Meeting PR Tip #2 - Be Brief, Be to the Point, Be Seated

If you schedule a meeting with a reporter, try to keep it as brief and focused as possible. (Occasionally there are exceptions, like a tour of company headquarters).

Many companies try to pack in as many PowerPoint slides into a 30 minute presentation as possible. It makes paper companies and toner/ink manufacturers happy, but if you can't say what you need to say in a dozen slides or less, you most likely need to get out a chainsaw and start getting rid of slides.

Remember, a reporter wants to walk away with two or three key points; everything else is filler that can be supplied through more detail in a data sheet and/or a press release.  If you throw too many points out, you'll confuse the reporter and he'll most likely end up writing about something else. Worse yet, he'll highlight the wrong points.

ALSO: Stick to the presentation at hand. And make sure your spokesperson(s) stick to the presentation, rather than devolving into lectures on the origin of "common carrier" or other topics that are off-message.  Again, you want the reporter to walk away with the two or three key points in hand in his head.

Background information on the company is best kept separated out (and brief as well) in a separate presentation. Assume the reporter knows nothing -- not a far stretch of the imagination a good chunk of the time.

Reporters may be familiar with your company, but they may not be indoctrinated into the "talking points" you want him to relate to his readers. It doesn't hurt to underline key things such as market leadership, total number of sales, key customer wins, strategic partnerships, and other factoids that round out the overall "picture."

You should be able to deliver background information in 2 minutes or less, unless the reporter is writing an in-depth feature about the company.

All of the above is especially important when setting up meeting at trade shows, where the poor, footsore reporter has multiple meetings scheduled during the course of the day -- and most likely a few events in the evenings as well. Trade shows aren't fun -- they're work.