The following is an informative article submitted by Guest Author, Gini Dietrich, Chief Executive Officer at Arment Dietrich PR. The article focuses on building relationships with the media and provides tips for communicating and interviewing with reporters. Gini fully understands franchisors’ public relations and communications needs and will be speaking at the upcoming Franchise Finance and Development Conference in Las Vegas. Recently, while participating in the International Franchise Association Convention in San Diego, Gini was interviewed on The Franchise Show, where she discussed communication tactics using social media to develop new business and networks for company growth. Arment Dietrich PR is among the country’s fastest growing boutique public relations agencies. Their motivation is a relentless drive to find new and better ways to help clients boost their businesses and bottom-line results.
Media Can Make or Break a Franchise
I have people say to me all the time, “any ink is good ink, right?”
Wrong! Please see AIG, Merrill Lynch, any of the automakers…pretty much any Wall Street company in the past year. Any ink is NOT good ink. You must think strategically through which media outlets make most sense for your franchise, build relationships with those reporters, and provide them with content, interviews, and access to executives they couldn’t otherwise get on their own.
Media can make or break your franchise and it’s VERY important you treat every reporter you come in contact with as if they are your most important VIP, regardless of how you feel about their past or current reporting.
Paul asked me to think about some tips for helping you with your communication needs. These are some of the tips we give to our clients when we train them on how to work with, talk to, and respond to reporters.
• If a reporter calls, wanting to interview you for a story, ask them what they’d like to discuss and what their deadline is; then promise to get back to them in less than 24 hours or in enough time to meet their deadline.
• Call your PR firm for a quick key message refresher. If you don’t have a PR firm, think about what you want the story to say about your franchise after it’s told and write down two or three things you don’t want to forget to tell the reporter.
• If the reporter submitted questions (we always ask for questions in advance), write down your answers. I do this and I have years and years of experience, working with reporters every day. Don’t ever go into an interview blind.
A few interview tips that can help in any situation:
• Be honest—A lie to the media can be very damaging. If you don’t know, say so.
• Be believable—Credibility is vital to getting your message across.
• Be personal. Use the interviewer’s name once or twice in the course of the interview and look at him/her.
• Anecdotes play well, but only if you have a story that makes a good point for your side.
• Be concise—Remember that a 10-minute interview may wind up being 20 seconds on the air or three lines in a newspaper. It is essential to crystallize your thoughts in a few hard-hitting sentences.
• Eliminate extraneous words and phrases. Do not be verbose. If a reporter is silent, do not keep talking. They likely are trying to write down what you just said. Let them do that before they ask the next question.
• Do not answer hypothetical questions.
And, above all, NEVER, EVER SAY NO COMMENT! If I hear from Paul that you were quoted as saying “no comment” or that you were “unavailable to comment,” I will come to your office and yell at you myself.
What media interview tips do you have that can help readers here?
The following article was recently published in the 
By virtually all accounts, the Internet represents the single biggest lead source for most franchisors. Yet despite its dominance of the franchise lead generation market, a significant number of franchisors simply do not use it effectively. 
Here’s an interesting article about a franchise being fined $300k for dumping oil down a drain. In addition to the fine, the franchisee was criminally charged. Although the liability may not extend to the franchisor, this sought of thing could escalate into a public relations nightmare. 
The great thing about social networking, that has been missing from online franchise lead generation, is the “meeting place.” It’s a place where a candidate gets to know the people in the know as well as on the fringe; the concept’s customers. So, let’s define the “meeting place.”
Of course, franchise sales are not quite as easy or simple as anyone who has ever presented a franchise sales opportunity can attest. But when you consider the building and infrastructure of the ride and the time spent developing the ride concept, the design of the structure, the projected ride experience and the large financial investment, it’s easy to see how both a franchise opportunity and a ride evolve the same and ultimately have similar objectives; to encourage participation, create a positive experience, instill a desire to do it again without remorse and to share their unique experience with others.
Prior to founding AmSpirit Business Connections, Frank developed the largest territory of Network Professionals Inc., a similar organization. In addition, for ten years he operated a successful law practice in Columbus, Ohio focusing on the creation, growth and sale of small business enterprises. After completing law school and graduate business school at the Ohio State University, Frank started his career as a tax consultant with Coopers & Lybrand.
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The following was my response to a recent post on 
As a franchisor, you are in the business of building relationships; relationships with your franchisees, with your potential franchisees and with your end customers. Relationships build sales, build your brand and build your franchise.
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