NEW: For the one-year anniversary of the economic stimulus... press release, letter to the editor and op-ed templates are available for your local media outreach efforts. Contact Amy Simmons with questions.
The daily demands of providing health care, managing staff and addressing accounting issues can leave little time for health center management to focus on one of the key components to long-term success: A deliberate and consistent approach to media relations.
Health centers have a powerful story. But the story you and your staff know may be entirely different than the story that your community knows. If your community doesn’t know who you are, what you do, and why you do it, you will find it extremely difficult to generate support for your mission. The media is one of the key avenues through which policy is made and politics are played. It is essential that health centers use it as a tool to communicate and advocate their policy stances. So take control of your story. Tell it clearly and consistently. If you don’t, other people will, and the story they create may not be the one you want. It could be good. Lucky for you.
You want to be known, and you want to be known for the good you do. That image will help you generate political and financial support, from business and government leaders near and far.
To help you shape and tell your story, we have pulled together a Media Toolkit. We have summarized the essentials here. For a more detailed look, use the links below to reach a more extensive overview, plus templates for your use.
1. Media Strategy
Like anything else, effective media relations depend on planning. If you don’t think about your story, and how you want to tell it, you will forfeit a golden opportunity to advance your mission. As the saying goes, plan the work, then work the plan.
Developing a media relations strategy doesn’t need to be time-consuming or complex. Determine who your target audience is and develop simple key messages that effectively demonstrate your health center’s achievements. Keep it simple, but remember these key ingredients to a communications plan that any good news story or news release would cover: Who, What, When, Where, and Why?
Who: Define who you serve, who serves them, and who will tell that story. Someone should be in charge of preparing an annual media plan, then tracking it to completion. Identify spokespersons, and make sure they are trained in what to say, and how to say it. Learn the names and roles of key people at local and regional news organizations with which you want to do business. If you don’t have the expertise on staff to do this work, you may need to hire it – or contract out for that assistance.
What: This is your message (or messages), and “what” you do to deliver them. Determine what messages carry the greatest interest for the media, and most potential benefit for your health center. Remember, what people write or say about your health center may track back to what sorts of programs and events you create to attract the spotlight. Determine what tactics make the most sense – a print newsletter, a story in the paper, or an ad in a special or trade publication.
When: To keep the media’s interest, keep talking with them. Develop a regular schedule of news releases, meetings with reporters and editors, and events that engage the public and attract reporters. If you have a budget for advertising, plan when you want to spend it.
Where: Think about “where” you want your message to appear. Is the local paper or radio station the best outlet? Might it deserve wider coverage? Or is it something that would best be delivered in a speech to local service clubs, through an e-mail to a select group of supporters or customers, or in a direct mailing to all the residents of your service area? These days, one approach does not fit all needs. Develop a list of media contacts and tactics that covers the range of possible needs.
Why: It’s important to know why you are engaging the media. A communications plan should support organizational goals, whether it is fundraising, getting legislation passed, workforce recruitment, or community outreach. If you know why you are communicating then you will have a clearer idea about tactics.
2. Media Relations
In your organization’s approach to media relations, you can take either of two philosophical postures:
- Proactive
- Reactive
A proactive approach involves consistent, personal outreach to reporters and editors. It involves casual conversations, drop-in chats, invitations to “open houses” and other efforts to help news people understand who you are, and what you do. With that foundation, you then will have a much greater likelihood of positive response when you try to interest an editor or reporter in a story about your health center.
A reactive approach to media relations means that you take a low-profile, passive approach, waiting until a reporter calls. Only then do you respond, possibly with little preparation, perhaps with fear and defensiveness. It is an approach often based on the assumption that no good can come from media exposure, and it seldom serves the greater strategic good.
So, proactive is best. With that in mind, you need to be prepared to react to unexpected media interest. On occasion, that interest can be derive from serious issues – allegations of wrongdoing, an emergency at your health center, adverse medical outcomes or other matters that bear serious implications for your image. To prepare for the possibility of such situations, you need to prepare a crisis plan.
3. Media Tactics
The size of your health center and its community will determine the scope of tactics used to engage the media. Larger health centers may want to develop everything from podcasts to video “B rolls” -- backgrounders on your health center for use by TV stations. Advertising, as well, can be an effective tool, but because it is expensive, it is best to pursue tactics that gain “free” media.
All health centers, no matter their size, should understand how to:
- Prepare and distribute news releases, media advisories, and public service announcements.
- Develop a media kit.
- Conduct a news conference.
- Develop and maintain a Web site.
The news release (also called a press or media release) is the basic tool for summarizing information about a story that you think will be of interest to reporters. It answers the “who, what, when, where and why” questions. It provides a contact name and phone number, so reporters can follow up. It is completed and delivered to media in plenty of time for editors to consider it, and reporters to work with it for timely reporting. Don’t confuse a media advisory with a news release. There is an important difference: a media advisory is sent out days before an event to alert reporters and the public so they can attend, and should contain only enough information to “tease” interest.
A media kit is a collection of documents that provides a range of answers and information about your health center for reporters. It saves reporters time, because it anticipates what they will want to include as background information in a story. It can include health center history, names of key personnel, recent news releases, copies of past news coverage, and photographs.
A news conference is an event organized specifically to attract the attention of media. It should be used only for significant announcements. Scheduling news conferences about insignificant matters, on the assumption that news conferences guarantee coverage, will rapidly earn your organization’s a reputation for “crying wolf.” Plan and use news conferences wisely, to increase chances for coverage when you have news of real importance. News conferences are most effective in large media markets, where several broadcast, Web and print outlets will have an interest in your health center. Small markets may have only one or two key news outlets, and for them, direct contact works best. Be sure to send your media advisory out at least a week in advance of the news conference and get it listed on local news calendar events, sometimes called “daybooks.”
A web site is an essential tool for effective communications. Unlike health center spokespersons, the Web site is always available. It should tell your health center’s story, and become a repository for past news releases, your media kit, testimonials, information about key personnel, stories about the benefit you provide for patients and the community, and contact information for the public. It also can deliver white papers on key issues, and digital files of photos and health center logos.
In addition to those tactics, you also will want to employ other tools to get the word out. Letters to the editor, from key personnel or community advocates, can advance public awareness and support. Essays printed on or near the newspaper’s editorial page (called “op ed” pieces) can provide management a way to address key issues in detail. And meetings with editors or editorial boards can create an opportunity for greater coverage and editorial support for the health center’s preferred policy positions.
Below are additional tools to help you with media outreach. You can also download and print a longer version the *Media Toolkit for Health Centers. You can also visit www.healthcenterweek.org for additional media tools.
NEW: For the one-year anniversary of the economic stimulus... press release, letter to the editor and op-ed templates are available for your local media outreach efforts. Contact Amy Simmons with questions.
- HIV/AIDS Press Release Template
- Breast Cancer Awareness Month Press Release Template
- Cardiovascular Disease Press Release Template
- Diabetes Press Release Template
- Sample Editorial Board Meeting Request
- Serving the Uninsured Press Release Template
- Sample Media Advisory
- Sample Lettter to the Editor
- Sample Op-Ed
*This publication was developed through support from the Health Resources and Services Administration, Bureau of Primary Health Care (HRSA/BPHC) under Cooperative Agreement Number U3008001.
