Don’t Forget the Visuals

June 27th, 2008 at 02:15pm Carrie Skogsberg

Remember the phrase “a picture’s worth one thousand words?” Never under-estimate that phrase when thinking about how to get your story covered. When planning a news conference, story pitch, etc., don’t leave out the visuals. Giving the media the opportunity to get good b-roll or action photos means your story will be told in an even better way.

Here are some quick tips that are easy to remember and implement -
- When you have a news conference, make sure your speakers are not just standing in front of a boring white wall at a boring old podium in a boring white, empty room. Give the TV stations and newspapers something to get video and photos of - try planning your news conference outdoors, or in a lobby in front of an interesting piece of artwork, or in front of your company logo. If you have to have the news conference in a boring room, try to put up some easels of large photos that the media can get on film. And don’t forget to pack the room! A room full of people is much more interesting for video than just your speakers standing in a line at the podium.

- Photo opportunities can be stories in themselves. What does that mean? Sometimes the news you’re announcing can be easily seen by the public; such as a construction project, a marathon, etc. Be sure to let the media know when something is going to be visible to the public so they have the chance to report on it, and the public isn’t driving by thinking, “what’s that?”

- Other quick, easy tips include giving a DVD of b-roll (about 5 minutes worth of video footage) that can be used for your story or a CD of high-resolution photos. And don’t forget to post those up onto the web onto sites such as Flickr, Facebook, Myspace, etc.

If a picture is really worth a thousand words, hopefully a few of those words will get out in the media about your business if you remember to give the media a chance to catch it.

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