John Thronberg

Engage Authentically: Yes, Wendy's has a great social media presence but that's not your brand's voice. Training: Ensure your team is trained in your brand's voice, response protocols, and customer service best practices. Personalized Responses: Tailor your responses to the individual rather than using generic replies. This personal touch can significantly enhance brand perception. Be Prepared For Negative: It's social media and there are some ugly voices out there. Don't get into flame wars but try to be honest and sincere in your responses. And sometimes you just have to ignore the haters.

Prepare for the Tough Questions: Anticipate difficult questions and practice responding to them calmly and confidently. This preparation can help you maintain composure during challenging interviews. Stay Calm and Collected: Practice maintaining your composure in high-pressure situations. Techniques such as taking a deep breath before responding can help. Avoid Being Defensive: Train to respond to negative questions or criticism in a positive or neutral tone, avoiding defensiveness which can be perceived negatively by the audience. Sincerity: Be authentic, genuine and sincere in your responses. Bridging Techniques: Learn and practice bridging techniques to smoothly transition from tough questions back to your key messages.

I cannot emphasize this enough. Know your audience. Journalists and influencers often have specific interests or angles they pursue. By reading their articles, posts, or listening to their broadcasts, you can understand what kind of stories attract them. When you send out the media release, personalize your email or message to them. Mention why you think the story is relevant to their work and how it can benefit their audience. This is more than just changing the name at the start of the email. You actually have to know what they want. As a producer, I could always tell when something was intended for me or a wider audience -- and the personalized ones always got a response (even if it was sometimes a no).

Active Engagement: Actively engaging with mentions, whether through thanking individuals for positive mentions or addressing negative feedback, can significantly enhance your brand's perception. But don't get into a flame war. Even if you're "right," it doesn't end well for your brand's reputation. Crisis Management: Quick response to negative mentions or potential crises can help mitigate any adverse effects on your brand reputation. Be honest (as much as you can). Take responsibility. And most important, actually do better and learn from your mistakes.

Find the Angle: Your press release must be newsworthy. This means having a clear, compelling story that is relevant to current trends, solves a problem, introduces something innovative, or has a significant impact on your audience. Remember that just because your company wants to talk about it, that does not make it news. Relevance: Make sure your story aligns with the interests of the media outlets you're targeting. It should fit seamlessly into their regular content. At the very least, your pitch should be geographically relevant. Tailored Pitches: When sending out media releases, personalize your pitches to each journalist or media outlet. Explain why your story is relevant to them and their audience. Yes, it's more work. Do it anyway.

Communicating the why and how of change clearly is important. But the most important part is honesty -- and it needs to come from a source that stakeholders trust. Too often, I've seen the c-suite promise change for the good of the company and that everyone will have a place.... and it all ends up being lies. Don't promise change will be easy if it's not going to be. But hopefully, you can offer light at the end of the tunnel.