Owning the News to Magnify Your Message

You know when a big story breaks in the news? What if you were shaping the conversation with your expert insights and experiences? What if it was you in the press advising celebrities and royals?

Owning the news to magnify your message.

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Transcript

Speaker 0:02

Welcome to Dauntless PR Unfiltered. Owning the news can magnify your message, and that's exactly what we're going to be talking about today, isn't it, Catherine?

Speaker 1 0:14

Yeah, so as it will come as no surprise to any of you that I'm an absolute news junkie. So to me, I I talk about the news all the time anyway because it excites me. I want to talk about it. I will, if I see a big story, I want to rush to my favourite social media creators and see what their takes are. I want to talk to my friends. Lots of people, though, are missing an opportunity by not doing this both in the media and on their own social media platforms. Because actually, it's a great way of getting your messages across in a way that is fresh, in a way that is relevant, and in a way that really engages people because you're suddenly talking about the things that they're already talking about, that they're already interested in things that they're thinking about.

Speaker 1:10

Yeah, when it gets picked up to pr in press as well, it's like all of a sudden they are everywhere advising celebrities or giving their takes what they would do, like what they would advise to them, to royals. And that makes people really pay attention, and everyone wants to get in on the conversation.

Speaker 1 1:31

Yeah. So you might be thinking, well, what kind of thing do you mean? So a great example from just this week, we've obviously had those in the UK. I still think people outside the UK will probably also have heard a little bit about this, but David and Victoria Beckham's son, Brooklyn, has gone absolutely nuclear with a statement about his parents, about their relationship, about basically how there's been rumors in the press for a long time that there was a feud, that there'd been a breakdown, and but neither side were really confirming it. And he has not only confirmed it, but he has he has brought the tea, he has told everything, he has gone no holes barred with it. And what we're seeing is a huge conversation has suddenly opened up with people talking about this. Some people taking the side of the Beckhams and saying, Oh, I'm sure that he's it's not that bad. I'm sure he's over the top. Some people completely taking his side and being like, Oh, yeah, controlling parents are the worst. And then obviously people in the middle and kind of going, I've no idea, but oh my goodness, like what is happening here? And where are you at, Catherine? I think I'm where I'm at is probably from years of hearing people share their stories and knowing that there is always three sides, and I know I'm very much not the only person to say this, but there is always there's two sides of the story, but there isn't really because there's a third, and that's the truth, and it's never usually somewhere in the middle, isn't it? Two sides, and also remembering that the same thing can happen, and people's perceptions of that same thing can be very different. So, what you might have thought was a loving, great moment, someone else might have thought was awful, and that you were behaving badly. I mean, this is the thing at that none of us know, but the thing is the reason why it's a great conversation point is that we want to know, we want to know.

Speaker 3:46

See that video, come on, somebody at that wedding must have taken a video back on.

Speaker 1 3:51

And if there's there's probably deals being done behind closed doors for a lot of money as we speak for this video, because whoever breaks that video is gonna get huge traffic and engagement. And you might listen to this going, but I don't care. That's not the kind of thing I want to talk about. And what we're saying is we're not saying you have to talk about every single story that you have to make yourself care. But when lots and lots of people are talking about something because maybe it's a a trending topic, maybe there's a huge bit of breaking news, you get these like unifying moments where there's a conversation going on. And by making sure you're part of the conversation, you are going to make yourself more attractive to the media, you're gonna get bookings and appear in the media, you're also going to bring engagement to your own social media, if you're on social media talking about that, that you are whether it's you might be sharing a personal experience. So, say for example, with this Brooklyn Beckham story, if I was gonna be advising people, well, what's a good way of news jacking that? I'd be like, Well, if you've got a story about going no contact with your parents, that would be a great time to share it. You could be like, I get where Brooklyn's coming from, I had to make this decision myself, you know, share your story from that perspective. You might have the parent perspective that you want to share, you might have the sibling because you know what's it like if you're part of a family where there's suddenly this rift and you're stuck in the middle and you love both sides. So they're the personal perspectives, but there's a lot of expert perspectives that could come in here. You know, how can you heal a break in a family? Like, what could, from a parenting point of view, what could they be doing now to actually repair this relationship? Because whether they believe they're in the right or not, that actually doesn't matter because their relationship has broken down. So if they want a relationship, something needs to happen. And I'm a parent myself, I've I've got four kids. I believe that the onus should usually be on the parent. You know, it's not kids, kids are kids even when they're 26, like Brooklyn is. Like, it's the parents should usually be the one that's like, okay, what can we do to mend this and and move forward? So there's that side of things. There's also the the PR side of things, you know, where like you come in law and are like, how do you manage this kind of big story that puts a spotlight on you in a really huge way and quite a negative way? And you know, there's lots of things that you could react to that story, and that's just one story. There are big stories happening every single day, sometimes too many big stories. It can sometimes feel like calm down, like let's stop the news cycle for a little bit and slow down and take a day off. But there's always things that you can be reacting to, that you can be inserting your message in, and that you can be offering either your stories, your perspectives from that point of view, your opinions, or maybe your advice. You might be giving you advice, your wisdom, your tips for how do you deal with this thing? Like, how do we move this forward? What should people be doing?

Speaker 7:28

Completely. And the ones that we always see that travel the furthest and they're getting the most traction, they're always the ones where the expert has been speaking on something that they really connect with, like something that they genuinely have something to say on. When it's forced, it doesn't tend to do it well as well. And I've definitely fallen into that trap myself where I've seen a news story and I've thought, oh, lots of people are talking about this. I better say something, but it hasn't really been something where I've felt called to and I've I've forced it. And when you do that, they don't go anywhere. Like so we're not saying comment on every little thing that happens in the news, but keep scanning the news cycle and keep up with going on, what's going on, and also that doesn't mean that you have to it doesn't mean you have to go down a rabbit hole and get emotionally involved. Like you can just scan, see what's going on, give your comments and like almost detach from it, and that comes with practice. Like you'll know this, Catherine, from a few years ago. I really used to struggle because of all the horrible things going on in the world. I didn't want to be scanning the news, but because I was in PR, I got into the habit. And now it's like I can just scan and I can just look at the things that I'm feeling called to comment about, and I can just comment on those things, but that came from practice, you know? Yeah. So we're definitely not saying that people have to like be absorbed in everything that's going on.

Speaker 1 9:17

I would say that's quite a common concern that lots of people, I feel like, particularly in the last few years, have made an intentional choice to disengage from the news and what's happening. Yeah, and they you can see why. Yeah, and sometimes it's that maybe they were feeling overwhelmed by what's going on, or I feel like COVID really kind of supercharged that. That maybe there were some people doing it pre-the-pandemic, but I feel like there was a point in 2020 where the headlines were so relentlessly awful. You know, they were numbering the dead every day. It was rough. It would, you know, I don't know what it would have been like, obviously, in World War II. I'm not quite that old. But you know, like I imagine it was something similar to that where people were like every day you'd be getting up and being like, what awful thing has happened now, like and it was very, very heavy and very dark. And I feel like that created a shift in lots of people where they just thought, do you know what? I'm just gonna stay away from this to protect my peace, my mental health, and that's valid. But if you want visibility, if you want to be somebody who is considered a go-to expert, you do need to know what are the things that are going on in the world. You need to have your finger on the pulse, at least within the areas that you can talk with confidence. So you cannot completely disengage from everything because what happens then is you become irrelevant because you don't know what people care about, you don't know what's happening, you don't know people's concerns and worries. I'm not saying that you have to read the newspapers every single day, you have to become a news junkie, but knowing, okay, so what are people talking about? I mean, we've all been in a situation, we might have been at like a party or something where everyone's talking about something and you don't know what they're talking about, and you feel a bit weird and left out, and you're like, and you kind of go to them, hang on a minute, what do you mean? What's going on? And you know, it might be that they've got an inside joke between the lot of them, and you're kind of on the outside of it. Well, if you don't know what's happening at all, that's kind of like that on a supersized scale. You're missing, you might be missing the joke if it's something funny, like, you know, I hate to say this about background some buckling, but there were funny bits in that statement. There were like, whoa, you know, bits that you could, it's a very sad situation that anyone's, you know, family is fractured. But you know, because he went really went there, there were moments where you just were like, what? But then there might also be really serious things where people might be really worried about something and you just don't unknow what they're worried about, so you can't relate, you don't know, and it makes it really hard for you to speak to those people if you don't know what they're worried about, what they're interested in, what they're talking about. So I think from a point of view of making sure that you are staying connected with your audience and that you are someone that the media can trust as a voice that's got something to say on the things that really matter, just making sure that you you maybe it's just scanning the headlines or just setting up some notifications on your phone to let you know the really interesting things. You might just want to, you know, set up some Google alerts on some particular topics. You don't have to fully go down the rabbit hole, but I think putting your hands over your ears and going is not necessarily gonna help you take your brand to that level where people go to you to hear what you've got to say. So last night, one thing that was really interesting, I hadn't even realized I'd do this, but as soon as I saw the news, and I was I went to my favourite creators on TikTok to see what they were saying. To see what they were saying, yeah, and it was only afterwards I thought, what an amazing brand they've built that I've gone. Obviously, I also went to people I know and was like, Oh, have you seen this? But how amazing that I almost felt like they were a friend in that moment. Oh, what do they have to say? Yeah, what and what's their take? Because I valued their views on it. I wanted to know what their view was, almost to help me make my own view. I wanted to be like, what are they saying? Like, I'm still processing this. What are they saying? Um and that could be about anything, you know. That could be about, you know, it it yesterday was a showbiz story. You might think, well, that's not something I'd be interested in commenting. Sometimes it might be maybe there's a health issue, and you're an expert that's in that, and people want to know what you're thinking. Maybe there's some a new law being passed that's gonna impact on you know the kind of thing that you're an expert in, and people want to be like, is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? What do you think? They're really valuing what you say. So there is a real power in that, making sure, because people are going to be talking about these things anyway. It's making sure that you are in the conversation and not outside of it.

Speaker 15:02

Yes, and do you want to know something that I hear a lot as well? Like something that a lot of people don't realize is, you know, they'll say, I want to be in the big business publications, and some of them will be like, I'm not bothered about being in the news. I don't want to be in the news, I just want to be in the big business publications, and I want to be on TV. Okay, but they are looking at who is in the news, they're looking at that to see how relevant they are. It doesn't mean that that is the be-all and end all, like, but it's partly what it is that they're looking at.

Speaker 1 15:37

Yeah. And all media outlets are driven by the news and what's top of it. Even the ones that aren't obviously so. So you have obviously news websites where it's very much we're telling you the breaking news, this is what's happening then. And you might think, well, they're not the things that interest me. But even down to the glossy magazines, they obviously can't react to every little thing because they are coming out once a month, but they will still be influenced by trends, movements, things that people are interested in. So, an example of that, when I was working for Mother and Baby magazine, we came out once a month. It was a nice glossy magazine, it was planned ages in advance, but it definitely was influenced by what was going on at the time. So I would say from when I started writing for them to when I finished writing for them, there was much more of a trend towards what I would call gentle parenting. So, like people not leaving their baby to cry, but being much more responsive, maybe baby wearing, using slings, baby-led weaning, all those things were like gaining traction and becoming much more interesting. So, what the experts that we used reflected what people were doing and interested in talking about. And if there was an up-and-coming latest thing, then that was something we would react to. Like, this is the next big thing. Should we be doing this? Like, let's speak to somebody about it. Or had I got in touch with someone and they're like, Do you know what? I've absolutely no idea because I have got, I mean, they wouldn't say this clearly, but I've got my blinkers on, I do what I do, and I don't pay any attention to what anybody else is talking about or doing. I've no idea about this new thing. Then I would be like, Oh, thanks for your help. But I would move on and I would find someone that did know what was going on. Also, sorry, carry on. I was gonna say, and you know, it may be you don't have to agree with the next big thing, you know. It may be that they might go, do you know what? Here's a reason why we shouldn't be doing this next big thing. But that again is a relevant thing because they know and they understand and they can put it into perspective.

Speaker 18:02

Yes, and it happens on interviews as well, doesn't it? Like there's been countless times where I've been on TV, radio, podcasts, like delivering an interview, and it's been about like business or something real life, maybe that happened, but then at the end they want to talk about the big story of the day and they want your input into that.

Speaker 1 18:26

Yeah, particularly. So people often, even the ones that say that they hate the news and they don't want to comment the news, they do usually really want TV and radio. And TV and radio is probably the most likely scenario where you're going to be asked for your views on what's happening that day. Because, and again, it's about the role of these TV and radio programs, the kind that have people on guests talk about stuff. They want to be part of the conversation with people at home. They're going into people's living rooms, or if it's the radio, maybe they're driving along listening to it on their daily commute. They want to be talking about the things that they know people are thinking about. They want to reflect that. And so it's very, very common that they might get you on to talk about a particular thing, but they're gonna then want to invite you into a wider conversation. So they could be saying, like, oh, have are you watching the latest TV show that's big? So, for example, in the UK right now, they might say, Are you oh, are you watching traitors? What do you think about that? Yeah, and it there will sometimes be things that you don't have an opinion on, and you have to kind of acknowledge that. But if you've got a bit of an idea about what you might be asked, you can work out some good ways of talking about that that still keep on track with the things that you're wanting to get across. So by knowing what they might ask you, you can then decide what is my answer going to be and how is that gonna serve me, rather than just floundering and being like, I don't know what you're talking about, I'm not sure. And you know, this morning on again UK TV on ITV, very, very big popular TV show, and they have guests on, and they will also always talk about the topics of the day. And if you want to be a guest, they are the light, if you are someone who can react to things and say, I have something to say about this latest thing, you're much more likely to be invited on. But also, even if you're on and it's an arranged thing and it's a thing that was already set up before something happened, they're quite likely to ask if you've got an opinion, if you've got any advice for in this situation. They they might just give you a quick brief beforehand, or we're going to ask you about this, or they might just spring it on. Might not, yeah, exactly. So it's just something to be aware of that there is a real value in having an idea of what's going on in the world, and you don't have to think of it as like doom scrolling or obsessed with it because it can be really nice things as well. We're not saying just find out about all the murders and violent crimes in your area and focusing on them. It can be like what initiatives are there that are going to improve people's lives? What's happening? What you know, what new innovations are there? They can be really positive things as well.

Speaker 21:39

What do you want to? What do you, when you go through the headlines, what makes you go, oh yes, I've got something to say on that? Like, what can shift people that you've got to say? What's different from what people are saying already?

Speaker 1 21:52

And when you were talking earlier about uh don't force it and how if you force it, it comes across it made me laugh because yesterday I Discovered an example of an extremely tenuous link that someone had sent me years ago, and I'd saved it because I was like, This is so funny. Oh, Catherine Cher. I won't name any names. I to be fair, don't remember the name because I actually had X'd out the name when I saved it. But it was an expert, a tricologist, an expert in like dandruff and like I guess scalp health and things like that. And their PR person, because let's be real, it wasn't the person themselves that sent this absolutely ridiculous thing. It would have been another PR firm, had sent one going, there's a new series of Love Island coming, and the belyrics have been added to the Green Travel List for the UK. So it must have been, I don't know, Green Travel List. Maybe it was something to do with, I'm not even sure what it was to do with, but it was like some sort of news thing that had happened. And they were basically saying, This has happened, so we've got someone who can talk to you about dandruff. And I was like, that doesn't make any sense. That's nothing. And then they'd really forced it by going, because sorting out your dandruff will give you more confidence, which will make you want to go dating both here and abroad. I was like, brilliant. And it was so brilliantly funny. It was so outlandishly tenuous that I was just like, oh no, I've got to save this so I can show other people. This is so ridiculous. But the thing with that is, it would have had more chance if they'd have gone for something more evergreen with that. Like, this is why it's really important to deal with your dandruff, or something like that, or five things you really should know about looking after your scalp. That would have been more enticing and appealing. Because I'd have been like, okay, I'm a human, I have a scalp. Like, let's see what you've got to say. Whereas that just made me go, what? So if you really don't have a perspective or a viewpoint or something, don't be like, oh, there's a forest fire in Australia. I'm going to talk about my new makeup line. Like, you know, that don't link stuff to nothing. But if you've got something to say that actually adds to the conversation, that's when people really sit up and listen and they start looking at you as a voice of authority that they want to go to. What have you got to say? And it makes your social media really fresh as well, because you can have your normal scheduled content of the stuff that you always are talking about and the regular topics, but by splicing in things that people can tell, oh, this is this is recent. This isn't like some post that you did a few years ago and you're recycling because you can't be bothered to do any new content this week. They're like, oh, this has just happened. I've just read about that. And they've got something to say. And it really like keeps that fresh and is really attractive from a social media point of view as well.

Speaker 25:20

Yes. Yeah, it keeps everything fresh and relevant. And yeah, it really gets people talking. So just to wrap up for today, then something that I would love to share is if you're here listening to this, chances are you've got some strong opinions. Get those opinions heard, like get them in the news, get them talking about the things, like get them involved in the conversations that people are already having that people want to be involved in and start leading those conversations. We will see you next time. Any questions or comments? Hello at dauntlesspr.com.