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Who
Stepped Up
A Photo Is Worth A Thousand Words: When it comes to media relations everything you do sends a message. That includes interviews and photo shoots with media. The reality of this fact hits home when you consider how your adversaries can spin an image. Many leaders and businesses have had their brand tarnished by a non-flattering photo or one not consistent with the image they hoped to represent.
Sheriff Ken Stolle of Virginia Beach understands the power of photos to help or hurt one’s public relations. When the Virginian-Pilot recently covered his new jail menu, readers in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk, and Hampton Roads saw an active photo of Stolle engaged in the work he was elected to do. It could have easily turned out differently.
The newspaper photographer, with 4 more photo assignments to go for the day, could have asked Stolle to sit behind his nice shiny desk to either pose with a phone in his hand, shuffle some papers, or just sit there with a big cheesy grin. Readers would have seen a typical non-engaged, “look-at-me-behind-my-big-expensive-desk, ain’t-life-great” photo.
Instead, thousands of readers, who vote and are stakeholders in law enforcement, saw the below photo of Stolle -- an engaged sheriff, in charge of his jail, making sure the tax payers’ dollars are being well spent.
A great photo enhances the story and provides a multiplier effect. A less-than-stellar photo also has a multiplier effect – but not in a helpful way.
When you are the focus of a positive or negative news story, you have more input on the photo shoot than you may think. You need to ensure the photos tell your story.
Here’s how you make that happen:
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Don’t count on the photographer (or videographer for TV) to have your best interest in mind. They are not concerned with your image, brand, or public relations. They are professionals and their job is to get a quality photo in the time allotted, make deadline, and move on to the next photo shoot. They are not there in any sense as part of your public relations agency. |
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If the photographer asks to photograph you, that’s your cue to make sure you get in position for a photo that communicates your message. One that shows you engaged. Make sure you plan this out in advance. Use a local public relations agency if needed. Know what the outcome will look like in the media. |
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As a proactive measure, hire a freelance photographer to shoot some working shots of you and your employees in action. Also have a professional head-and-shoulder photo available. If a reporter is interviewing you, tell him or her that you have some recent working photos of you and your company, and offer them up. That may save their photographer a trip and it ensures they have the photos you like. |
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If the newspaper sends their own photographer, have a plan in place detailing where you’ll be photographed, what you’ll be doing, and which employees will be in the photographs. Don’t wing it. |
When it comes to media coverage and your public relations, make sure you’re photographed doing some type of work that hard working Americans can relate to. Sitting behind the $3,000 desk on the phone enjoying the good life won’t resonate as well as an action photo of you moving the ball forward for your stakeholders.
If the phone rings today because you’ve generated some media coverage, do you know how you or your company’s image will be portrayed in photos viewed by thousands of readers in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Hampton Roads, and throughout Virginia?
For a no-cost phone consultation, feel free to call David Rourk at (757) 478-0150.
About the Rourk Public Relations agency
Our public relations agency is expert at media relations and media coverage for clients in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Hampton Roads, and throughout Virginia.
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