Are you making the most of the media?
We offer bespoke in-house media training courses ranging from radio and television techniques to how to get coverage for your firm in newspapers and business magazines.
We can show you how to produce interesting articles that will alert existing and potential clients to the full range of services you offer.
We examine how these articles can be adapted to add sparkle to websites, help improve search engine rankings and cross promote your services.
All courses are taken by experts with years of experience in newspapers and television as journalists and camera operators.
All our Media Training courses are bespoke but over the years we have found that two basic themes have proved most popular with our clients: how to get coverage in local papers and how to cope with media interviews. Consequently, our two most heavily subscribed courses are called, Your Name in the Papers and Facing the Cameras.
Your Name in the Papers
This highly acclaimed seminar has been presented to law firms and delegates all over the country.
It provides a fascinating insight into the way law firms get thousands of pounds worth of publicity for free in their local papers every week. This course shows how you can do the same. All the points made are illustrated with actual examples from newspapers showing how law firms are getting publicity. These are some of the areas covered:
Introduction: First overcome fears that you have nothing newsworthy to offer. We’ll show you why newspapers want to hear from you.
The Big Stories: How to get coverage by commenting on national stories and court cases, even though you aren’t acting for the people involved. New legislation, court rulings, European directives are constantly affecting people’s lives. Your opinions matter and the press want to hear about them. We give you dozens of examples of how lawyers like you are doing this every day, raising their profile and winning new clients as they promote themselves as the leading lawyer or firm in their area.
The News Within: Even the smallest firms will produce newsworthy events for local papers: recruiting a new member of staff, internal promotions, new partners, opening a new office, expanding into a new area of practice. We show you how to find the angle that will turn a mundane event into something the press will publish.
Charity and sponsorship: No one helps charity for the sake of publicity but if you’re doing it anyway, why not let the papers know. We’ll show you how to present such stories so they help you and the charity you’re supporting.
Press releases: We take you step by step through the art of writing press releases. The six key questions you need to answer and how to grab the media’s attention.
Media Outlets: A guide through the best outlets for different types of story; local papers, national papers, radio, television, magazines etc. How to approach the media and develop good working relationships with journalists. How to get organised.
The Story Bank: You’ll leave this course with hundreds of practical story ideas you can use straightaway to attract the media’s attention. We’ll show you how to keep the ideas coming long after the course is over.
Facing the Cameras
This is a very popular course with our law firm clients and organisations such as the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers. The course can be tailored to your specific needs but typically it takes delegates step by step through the process of carrying out radio and television interviews.
We explain the different needs of newspaper, radio and television journalists. We try to dispel the fears that many lawyers have about the media and explain that, although it may run contrary to everything you’ve heard and believe, most journalists are not ogres who are out to trap you. More often than not you will find them surprisingly helpful.
We explore the best ways to prepare for interviews and then we put you in the hot seat so you can see what it is like to face the cameras or the radio microphone. Experienced broadcast journalists will interview you about your chosen subjects and a professional news cameraman will record your performance.
You can then watch it back to see how well you did. Most clients are surprised but pleased to discover that by the end of the course they do much better than they ever imagined. The journalists and cameraman will offer advice as to how you can improve your performance next time. We can also supply you with a DVD so you can study your performance again if you wish.
This is an excellent course for people who may find themselves interviewed occasionally and want to hone their skills.