Making the most of in-house experts

Yes, Tom Corfman is an expert—in media relations. A reporter and editor for more than 25 years, he’s a senior consultant with Ragan Consultant Group.

In the never-ending effort to polish the reputation of their corporations, many comms teams have an underused asset—the in-house expert.

Pushing a product innovation or promoting new research onto harried and skeptical reporters is a tough sale. But there’s another avenue where journalists are motivated buyers: the search for an expert outside voice.

Unlike the push and pull that marks some relationships with the news media, outside experts and reporters both say their interactions are respectful, pleasant and accommodating, at least according to a recent survey of journalists and scientists by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin.

Reporters’ need for experts is as bottomless as the coffee at your neighborhood diner. For just about every news story you might read or see, there’s a reporter who thought it would have been better with an outside voice, if only they had the time to find one.

Addressing academic experts, former Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn wrote in 2006: “We need your depth of knowledge, your credentials, your authority.  You need -– or at least enjoy access to—our megaphone. It’s a win-win.”

Why promote experts?
Entrepreneurs and university public relations teams share at least one belief: Being quoted in the news media helps build a reputation.

An appearance in the media by a professor “provides no-cost advertising to prospective students and heightens the perception of institutions to their stakeholders – not least alumni, who might be prevailed upon to make donations,” Sheldon Jacobson, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, wrote last year in Times Higher Education.

Or as “Shark Tank” panelist and real estate brokerage owner Barbara Corcoran once put, “When The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal quotes you as an expert, it’s far more powerful and convincing than you paying for a full-page ad that’s $80,000, trumpeting you as the expert.”

Why not?
Companies increasingly don’t even let their CEOs speak to the news media, let alone their experts. The reasons for this barrier are deep-seated, arising in part from a distrust of the media and fear that the interview will go badly.

As a result, companies miss out on opportunities to burnish their reputations. They’re small opportunities, to be sure, but they can have a big impact over time.

Public relations pros can change this, crafting a media strategy that features their company’s in-house experts. Using the back of an envelope, here are eight elements that such a strategy might contain:

1. Set the guidelines. Establish with the experts the scope of topics they can comment on publicly. As a guide, use news media reports where your experts didn’t comment but could have. (Or stories where your experts have been quoted.) Be aware of areas that might touch on proprietary research or trade secrets where comments might be inappropriate.

2. Conflict check. Experts are credible because they are impartial. They are “outside” the story. Establish with the experts the stories where there may be a conflict of interest, such as ventures or companies where the employer has a financial stake?

In some instances, a conflict may preclude the expert from commenting. In other instances, the conflict should be disclosed to the journalist. For example, you may not mind if your expert comments about competitors or explains a technological innovation your company is touting.

3. Approval process. When reporters are looking for an expert, they’re usually up against a deadline. Before speaking to the media, an expert should check with one person, not the entire leadership team. The guidelines and conflict policy should speed up this procedure.

The race often goes to the expert who responds the fastest. Reporters spend on average two hours securing an expert to interview, according to a 2019 survey of more than 750 journalists by ExpertFile, a search engine for journalists. That much time can give reporters ulcers.

4. Start small. Begin with one or two experts. You’ be surprised how interested they are in helping.

“They’re so used to nobody caring about what they do, even when what they do is mission-critical, that they can’t imagine us even taking an interest in them,” author Michael Lewis said about government experts. It’s just as true of those in the private sector.

5. Social Media. Experts need to be active on the information platforms, establishing their expertise and building connections with reporters. This takes some time every day, and experts will need training and support. Show them how to do it.

A breaking news story is a crucial opportunity to weigh in. Advance the story. Add context. Smart comments will catch the attention of reporters. Even better, the messages may be the quote a reporter needs, requiring just a quick follow-up by phone or email.

6. Train and trust. Like executives, experts need to learn how to handle reporters. This is a big topic, but the key is for experts to understand that their job in an interview is to help the reporter get the story right.

7. Expert databases. When reporters are looking for experts they often go to online directories, such as HARO or ExpertFile. If you list your experts on one of those sites, be ready to hit the ground running.

8. Build relationships. As experts gain confidence, it’s time to take things to the next level. Experts who want to become go-to sources in the news media should create rapport with key reporters, just like public relations professionals.

Gregory Loving, a professor at the University of Cincinnati, in an article he cowrote in 2016, offered this advice to academics: “Invite the reporter for a cup of coffee to provide background about your chapter or relevant issues. This kind of ‘education’ pays off in more accurate coverage, but don’t ‘teach,’ which comes off as condescending.”

There are many ways to build these relationships. Coffee is one way, social media is another. Some experts will need coaching to feel comfortable doing this.

To be sure, many people’s trust in experts has fallen, but not the news media’s. And some corporate PR strategies are more tightly controlled than North Korea’s. Which means promoting an expert outside voice as part of a public relations strategy might seem naïve, but it’s not.

It’s optimistic.

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