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When it comes to thought leadership, podcasts continue to go from strength to strength.

We all want to create memorable, meaningful messages. Whether you are delivering media interviews, responding to a crisis, writing, or trying to cut through the noise on digital channels, getting those messages right is crucial to standing out from the crowd.

We love receiving questions from our clients and media training blog readers about communication challenges they are facing.

If you’ve been on one of our media training courses before, you’ll know journalists love to speculate about the future.

On our crisis communication courses, we often spend time looking at the potential causes of a crisis.

We’ve got a webinar coming up soon about the science behind making messages memorable – you may have received one or two emails about it… Having listened to our expert panellists discuss some of the topics they will cover during the event, I know it is going to be one you won’t want to miss.

Imagine being a new start-up and almost immediately finding yourself trending on social media. Not only that, but you generate coverage in the Financial Times and Daily Mail. Sounds great, right?

Media interviews can be a bit like buses. There can be times when you have little opportunity to put your media training skills to the test.

Apologies are tricky. Regular readers of our crisis communication and social media training blogs will know there have been plenty of recent examples of apologies that have fallen short of the mark.

Giving feedback to senior leaders about their latest media interview can be a tough conversation. It can be particularly daunting and challenging if that feedback is negative.

What makes a good media spokesperson? Well, you need someone articulate. And they should be confident and comfortable with the subject being discussed.

It has never been easier to make video. Almost everything you need is right there in your pocket. But not all video recorded on smartphones is good quality. And we often see the same mistakes that prevent footage from being watched by the intended audience.

Companies are built on their reputations. But those reputations are fragile. A single incident can cause severe damage. In some cases, reputations are destroyed.

Britain’s first new television news channel for two decades launched on Sunday. GB News is a channel we have been told will set ‘a fresh agenda’ and that it will ‘give a voice to those who have been side-lined’.

There can be many causes of a crisis media management incident. When we ask delegates on our crisis communication training courses to suggest what might cause a reputational crisis for their organisation, they typically suggest things like incidents resulting in loss of life, significant injury or environmental harm.

It is not often tennis features in this media training blog. But Naomi Osaka’s decision not to speak to the media after matches during the French Open produced an avalanche of media coverage.

ouldn’t it be good to know what journalists look for in press releases and story pitches? Perhaps understand more about why some go on to achieve great coverage, and others are instantly spiked?

Have you sat through a presentation and found yourself getting lost because the whole thing just felt a bit disorganised? It is a scenario many of us will be able to relate to.

How would you respond to a question that asked you to comment on one of your competitors? Maybe you think their product is inferior – would you take the opportunity to bash them?

We’ve written before in our media training blogs about spokespeople who start their responses with ‘so’. It’s an infuriating habit we continue to hear in TV and radio interviews.

One of the big challenges bosses and communicators are currently facing is the messaging around the return to the office.

If you have been on one of our media training courses before, you will know that in the UK it is not advised to ask journalists for their questions ahead of an interview. It is an approach that is likely to make journalists suspicious the spokesperson, and their organisation, has something to hide.

There’s probably never been a year where we spent so much time at home. Our kitchens doubled up as our offices, and our living rooms and bedrooms became classrooms.

Where can you find examples of brilliant writing? Books, newspapers or online and the obvious sources, but often it can be found as we go about our everyday lives.

When we talk about crisis communication, we typically think of incidents that are over relatively quickly. Yes, the overall aim of managing a crisis is to protect the long-term reputation of your organisation and its bottom line, but crisis incidents typically last a few weeks or maybe a month.

We like to keep a close eye on all the big stories at Media First towers. And, at the moment, they don’t seem to be much bigger than two of the nation’s best-known retailers slugging it out over a chocolate cake.

Just when you wondered if our divided nation could ever be united again, football found a way of bringing everyone together.

How much do we know about the way covid has changed the media landscape? We’ve all seen a change in the way news is brought into our homes, with remote interviews carried out on Zoom at least temporarily replacing face-to-face ones.

When your organisation is facing a crisis, good communication is crucial. Do it well and it can reduce fear and uncertainty and gain some control of the story. But how do you ensure your customers, stakeholders and the media see and hear what you have to say?

After a set of impressive annual results, you could be forgiven for thinking the Co-op would be basking in the glow of some positive media coverage. Yet, the reality is it has found itself facing some damaging headlines that have raised questions about its ethics and values.