Bean to Barstool
A podcast exploring the intersections of craft beer and craft chocolate.
Bean to Barstool
Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers: Common Pitfalls, Crisis Comms, and Where to Start
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It's time for the final episode in our Media series!
In this episode, David and Melinda talk through a range of topics to conclude the Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers series. They discuss:
- Common pitfalls companies make in media relations (or let hold them back from even starting)
- Crisis communications - what it means, and things to think about now before you need to later
- What to do after you get media coverage
- Action items to get you started on your media relations path.
Media relations doesn't have to be scary, but it is super important, so listen in and David and Melinda share their final thoughts about Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers!
David's been a full time food and beverage journalist for about a decade now and Melinda Guerra has been a freelance PR professional helping brands tell their stories and connect with media for even longer than that. In this series, they share what they’ve learned over their careers to help craft chocolate companies of any size identify their stories, communicate them to media members and outlets, gain new customers, and keep the ones you have curious.
Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers series:
Podcast Episodes
Why You Need a Media Plan
Identify Your Company's Stories
How to Build and Manage a Media List
All About Press Releases
How to Maintain Media Relationships and Communicate New Stories
How to Get Started, and Common Pitfalls
Blog Posts
Why You Need a Media Plan
How to Identify Your Stories
How to Build a Media List
Adding Industry and Unexpected Outlets to your Media List
How to Write and Send a Press Release
How to Maintain Media Relationships and Communicate New Stories
How to Get Started, and Common Pitfalls
Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.
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Pinterest
Sign up for host David Nilsen's beer newsletter for regular beer musings, and the Bean to Barstool newsletter for pairings, collaborations, and maker profiles.
Hey everyone, welcome back to our Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers series. I've been a full-time food and beverage journalist for about a decade now, and my wife and business partner, Melinda Guerra, has been a freelance PR professional helping brands tell their stories and connect with media for even longer than that. And in this series, we've been sharing what we've learned over our careers to help craft chocolate companies of any size identify their stories and communicate them to media members and outlets. This is the final episode in our media series. In this series, we've walked step by step through the things you can do to develop your own media strategy and begin working with writers and other members of the media to help tell your story. In the first episode, we outlined why this topic is so important. It's a super quick episode, it's less than 10 minutes, but it succinctly highlights why you need to think about media relations, even if you feel like you don't have the time. If you're on the fence, give that quick episode a listen and hopefully I can change your mind. And a reminder with this, I know I'm trying to persuade you to do this, but I want it to be clear. I'm not selling anything. I don't do consulting. I'm not selling my services related to this. I'm a freelance journalist and editor, and the more chocolate companies and other food and drink companies understand how to work with media, the easier and better my job is. That's what I get out of this. That's my only selfish pursuit with it. And then I just want to see craft chocolate companies succeed. And I want to see all of you being able to make the most of the amazing work that you're doing. In the second episode, we discussed brainstorming a story list, coming up with a huge list of all the things that might be interesting to a media member or outlet, including some stuff you might not think of. In the third episode, we talked about building a media list and how to make contact and begin communication with media members. I think this is where a lot of people get hung up because it requires you to go beyond the comforts of just working alone and actually make outreach, but it doesn't have to be scary. There are a ton of practical pointers in this episode to get you started. And we also talk about the grassroots media landscape in craft chocolate and how to work with podcasters and bloggers and those less traditional media members that can be hugely important to our industry. In the fourth episode, we talked all about press releases, when to send them, what types of things to include, who they go to. If press releases seem scary to you, this episode should remove most of that and walk you through exactly what you need to do and not do. And then in the most recent episode, I talked about maintaining ongoing relationships with media members and outlets and how to send informal communication to share story ideas and updates. Of everything in this list, that's the one I share the most selfishly because there's a ton in there. I wish more of my sources and subjects understood about communicating with us in the media. Today we're going to do some cleanup and talk about some important things we didn't get a chance to cover in the other episodes. We're going to discuss common pitfalls and things that hold people back from getting started. Then I'm going to bring Melinda on and we'll discuss crisis communications. This is an aspect of media relations people don't like to think about and hopefully you never need, but it's important to at least think through how you'll handle it if it arises. Then on a more positive note, we talk about what to do and not do after you get media coverage. Hopefully, by following what we've shared in this series, you are able to begin getting some media coverage. Congratulations, but the cycle doesn't end as soon as a story comes out. There are a few things to do once it's out to maximize everything you can get out of this. In our collaboration for Chocolate Makers series, we talked about the importance of maximizing the benefits you get from any collab. And the same is true here. If you're going to do the work to pitch the media and do interviews and such, you want that to pay off as much as possible. So we'll talk about what to keep in mind with that. And then after Melinda and I talk, I'm going to wrap up this whole thing with a short list of action items for you to get started. That'll be basically a simple checklist of what to do next. So at the outset, let's talk about some common pitfalls, some uh mistakes that you can make, but also some things that tend to hold people back from getting started with media relations in any kind of organized way. The first pitfall, the biggest one, is just doing nothing, not doing anything, assuming that you don't have the time to do this, not seeing what media relations can do for your business. So don't just do nothing. And sometimes that doing nothing is not a conscious, I don't care about this. What it usually is is I'm gonna wait until blank. So waiting until some future point to begin. Maybe you think you're going to be less busy at some point. I got to wait until I get these tasks completed or these upcoming projects, and then I'll have more time. You won't have more time. You're always going to be busy. There's no point in waiting until a point where your schedule clears up. It's not going to. We all kind of know that about our work at this point. New things arise. There's always some other project that comes up. So if you recognize this as an important part of your business, the best time to start that is now. Waiting until you have some uh update completed, until you have, you know, a new location, whatever. Sometimes there can be, you know, certain communications that might make sense to wait to send until different things are ready, but uh you need to get this ball rolling. And a lot of the work that goes into this is stuff that you're doing behind the scenes before you're even sending communication, and you can begin that now. Getting those things started, getting past a blank page, which Melinda talked about in one of our previous episodes of like the blank page being the enemy of doing anything, because when there's nothing on that page, you you have this paralysis where you don't know what to do. Getting some things on a blank page, brainstorming some of the lists that we've talked about on here gets this project started and makes it a real thing that you're working on. Another common pitfall that's come up throughout these conversations is believing that the media is scary. Most of the communication that you're going to have with the media in the context of what we've talked about in this series is positive stuff. These are stories that you want them to share, and they want to be able to share interesting things with their audience. So this is a symbiotic cooperative relationship. Now, yes, there are situations where you might have to interact with the media and you don't really want to. We're going to talk about crisis communications in just a few minutes. Hopefully, though, that's something that never comes up for you. The kind of media relations we're talking about in this series is proactive. This is stuff you want the media to share on your behalf. So the media is not a scary entity that is out to get you. It's also not uh some level of professionals that are like above you and super formal, and you have to worry about messing up with them. We are just people who have jobs, just like you. Our job just happens to be sharing stories with the public. So don't be scared of the media. Another one, and it has come up at multiple different points throughout this. Strongly encourage you not to use AI, not to use generative AI in uh your communications with the media. If we can tell that you are doing that, it tells us that this was not really a priority to you. We are going to be taking the time to write these stories. We appreciate you taking the time to actually share this with us in your own words. Does not, you don't have to be a good writer or a great communicator to do that. That's our job. We just need to know what those stories are and we need to know that you care. We need to know that this is something you are excited about. So do that in your own words. Another common pitfall, this came up in the episode when we were talking about uh making outreach to the media and sending pitches and things like that, is not paying attention to submission details or to the beats that different writers cover. A beat is all of the topics or types of stories that a given writer or outlet is going to cover. Not paying attention to those things is a great way to lose the interest of or annoy somebody in the media. You want to make sure that you're following the guidelines they provide in how to contact them and that you aren't sending them things that are spurio to what they cover. So they're actually interested and invested when they get your communication. Additionally, making sure that you aren't using artificial, inflated, hyperbolic PR language when you're making that communication. I think this is the one of the most common pitfalls I run into receiving pitches or outreach of some kind from businesses is this reads like you are making an advertisement. And it's this hyperbolic, super uh, super inflated language. And like it it doesn't, it doesn't read authentically. It doesn't seem like you're actually telling me the real thing about your product or your company. You're you're trying to sell me something. Strip all of that away and and speak authentically about what you're sending. And then another common pitfall, and this comes kind of after you've done most of the work of making outreach, is not being reachable or findable by the media. Uh, if you've done the work to get the media's attention, you want to make it incredibly easy for them to get back to you so that they can interview you, get information, whatever it is that they're going to need to do to be able to tell the story. So make sure that you have uh contact information plainly available to media members that you're reaching out to, and then actually interact with that. Make sure that you are answering calls from the media or returning them as soon as possible. Make sure that you're checking your email daily and returning uh correspondence from the media, especially when we're talking about news stories or upcoming events. Those might have a very quick turnaround, very short window of timeliness. And if you wait 24, 48 hours, you might actually miss that. Uh, make sure that you are able to be reached and that you are responsive. So, with that, I'm gonna bring Melinda on and we're gonna talk about uh a less than exciting part of media relations, crisis communications. We're just gonna spend a few minutes on that, and then we'll jump into some more positive stuff and talk about what to do when you get the media coverage that you're putting in this work to be able to get. And then I'll share some action items to wrap up this whole series. Here's Melinda. So I want to talk for a minute about crisis communications. This is a type of communication with the media that comes up for reasons that you wish didn't. Basically, this is when you're going to be interacting with the media because a story has arisen that you would have preferred hadn't uh come up. It could be something like a product recall. It could be, heaven forbid, somebody in your company has been accused of bad behavior. It could be something outside of your control that happens that your business just happens to be connected to. And the media is reaching out to you. And there's going to be a story that you would rather in a perfect world never saw the light of day, but you have some choices on how you interact with that and how you respond to it. This is a pretty big topic and one we can't cover in a lot of detail here, but it's worth addressing at least for a few moments. Melinda, what are some things that companies should keep in mind when it comes to crisis communications?
SPEAKER_00So the biggest thing to keep in mind is to respond. I think a lot of what can happen is that because whatever the media is contacting you about in a crisis and what we call crisis communications is, as you talked about, something bad, something that in an ideal world wasn't happening, that a gut reaction uh people can have is to just ignore it and hope that it'll go away. And that's not how this works. The story, it's going to get published regardless of whether or not you engage with it. And so one of the worst things that you can do is just to ignore it. When you're doing that engagement, there are a few things to keep in mind. If this is happening over email, and I do try to suggest that folks keep things that way so that you have a clear communication of what's getting communicated, make sure, and this is so basic, but when you're in the middle of a crisis, it can be hard to remember. Make sure that you're aware of who is receiving an email, especially if you're hitting reply all. Sometimes if media is reaching out to you, they're reaching out to like five different people in your organization. If you hit reply all, that is going not just to all of the other people in your organization, but also to the media. And some of these conversations are going to be things that are best kept together. Like, okay, who's got the reports on this? Who has the background information? What do we know? You know, getting all of that stuff together, you want to have internal communications about that, obviously, before you're responding to media. So pay attention to those details. Make sure that you do respond. And not the details, don't just guess at them. I think that sometimes in a in an effort to deal with something quickly, people will say, oh yeah, no, that was definitely addressed yesterday, you know, whatever that is. And they're just kind of going off of recollection. So I tell people to go back to your back to your receipts, look at any reports that you have, like what outlines the history uh that impacts this, because you will be fact-checked and you don't want to make it look like you are misleading media, even if that was by accident. You come off looking pretty crappy if you're caught in something, even if it's unintentional. So assume that you're going to be fact-checked. Be aware of quotes, watch what you're saying and how you're saying it. What comes up in crisis communications and it comes up in legal communications. And oftentimes uh legal reps for a company and PR reps for a company will kind of work hand in hand together and crafting a response. But one of those things that that comes up is being very aware of what you're saying and how you're saying it, because somebody can read something uncharitably. And so guarding that language and making sure that you have somebody who is a skilled uh communicator, skilled professional communicator, take a look at that before you're putting information out. I know that we had talked much earlier in the series about when does it make sense to hire outside help to get someone um to get a PR professional involved. And really, if you're in a crisis situation or think that you might be, that's a great time to consider hiring PR help because we we know that language, we know how to get back to the media, we understand what kinds of trigger language and things that are going to be make a lot of sense to you, but are going to be completely uh something that's going to come across wrong to the public. And so we know how to navigate that and rephrase that and all of that to convey what needs to be conveyed um in a way that you know handles this as best as possible. One more thing in with that is trying to reduce the number of people who are talking to the media, particularly in a crisis. Sometimes you have a few different, say, senior employees or something like that who, you know, they could potentially be the person responding. Part of why I get things immediately off of the chain that includes the media and start a new thread of internal communications is to figure out who is going to be saying that, who's going to be communicating with the media, because sometimes it's me, sometimes it's legal, sometimes it is a senior employee, but like we are working carefully on the exact language. And it's vital that you don't have multiple people handling communications, because if they say something even slightly contradictory, it could create a problem in perception, even if it's not actually a problem in reality. If this was a conversation that we were having and moving through something, when a journalist is going through communications, grabbing information and putting this into a story, that appearance of a contradiction uh can be pretty troubling. So identifying one person who's responsible for taking what we all come to, you know, we all come to an understanding of, okay, what's happening, what are we communicating about this, and whose job is it to communicate can be really important to keep in mind.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a great point. One thing I want to talk about briefly from the journalism side is the idea of being on or off the record when you're talking to a journalist. It's a phrase that comes up sometimes in movies and TV and things, and like it's a little unclear what it's actually referring to and what it's not referring to. This is something that's good to keep in mind in general when you're communicating with the media, but for most of the earned media coverage that we've been talking about throughout this series, it's really not quite as relevant because for the type of stories that we uh we're encouraging you to solicit and promote and work with media members and outlets on, these are pervasively positive things. And so the consequences of certain things that you might say are just not really present in quite the same way. Being on and off the record is a sort of an ethical distinction within journalism. It's not strictly speaking a legal distinction, although there can be ramifications for that. But basically, it is when you're communicating with the media and you're letting them know that something you're about to tell them is to stay between you. They don't have permission to share this in their reporting in whatever format that's going to take. That is being off the record. This has nothing to do, strictly speaking, with being recorded. So it's not an issue of you're on the record if you're being recorded and off the record if you aren't. This is a statement of verbal consent in any kind of communication you're having with the media. And when you're going off the record, the purpose for doing that is to provide some context to that media member that you think is going to help them better understand what you're explaining to them, but you don't want the details of whatever that is actually shared in what they're reporting. And this is an ethical thing that journalists will abide by if they agree to go off the record. And that is something where you have to actually get mutual agreement between both parties. If you just say, I want this off the record, and they say, Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm not giving you that, you have the option to not tell them anything further there. But that doesn't mean that they just have to abide by you saying that if they do not mutually agree in response. This is not something that should come up very often, if ever. In my work, I don't do investigative reporting. I'm I'm writing the earned media coverage that we're talking about in this series where I'm writing pervasively positive stories about people and companies. And it'll come up sometimes in interviews if somebody just wants to give me a little bit of background information so I understand something better, but they don't want the actual detail of maybe it's something about a former employee or it's just something financial behind the scenes, or it helps me understand it. But it's not so much that this is a negative story and this is some kind of dirt that they don't want to get out. It's just not something they want to be quoted on. The important things to understand when you're talking to a media member in this kind of crisis communications scenario is that you are on the record unless you have both agreed to be off the record. It doesn't matter that you think you're having a private conversation, doesn't matter later that you say, Oh, I thought we were speaking in confidence. If you guys didn't agree to be off the record, you're on the record at all times. You need to assume that. That again, that is not dependent upon being actually recorded in some kind of electronic sense, and that that requires mutual agreement in order to go off the record. Hate to spend this much time on this. Hopefully, crisis communications is not something that ever comes up for your business, but it's the kind of thing that you don't need until you need it. And then it's kind of too late to have thought about this stuff because a story is coming out tomorrow and you have no time to think this through. So just some things to keep in mind. Uh, hopefully it's not something you ever need. Investigative reporting is a critical part of having a free press and freedom of speech. It's not always the prettiest thing in the world. Don't want to dwell on this negative side of this uh too much when we've spent all this time talking about how great it is to have a relationship with the media. Those are just some things to keep in mind, and hopefully they don't come up for you. But it's always best to be prepared. Let's talk about some more positive stuff about media communications. Looking back at the things that we've discussed across the course of this series about making media lists and story lists and how to send press releases and how to communicate story ideas with the media and build those relationships. Let's say that you actually succeed in getting some media coverage. Somebody picks you up for a news story, the local TV covers your event, you have a relationship with a journalist and they involve you in a story that they're writing. That's awesome, but it's not the end of your role in that story and uh your relationship with that media member or that media outlet. So let's talk about some of the things that happen when you get media coverage. What to do when a story about you, a positive story, does come out or a news uh segment comes out or something of that nature. So, Linda, what are some things from your side as a publicist that you do when the news or or the media covers one of your clients?
SPEAKER_00The first thing I do is say thank you. And it seems simple and something that has been uh really just ingrained in us since we were kids, right? But when when something like that happens, you say thank you. So I I email the reporter or the producer, whomever it is that I've been working with to say uh thanks for including us in your coverage. And I would love to work together again. It is simple, does not have to be super involved, but that little extra effort can help a lot in building relationships and it doesn't happen all the time on that other side. And so leaving them with a positive impression, right, of our interaction, because I ended it with uh with saying thank you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I I agree. This always uh makes me feel good when I have covered a business and then they reach out to say thank you. This isn't expected, this is not a transactional relationship, but talking about the idea of building an ongoing relationship, just taking a moment to say that you appreciated whatever I had to say about you or just getting the coverage goes a long way to bringing in a personal element to what is a professional relationship and making me maybe think about you again down the road. It's not expected, it's not something you have to do, but when you're looking at doing those extra little things to establish that relationship, it does go a long way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for sure. And then sharing the piece uh is another way of saying thank you, right? But I'm saying thank you to you personally. And then I'm also going to do that publicly. I'm going to share the piece on uh social media tagging folks, right? Like actually uh making sure that it's shared, that I'm giving credit to the uh reporter or the producer, the editor uh that was involved, the actual publication. One of the things that I do that can kind of help uh with this is when I'm working on a piece with media, I'm pulling together their handles. So this is where they are on Instagram and on Blue Sky and on Facebook, and I'm pulling that stuff in advance. So this way I'm ready to share uh that message with the link as long as soon as the link is live, because you don't want to just, you know, assume that their handle is necessarily the same thing across uh your various social media channels. So making sure to do that um in a way that allows for folks to not only see that here's the piece that was written or the story that aired, but here are the actual uh media outlets or uh journalists or you know, editors and producers that were directly involved in that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, this is really important because if you have gone to all of the work to get this story covered, to conduct the interviews or you know, to be interviewed for the story, to do whatever has been involved, all of that work is an investment. You now need to maximize what you get out of that. It's not just a way to say thank you. This is highlighting to your existing audience that somebody else has taken the time to cover your story. It might be your existing audience doesn't necessarily know everything interesting that you're doing. So even if you think this is a part of your business that anybody who knows ABC Chocolate Company obviously knows this and the story is just going to reach a new customer, most of your existing audience probably doesn't know all the inner workings of what you're doing and doesn't know everything about your backstory necessarily. So taking the opportunity where somebody else has done the work to write the story, and somebody else is saying these interesting things about you and they've decided that you're worth this attention, one of the great things you can do is use that as a way to market back to your existing customers, sharing it on social media. If you have a newsletter and you should have a newsletter that is going out to your customers over email, including that in there, not the entire story, and we'll talk about that in just a second, but maybe a key paragraph, a couple sentences saying that you really appreciated the story, and then a link for them to go read it elsewhere. You want to get everything you can out of these media interactions. And so taking the story that somebody else has written and sharing that to your audience is a really important part of that.
SPEAKER_00So when you're doing that sharing, um, making sure that you're including the links that people can, you know, actually go through to access the piece in addition to like the tags and whatever it is that you're sharing with it, and not just like taking a screenshot of the story and assuming that that's a reasonable way for you to be sharing this because people can't engage with that content.
SPEAKER_01Well, they can engage with it, but also additionally, it's kind of in poor taste in your relationship with the media because what the media is getting out of this is clicks and eyeballs on their site or in their physical pages or on the TV screen or whatever it is. And if you take a photograph of a story and post that to your social media, yeah, people can't interact with it the same way. But also you're basically taking away the benefit from this media partner that has worked with you. You need to be directing them to where that story actually resides.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So then that last piece that I'm really looking at is maintaining a record of your coverage. I keep an Excel spreadsheet with my different clients and who covered us and when. And I have I have those um links to those pages. If if it's set up in a way where I can, I should try to like grab a PDF or something just in case that page later gets taken down. Um, it's helpful for you to have as an example of, you know, here's here's media coverage that we've gotten so far. It's also helpful. We had talked early on about what kinds of information can go on your website. And so, in the same way that press releases uh can go on your website as like, hey, here's some history of here's some press, here's some media coverage that we've obtained can also go on your website. And so saying that ABC covered us, and here's a link to that, or you know, the uh WANETCA uh newspaper covered us, and here's the link to that. Having that information up there does that same thing that you know that you were making the point of just a moment ago. It's saying here are other entities that said that our story was uh was engaging and worth telling. And so having that information someplace for folks to check out uh can be helpful and help you really get your maximum benefit from the work that you've put in.
SPEAKER_01So let's talk about a couple other things to keep in mind after a story comes out about your business. Occasionally there can be mistakes made on the journalism side, maybe just a factual detail, maybe a quote that you don't feel was uh reflective of what you were saying. What should people do or not do if they notice something in a story or news report that they don't feel was accurate?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a really tricky situation. You've got a couple of things that you're looking at here. First is the reminder of what we talked about initially that you have a difference between media that you're paying for, having those like advertisements and those things where you get to completely control a message versus this earned media where you're telling a story and having a conversation and pitching and they're following through on that. So if, you know, there's going to be some things that maybe are going to come across that aren't exactly how you would have phrased things or exactly, you know, the way that you would have done something. If something's actually factually wrong, um, then you want to reach out to whomever politely, briefly, but to explain that, hey, thanks so much for the piece, quick correction. The release date for that chocolate is actually August 1st and not uh June 1st. If you can, you know, can you is that something that's possible for you to fix? I've had it sometimes where uh media has just because they're taking so many pieces out, they've um missed up my client's name, like in the headline of something. And that those are usually fixed like really promptly uh when you reach out, but don't include like three paragraphs of here's why, and all of this, you know, all of this background, like just hey, here's the quick error. If it's possible for you to fix it, here's what it says, here's what it should be. Thanks so much if you can uh get this corrected because media wants to be accurate, right? I would say keep it brief and direct with whomever it is that you have a line of communication with there.
SPEAKER_01And take a deep breath before you actually do that. It can be real easy to overreact when something is inaccurate and sour a relationship there. Absolutely, we want to get those things correct, and you want those things to be correct, but like take a look at it. And if if it's a name spelled wrong in a quote, we want to correct that, but like that's not the end of the world. Take a deep breath and then send a polite professional brief email to address that. I think the other important thing to monitor even before a story comes out, but then to keep in mind uh as you're reviewing whatever that coverage is, is calibrating your expectations to what the media coverage is going to be. If this is, especially if this is one of the first stories you've ever gotten, you might have a particular idea in mind of what this would be, but maybe it doesn't meet that exactly. What do you advise your clients when you're getting media coverage for them or monitoring this kind of coverage around what to expect?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, not every single part of your messaging is going to come across in every communication or and in every coverage with media. And I think that it's part of, you know, so much of this conversation over your whole series has been about looking at this as a relationship with media and so building an ongoing communication and all of that. And so you don't need to tell your whole story and all of your messaging and everything that people need to know in your first media piece. Think of it as this is going to be an introduction for some people to who you are. And so you don't have to look at this as a way to say everything all at once. When you're when this is a conversation and a relationship that's happening, you have the ability to uh continue to tell your story over time. So you may have had a 45-minute conversation with a journalist that they're then taking that conversation and turning it into a two and a half minute news clip, right? There's going to be a lot that's trimmed out and that's really distilled down and getting frustrated with the media because they didn't include every single story, because they didn't include every single quote, or because they didn't, you thought that this really this detail was really cute and they didn't put that in there. Like that's that's losing sight of the big picture. Like what you really want to see is you're starting a relationship with this journalist, you're introducing your brand to new uh people and to new audiences, you're telling your current audience about some new things. And so keeping track of, you know, what are the things that you want to get out there and letting that story be told in multiple pieces is okay. Um, and trusting the media that you're working with, sometimes the things that are really important to a founder or to a uh an owner of a company, those things can be really important to us. And then they don't realize that that doesn't necessarily convey as interesting to the public. And so the media is there in the middle taking this information in and knowing what's going to be best to convey to the public in a way that catches their attention. And they do that professionally. So it's okay, you know, manage your expectations. You're getting your story out there and let yourself be excited about that, right? And look at this as an ongoing relationship with uh with media where you have the the space and the time, hopefully. If you have that good initial interaction, you have more opportunities to continue to share more of that story.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Not everything that is important internally is interesting externally. I remember one story I did a few years ago, big long feature on a uh pretty significant brewery, and had spoken with the founders, had a great interview with them, very charming older gentleman, emailed me a couple days after the main interview to say he had some more things he wanted to share. And I knew there was no possibility that this second interview was going to yield anything I was gonna use, but he was interesting and polite. So I hopped on the phone with him and he wanted to talk to me about a management book that he loved that had been really foundational to him in understanding how to work with his employees. And that's super important, and I'm glad that he cared. Not a chance on this earth that that was interesting for my story. He believed it was. I'm sure he had forgotten about it by the time the story came out, and I did not include it. But there are plenty of things that feel important internally that you have to understand may not actually be all that interesting to somebody who's not directly invested in that internal culture. All right. Big thanks to Melinda, my wife and business partner, for her involvement in this series. I hope you all learned a lot from her. As we conclude this series, I want to leave you with a simple list of action items to get you started. Media relations doesn't have to be scary, but it is genuinely important. So here's where to start. And remember, once you get started, these won't all be linear. And you can go back and add things to different lists and have more than one of these that is uh in progress at any one time. But here's where to start if you are thinking about that blank page of getting started with media relations. First thing, make a story list. This is a big no-wrong answers type of list of everything potentially unique or interesting about your craft chocolate company. And that will include items that aren't directly related to craft chocolate. Get input and ideas from your employees if you have them, from your family and close friends, etc. And remember that because craft chocolate is still largely invisible to much of the culture, you may be the story of Kraft Chocolate for some listeners or readers. So include the things that are noteworthy about craft chocolate, even if they aren't unique to you. Again, there's lots more info on this in the in episode two of this series. This is the most fun part of media relations is brainstorming this list. Even if you didn't go any further, making a list like this can be inspirational internally for to see all the cool things that you're doing and to even use it for your own marketing on social media and your newsletter and things like that. But it's the first place to start with making uh outreach to the media is making that list so you know what it is you want to share. Second, make a media list. This is a list of media members and outlets across different media formats: print, online, audio, video, as well as different reaches, local, regional, national, even international. Include all your local news outlets in different formats, as well as food and drinks, journalists and publications, even if they aren't chocolate focused. And then all the grassroots craft chocolate media, including respectable and responsible influencers. Once you have that list, you need to start populating contact information for those media members and outlets, as well as any information they've provided about how they like to be contacted, what they cover, etc. And next, you're going to send some introductory emails to begin communication with those media members and share some basic information about your business and what makes you interesting. Go back to episode three in this series for more guidelines and tips on this. Those are the priority steps. Once you've done those, I would suggest making a practice press release to get the feel for how those work when you need them, which is not all that often. If you already have an existing relationship with some members of the media, send some more informal communication to them to check in and share some of the items from your storylist with them as ideas. Whether we know each other or not, you can start with me. My email is beandobarstool at gmail.com. Introduce yourself if we haven't spoken before or if we already have a good relationship, send something informal. This is a super low-stakes way to practice this kind of communication with someone you already know is rooting for you. I would love to get this communication from you. The blog post tied to this episode will be coming out across the next two weeks. I'm going to break this up into a few different smaller posts. On any blog post or podcast episode in this media series, you can find a link tree at the bottom that has every other entry in the series so you can get to everything from one place. If you have any questions related to anything we've discussed across these six episodes, please reach out. Melinda and I would love to talk more and help how we can. And as a reminder from the beginning of this series, stories are more powerful tools of connection than products. Sales are your goal, but stories are the paths that lead people to that goal. And you have more stories to tell than you may realize. As members of the media, we can't tell stories we don't know about. So please begin reaching out and telling us why we should cover your craft chocolate business. I hope this Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Maker series has been helpful to you. I would love to hear your feedback, anything else you feel like should have been included, any comments or questions you have, please share those. As always, thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Bean to Barstool.