When it comes to media relations or public relations, most business executives want to be on the cover of the New York Times.  However, as many politicians and CEOs will attest to, being on the cover of a newspaper or magazine may be as negative as it can be positive.  Building a relationship with the media is important, both for the major stories that can possibly happen and the minor everyday stories that happen on a regular basis.  While the media can be tricky, and even on attack mode lately, like all industries they operate on trust and relationships and establishing credibility with them is an important task.  Establishing credibility can have a profound impact upon the success of any political campaign, press initiative or marketing campaign.

It’s important to be media friendly.  Being media friendly involves being responsive, listening, answering questions and simply being available to the media should they call or contact you.  If you can position yourself as a resource, meaning if you can position yourself as someone who not only wants to get into the papers, but who can also offer important information on other stories, you can go a long way towards helping build trust with the media.

You should also be sure to give you media person or contact the tools to be helpful.  One thing the media hates is a press person who is basically a glorified receptionist, simply answering phones and passing messages along.  Having someone with quality communication skills and who has the knowledge to at least give the media a taste of what they want will make you and your company a far more attractive target for quality stories than the alternative.  Most people overlook their public relations people, but good public relations can benefit you, and offer quality reputation management.

Probably the most important tool for reputation management today is the Internet.  Using your Website, e-mail and other Internet tools will give you quality reputation management at a relatively inexpensive price.  Offering quality information on your Website, using your e-mail quickly and effectively and utilizing other Internet tools such as Digg, Twitter, Facebook and others will give you the kind of online reputation management that will benefit you in the short and the long term.

You should also embrace a policy that increases your transparency.  The media loves to report on stories where a company is seemingly hiding something, even if that isn’t the case.  If it seems like you’re unwilling to answer questions, or that you are trying to keep certain stories from hitting the press, the media will pick up on that and sometimes create a story out of thin air.  This will obviously damage your reputation.  Good reputation management sometimes involves commenting on your own mistakes and errors, and allowing your staff to admit mistakes and apologize when appropriate.  This isn’t always easy, and every once in a while someone may say too much, but if there’s nothing being hidden you won’t have to worry about a 20/20 exposé.