Jamie Abbott: Welcome to Pitch Perfect, the podcast that helps you master the art of communication and captivate your audience. Hosted by Jamie Abbott, award winning speaker, public speaking coach and PR expert, this show is your go to resource for building confidence, crafting your message, and leveraging the media to grow your brand. Download Jamie's free PDF checklist. Visit jamiabbott.com speakerguide get ready to pitch, persuade and Pitch Perfect.
Jaimie Abbott: Welcome back to Pitch Perfect, the go to show for business owners, entrepreneurs and experts who want to master their own pr. Get paid to speak all that jazz. I'm Jamie Abbott and today I thought we would dive into a pretty important topic, and that is what do you do if a journalist gets your story wrong? You know, you've worked hard to craft the perfect pitch. You land a media feature and then des strikes. The article comes out and something is wrong. Like maybe it's, you've been misquoted. Or perhaps there could be an incorrect fact about your business or something that just misrepresents your brand, your message, what you stand for. So what do you do next? Do you call up the journalist in a panic? Do you demand a retraction? Or do you just let it slide? Today, I'm going to walk you through exactly how to handle this situation, with professionalism and poise so you can make maintain a positive relationship with the media and protect your reputation. So let's get into it. Step one, stay calm and assess the situation. First things first, take a deep breath. Breathe. It's natural to feel frustrated and especially if the area error is significant. But before you react, just take a step back and objectively assess the mistake. So is it a minor error, like perhaps a small typo or an incorrect job title? Or is it a major misrepresentation of facts that could really impact your reputation or business? Not all errors require immediate action. If it's something small that doesn't affect the overall message, it may not be worth the effort to correct it. However, if it misrepresents your business, your expertise, or in critical information, then you'll need to take action. So step two is gather evidence and prepare your response before you reach out to the jury. Journalist, gather all the relevant information. If the article misquotes you, go back to any emails, recorded interviews or notes that you have. If they publish incorrect stats, find the correct source. What exactly is wrong? So identify the specific error, so you can address it clearly. What should it say instead? Have the correct information ready. And how does this impact you? If the error is potentially damaging, explain why it matters. If you have this information ready, it just makes it easier for the journalist to fix the mistake, fix it quickly and it also shows that you're approaching this professionally and not emotionally. And that is one of the key points here. Step 3 Contact the journalist politely and professionally. So once you have the facts straight, reach out to the journalist directly. Do not publicly call them out on social media. So many business owners do this. Don't send them an angry email or make any accusations and don't demand a correction aggressively. Instead, just send a polite email or even better, call them directly. There's a couple of different ways you could phrase it. So if you're sending an email, you might just want to say hi Joe Blogs I really appreciate the opportunity to be featured in your article on and then the the sort of the name I noticed small error in the piece that I wanted to bring to your attention. Then go in and explain the error briefly and factually. So you might sort of say, oh, the article states that my business was founded in 2020 but we actually launched in 2018. I probably wouldn't correct something small like that, but I'm just giving you example, an example. and then would it be possible to correct this? I know these things happen and I truly appreciate your time. Please let me know if you need any further information. Thanks again for the great coverage. Best. And then your name or you know, sincerely your name. This kind of approach keeps it light. You're still being very appreciative and professional, but just making the journalist more likely to correct the mistake without any hard feelings. Step 4 Follow up if necessary. So if you don't hear back within a couple of days, it's okay to follow up once. Just once. Journalists are really busy and sometimes things can just slip through the cracks. So a quick, polite follow up email can just serve as a gentle reminder. Now if you don't receive a response, consider reaching out to the editor, especially if the error is significant. However, this should always be your last resort. Step 5 Correct the record on your own platforms. Now if the journalist doesn't make the correction, or if it's too late and the error is already widely spread, you can take some steps to clarify the information on your own channels. So you can post on your social media, share the article, but maybe include a comment with the correct information. For example, you might sort of say I loved being featured in and whatever publication name it was. Quick note, our business was actually founded in 2018, not 2020. Still a great piece. Cheque it out. It's really subtle way of doing it. Or you could use your email list or your blog. If the mistake is significant, just address it in a blog post or perhaps a newsletter with the correct facts. Then clarify in future interviews. So if you're going to do more p are make sure to reinforce the correct information in your next media appearances. Now step six Maintain a positive relationship with the journalists. Remember, journalists are human and mistakes happen. They're not robots. if they correct the article, just send them a quick thank you email. If they don't, don't burn the bridge like there may be future opportunities for you to work together. Building long term relationships with journalists is key to your ongoing PR success. And I think that's one of the reasons why, why I've done so well in my own PR consultancy. Because I've really nurtured and respected the relationships that I have with journalists. It helps having been a journalist as well. I know what things they need, what they don't need. But the way you handle this situation, if in this, in this case, could really impact whether they want to work with you again in the future. My final thoughts. Turning a negative into a positive. Every business, including your business, will face PR challenges at some point. How you handle them really determines the outcome. So by staying calm, professional and strategic, you can turn even a misrepresentation into an opportunity to strengthen your credibility. If you want more PR tips like this, don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. Follow me on socials at Jamie Abbott cheque out my PR club as well, go to my website, jamiabott.com au forward/prclub. And that's where I help business owners like you master the media and get the visibility that you deserve. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of Pitch Perfect. If you found it helpful, please leave a review. Whether you're listening to this on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and also share it with a friend who needs to hear this. And I'll see you next time, next week to be exact, here on Pitch Perfect. Thanks for listening to Pitch Perfect. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review it and share it to social media. If you'd like to download my free paid speaking resources, go to jamyabbott.
