In fact, clients pay me good money to remain calm in the eye of the storm and to teach them to do the same.  Losing control of your emotions in front of the media most certainly gives up the high-ground advantage to the reporter—something you never want to do if you like to avoid being bullied in print or on camera.

Yesterday morning, I was minding my own business reading the daily headlines and was aghast when I saw the account (article here: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/01/weekly_standard.html) of an incident between Massachusetts Attorney General and Senatorial candidate Martha Coakley, accredited Weekly Standard newspaper reporter, John McCormack, and high-level Democratic National Party advisor and strategic communications agency principal, Michael Meehan.

It seems McCormack was attempting to interview Coakley during a walk on the street and she was having none of it.  It was during this attempt that Meehan “allegedly” pushed or tripped McCormack in an effort to end the line of questioning.  It worked; however, it was also caught on video. And, just what do you think a reporter is going to do when accosted.  Yes, he or she will write about it, which is what happened.

The resulting coverage went nationwide.  Without speculating too much on what triggered the altercation, the message is that Meehan had no option, but to physically intervene, because his client is either incapable or not qualified to answer the questions.  Unfortunately for Coakley, this is now the image people are going to have and it will impact her.  The last thing any politician needs is to be considered a lightweight in the face of controversy.

So, what’s the lesson in all of this?  Control over your emotions and behavior gives you control over your responses by default.  You may not have control over the venue or line of questioning, but you certainly control how you respond; which gives you the high ground.

Skillful interviewing is not something we are born with—some people are naturals—but by and large most need practice.  Invest in strong media relations training that incorporates pleasant and cantankerous interview styles, on- and off-camera techniques, and methods for staying on message and bridging the conversation back to your point of interest.

Only through extensive practice can you and your client not only survive, but also thrive, during difficult interviews.  Oh, and it’s always a good idea if the media advisor follows this advice as well to avoid more than one black eye on your organization.

Heck, the way I figure it, America’s Wild West wasn’t conquered by the early frontiersmen in a few years either.  It takes time for the early adopters to show promise and uncover the “gold rush” opportunities to convince others to take the risk.

But, where there’s risk, there’s reward.  Whether you are an early adopter brashly cutting a swath in the social media stratosphere or a casual, interested observer who is biding time until you’re sure it’s the right move, there’s room for all comers.

The following five simple steps can help to begin, or improve upon, the journey of deciding what path your social media program will look like.

1. Gather Your Facts: Using a search word and trend analysis tool like www.blogpulse.com, you can determine what your customers and other target audiences are saying about the specific area of interest.  This will also be helpful in developing the content for your website and social media initiatives.  The closer your content matches up with those search terms, the more likely it is you will gain traffic.

2. Brand/Company & Competitor Assessment: Using the same tools as above, do the same searches with terms that include your company and brands to see what the “word on the virtual street” is about both.  After, do the same for your main competitors so you can accurately gauge the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the business.

3. Look Outward:  It can be easy to suffer from group think when you work for the Corporation and this can cloud how you perceive your brand and or company’s image.  If you want an honest assessment you need to step outside and point-blank ask your customers how you’re doing.  Done correctly, this will yield helpful data that moves you forward.

4. Choose Your Path: After you gather your findings there are really two paths to take.  If the information is mostly positive, then you might take a promotional approach and actively field online initiatives that generate awareness and drive people into your purchasing spectrum.  Conversely, if there is enough negativity circulating among your customers and target audiences, you need to step back to reassess your short-term goals, but not discount the social media process.   If the later occurs, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to invest money into social media programs that will most likely serve as additional platforms for negative interaction.

Rather, you can move into surveillance mode to see if you can gather intelligence about where the negative feedback stems from and develop ways to address it to change perception.  You want to be perceived as a company that is dynamic and responsive versus the ostrich with its head in the sand.

5. Influence The Influentials: Whichever path you select, once you have your search terms and a clear understanding of your online profile, it’s time to locate the influentials who impact your brand.  Influentials can be bloggers, outspoken customers, patients, competitors, physicians; essentially anyone with an audience can be an influential.  It’s your team’s job to locate, catalog, and outreach to them to open up a dialogue.  Only the most vindictive naysayer would balk at the effort and there is nothing you can do to win that person over anyway.

Even if your just looking to make your online presence better, these simple steps can serve as a guide to completing a sound analysis from which a solid and realistic strategy emerges.

The Internet can be an intimidating place and understanding where you fit in requires research, dedication, and a plan that addresses the needs.  Social media is all about education, which first begins with you.

But, worlds collide as more people turn to online communities—outside and during work hours—and more companies stake a claim in cyberspace.  That same sharing of information suddenly doesn’t seem like such a positive thing; particularly when it involves posting internal scuttlebutt, inappropriate behavior, sensitive information, or anything else traditionally deemed off limits by the corporate legal department.

Recently, the Transportation Security Administration became the latest casualty of the New World, when several ill advised employees decided to post sensitive guidelines about airport passenger screening processes online.  Difficult to know what their motivation was, and even harder to fathom the stupidity involved, but nonetheless, the information was out there a full 24 hours before authorities realized it and pulled it down; which, in Internet time might as well be a year.

Many C-suite executives remain skittish about allowing employees to frequent online social communities whether inside or outside work time.  It wasn’t long ago that companies protected information and “owned” it versus freely sharing it.  That is a very new concept for veteran marketers to embrace.

This is not to say that sensitive documents never got thrown out in the trash or misplaced before social media hit big.  But, never before have there been so many outlets for sharing that information globally with a simple mouse click.  So each transgression is amplified in magnitude.

We work with clients to establish and manage social media policies that take comfortable, past practices into account while encompassing the online paradigm.  In other words, when launching into a social media program it is necessary to establish the protocols that will dictate your company’s tolerance for employee behavior and interactions in the online world.  You can make it easier for executives by focusing the framework along the same protocols that currently exist in the employee personal conduct policy, but updating them to include social media channels, blogs, v-logs, texting, file sharing, and more.  And, it goes without saying that the entire process needs to be vetted and blessed by a team including representation from Human Resources, C-suite, and the Legal department.

While most online employee interaction can foster camaraderie and an understanding of the corporation, there will always be some individuals who by sheer excitement and/or dubious intentions cross the line of appropriate behavior.  For these individuals, it is critical that the company develop an online employee conduct protocol that stipulates acceptable online behavior such as how to:

• Interact with internal and external audiences including the media
  
• Communicate during breaking news or in a crisis situation
• Address customer concerns or inquries
  
• Use online resources to brush up on the latest conduct policies
• Report questionable content regarding company information
• Contact the appropriate online content managers
  

The problem I have is that when the search becomes about health and attempts at self-diagnosing certain conditions, the Internet turns into a subversive pit of despair filled with inadequate and alarming tidbits.   And, incidentally, the information superhighway almost always ends with the feeling that you have some form of cancer.

As a consumer and potential patient, I find that lacking to say the least.  As a strategic communications professional, I believe it represents an awful lot of opportunity to empower patients with the resources they need to feel more confident—not only in learning about a condition, but also preparing him or her with the information necessary to have a meaningful discussion with a healthcare provider.

I know from experience that a knowledgeable patient is definitely a proactive patient.  When we launched the CYPHER drug-eluting coronary artery stent for Cordis Cardiology, I was floored that patients were actually demanding this stent and postponing their procedure until CYPHER became available.  That blew me away.

It felt really good knowing this agency directly impacted their healthcare decision.  This is the opportunity that exists for any medical device, prescription drug or over-the-counter therapy.  The Internet is about education, not selling a product.

That may sound odd, but that’s what the new paradigm requires.  First you educate people about the condition they are interested in.  If they took the time to research the topic, they will take the additional time to learn about how your company and its products fit into the treatment spectrum.

It is not high science.  Make someone’s life easier by providing education and leading them through the process of figuring out their issue and you are likely to have a new customer or someone who is well equipped to ask for your products by name when speaking to a healthcare professional.

That’s a win-win situation.