefing book for the CEO. You don’t want to CEO to be surprised about the reporter’s interests. Make sure you cite any potential areas of industry controversy or criticism that any good reporter is sure to bring up.
•Sit down with your CEO and discuss the upcoming briefing an the goals.
•Prepare background for the reporter: a page on the CEO and one on industry trends with more on a CD or reference to a website for details.
•Try to keep the briefing group small. Limit it to four: CEO, reporter, A PR Person and maybe another “content expert.” Even better: if your CEO is good with reporters, a one-on-one over lunch is OK. Having a PR person can be useful, too, recording reporter requests and helping the CEO with tough questions. But remember, reporters don’t want to hear from PR flacks, they want to talk with top management.