C-O-N-T-R-O-L

A few years ago I was having lunch with a reporter from The NY Times when he suddenly leaned forward, conspiratorially: "You know, Richard, you have a tough job," he said alarmingly. I was curious. "How's that?" He shrugged. "Well, your client gives us all this information and we do whatever we want with it."

After I used my inside laugh, I took another bite. Naive? Why of course. Everyone (good) in PR knows that we have all the power. Think about it without laughing. The reporter was right. But if we control every word out of our source's mouth they can only "do whatever [they] want with" what we give them.

So who's zooming whom?
It's not true that media relations is a cakewalk. But if you remember a few points of control you can always at least do your job without anyone making it harder. Tough jobs are in the eye of the beholder. So many of our colleagues bitch and moan and whine and bitch again about how tough it is to get a good story from a dull person or product. But those are the people who can't help but complicate a good thing. And they don't think for a moment how, like the best political message, it's all keeping it simple. Simple but fresh. A boring story means someone isn't being creative enough.

The problem with the spokespeople we proffer to reporters, bloggers, whoever, is these egoists usually love to talk and in doing so without counsel they do often irreparable damage. Which, dammit, makes reporter right. If someone babbles endlessly about everything going on of course there will be a niblet in there for the journalist to glom onto. But if you use that tough love and make damn sure everyone stays in the box of "just say this," you stay in control--and on top.

Control
Young Janet Jackson was right! If you don't get the message right, you will always be seen as something worthless and malleable, the latter worse than anything. Being afraid to tell the person who trusts you with their image means that you are lazily leading him down the wrong path. You end up slapping yourself on the forehead and those red spots are unseemly.

Sure, keeping ahead of the doom can sometimes be a heady prospect. I've heard horror stories about CEOs getting "casual" calls from producers of content who just happen to ask an off hand query about something nobody should know yet. And then all hell cuts loose. Again, this is where the aggressive pro in you must prepare your source from day 1.

There is a game at play and as long as everyone on your side knows what team color he wears then no matter what your story--your mission--will be exactly as you posed it... as easy as if you did all the talking all the time.

Hmm. Come to think of it, you probably should try and be that person. Because, like that dude haughtily tossed me in paragraph one, if you let the gal in charge say too much you might end up with some exposure that, uh-huh, was easily controlled by a third party. And that ain't right.

Twitter @laermer