Working with the media can seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. In part two of this two-part series, Amy answers five more of the most common questions museum professionals ask about media relations. This episode is full of practical tips to help you feel more confident and ready when it’s time to connect with the media and share your museum’s story.

Links from the Episode:

• Episode 32: Top 10 Media Relations Questions (Part 1)

More Free Resources for Museums:

• Museum Planning Calendar
• Museum Metrics Template

About the host: 

Amy Kehs is a brand strategist and communications expert for museums. She has owned Kehs Communications since 2000 and has worked for the most renowned and well-loved museums in Washington, D.C. Her goal is to ensure that museums thrive into the next century and she hopes people will come to love museums as much as she does. Her proven process sets up proactive communication habits for museums, cultivating relationships with visitors who will want to return and bring a friend. Want to talk more? Click this link to book a call.

Today is part two of the top 10 of the most common media relations

questions I hear from museums, whether you're a one person marketing shop,

or part of a bigger team, these are things that come up all the time.

Let's get started.

Hello and welcome to the Love My Museum podcast.

I'm your host, Amy Kehs and I love museums.

I'm also a brand strategist and communications expert for

museums, and today is part.

Two of a two part series I'm doing on the 10 most common media relations

questions I hear from museums.

I work with museums of all sizes, and for the bigger museums where there are larger

PR departments, I would say that these are questions we wish our colleagues that are

not in the PR office knew or asked us or considered when we're working with them.

For the middle-sized museums, lots of times they have PR departments, but

they are often understaffed or in the same boat as the larger PR office.

These are things that they wish their colleagues thought

about or asked sometimes too.

I've seen the middle-sized museums.

Are like the smaller museums, and either they don't have a PR department or the

person that is in charge of PR hasn't had any training or degree in PR or marketing.

They often are wearing multiple hats and maybe they're also the

program manager or in charge of education or visitor services.

And I've of course even worked with museums where there is just.

One or two people on staff.

In the first episode, I walked through the first five questions.

I'll link that episode in the show notes, and today we'll talk

about the last five questions.

Almost all of these I've actually heard multiple times and even

in the last couple of months.

As I said in the last episode, we all want media coverage.

That helps tell our museum stories, helps us reach new audiences and shows.

The impact that the museum is having on the community and the impact of

the work that the museum is doing.

Third party endorsements from journalists have a huge impact on our

credibility and are a major factor when people decide if they wanna

visit your museum or become a donor.

Media relations is a long game.

It's about relationships.

It's not just about getting coverage today, but it's about being helpful

and a trustworthy source over time.

One of the reasons that I decided to do this episode is because a

lot of my clients and my coworkers.

And friends and family who have been listening to the podcast over the last

year have said to me, Amy, you don't talk about media relations on your podcast,

and that's what you're known for.

And I realized that they were right.

So here we are.

Before we dive into the next five questions, let's just do a quick review

of the first five questions that we talked about in the last episode.

I tried to put these 10 questions in some sort of like chronological order.

So the first five questions had a lot to do with.

Pitching your story and preparing to do that.

So in the last episode we talked about how do you find journalists

to be on your media list?

What do we need to have ready before we pitch a story?

How do we know if something is newsworthy enough to pitch to the media?

Number four, what's the difference between a press release and a media advisory?

And do we need both?

And number five, how do we build relationships with local

reporters before we need them?

And so if you miss the last episode again, that'll be.

Linked in the show notes, and I would love for you to go back and listen

to the answers to those questions.

Okay, so let's dive into the last five questions.

The first one that I have is how can we prepare our staff or

experts for media interviews?

This is a great question.

So in the last episode we talked a lot about like preparing that media list

and getting things ready for the media and getting things like, what were we

going to need before we did that pitch?

But we also need to prepare our staff.

Most of the time you will just have one or two spokespeople for a project.

So that might be the curator of an exhibit.

That's almost always the director of the museum, and there may be

some other staff that need preparing for their media interviews.

This is something that you should do before the press release

goes out, and media training doesn't have to be complicated.

You should write up two to three key messages or talking points

for your staff to study and learn and then practice with them.

I do media training for staff for all of my projects, and if you

would like me to help media train your staff, you can schedule some

time for us to talk about it.

I'd love to help.

The second question is, we sent a press release and no one

responded, and now we're panicking.

So now what?

First of all, this happens to everyone.

It's totally normal, and silence doesn't mean failure.

I find that this is.

One of the hardest things for our coworkers to understand media

relations is public relations.

We cannot force journalists to do a story.

If you want something on the front page of the newspaper.

And you want it to be guaranteed, then you're going to need to buy an ad. But

that ad isn't going to be as useful.

Like I said, it's totally normal and silence doesn't mean failure.

There are a lot of factors that go into whether a news outlet

covers your story or not.

It could be what else is happening that week in the news.

It could be staffing.

There are so many factors beyond your control, but give them some time and

then send a short friendly follow up.

If possible, especially for the ones that are really high on your wishlist

of stories to get, give them a call, talk to them, see if there's any other

information that they need, or give them some other reasons why you think your

idea is something that their readers, or their viewers or listeners are.

Going to want to know about.

But the most important thing is really try to think of it

as outreach and not rejection.

This puts you on their radar for the future, and sometimes

is planting a seed for a story that will be six months from now.

Any outreach, even if it doesn't result in a story, is a positive thing.

It helps you stay top of mind

and plans the idea that you are there as a resource.

Staying top of mind and reminding journalists that you are there

as a resource is something that should be ongoing at your museum.

It should not be something that you pull out of a desk drawer only

during the opening of an exhibit.

You should be in communication with the journalists on your media

list all throughout the year, and keeping in touch with them will

help when you are reaching out to them to do a story on a new exhibit.

Maintaining those relationships consistently is key.

Number three, what should go on our website to make it easy

for the media to cover us?

I actually got this question recently from a museum that is redoing their website,

and I love this question because it is often something that gets overlooked.

If possible, create a press page or a media page on your website where

journalists can read all of your press releases and they're dirt.

Easy to find in, in one place and where they can also find contact information.

For Medioc inquiries, no matter what size your museum, you should have one

or two people occasionally, three, as the media contacts on the press page.

Also on the press page, you should try to include some high res images that they

can download, and a short organizational boiler plate, the same boiler plate that's

at the end of all of your press releases.

For those high res images, you should have basically like some

stock photos of the exterior of the museum, some photos of your interior.

And make sure you have captions and photo credits right there for them to use.

Think of it as a toolkit for reporters.

In the last episode, we talked about putting together an electronic press kit

for whatever project you were working on.

So you would have an electronic press kit for an exhibit that's coming out, or for a

program that was getting ready to happen.

Well think of this webpage as being that toolkit for reporters that's evergreen.

Question number four, can social media be part of our media relations strategy?

This is a really good question.

As you can imagine, reporters are people too.

They use social media to find stories, to find sources, to get ideas, and it's also

a way to learn more about the journalist.

So following certain journalists, commenting on stories that they

do is a great thing to do as part of your media relations strategy.

Question number five, how do we handle bad press or negative story?

Now, this question isn't very much fun, but it's definitely worth talking about.

It's important that you think about this ahead of time.

If you get bad press or a negative story, or you get a press inquiry that is asking

to interview you about a sensitive topic,

the more prepared you are for this.

The quicker, more calmly, more professionally, you can respond.

You should stick to the facts.

You should not engage in arguments online.

I hope that goes without saying.

And think about your audience.

What do they need to hear from you?

This is also something that I do proactively when I'm preparing for

an exhibit opening and part of what we talk about during media training.

Coming up with a crisis

communications plan is also very important for your museum.

It gives you and your staff the ability to feel prepared and.

Maybe react a bit quicker than if you didn't have a plan in place at all.

All right.

Well, that's it.

We did it.

I hope this rundown of my top 10 media relations questions gave you something

practical to take back to your museum.

Remember, media relations is a long game.

It's about.

Building those relationships, being helpful, sharing stories that

are going to connect with people.

If this episode was helpful, I'd love to hear from you.

Send me a message, share it with a colleague, or let me know

what other questions you have.

Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you next time