invert your pyramid linked in

10 simple rules to ensure your message gets heard anywhere, by anyone, any time

© Inverted Pyramid Communications www.invertyourpyramid.blogspot.com

© Inverted Pyramid Communications

Ken Kerrigan is an award-winning, media-savvy, communications counselor who has been advising senior executives in multiple industries for more than 20 years

He has worked for some of the world’s most respected public relations agencies, and spent a decade as a director of communications at Big Four firm Ernst & Young

He learned to write on a typewriter in journalism school, where he first learned to invert his pyramid


An introduction


If you're a CEO - or someone who would like to be - you've likely read management books like "Who Moved My Cheese?" And if you are about to do your first media interview you could read a book on "media training." There are several. But to know how reporters think – and frankly how any audience thinks and receives messages - to ensure that your message is heard by anyone, anywhere, any time, regardless of the media "channel" - you first need to learn how to Invert Your Pyramid.


An inverted pyramid is the method in which journalist write stories◦ Today, it’s largely how we have been programmed

to receive messages Years ago editors would take a reporter’s

copy and draw an inverted pyramid over it, usually with a red marker◦ The who, what, why, where, when and how

needed to come up front◦ What followed – in the narrow part of the inverted

pyramid –was usually cut


In today’s new MeDia world communications has been turned upside down Everyone is MeDia – the local newspaper/TV/radio, a blogger

or your employees, friends and colleagues Your audience wants the information they need to

know… and fast… often on a handheld device Traditional communications channels that may have

helped convey your message in the past – like newspapers – may no longer exist or be as trusted

In business, or anywhere else, you have the right to speak, but you don’t have the right to expect your message to be heard or remembered Your message must be at the top of the inverted pyramid

News still mattersBut the sources have changed

It’s relevant Timely Game-changing Matters to me, my

friends, my family, my clients, my company

Comes from a trusted source

Something new and different

Something I need to know

Something that surprises me

Gets my attention Something I want to

share with others Not something I’ve

heard before


Can

be a

big

gam

ble


The ten simple rules

#1 Paint a picture◦ Allow your audience to really see your message

#2 Tell a MeDia story◦ The best place to start is hardly

ever at the beginning #3 Don’t do a Nixon

◦ Two negatives only make a positive in algebra

#4 Avoid traps◦ Think like a reporter

# 5 Lock up◦ Use aural triggers to avoid your

message getting lost

#6 Find the bridge◦ Always get back to your

message #7 Be prepared

◦ It’s not just a good motto for Boy Scouts

#8 Know your rights◦ You control what comes out of

your mouth and that’s it #9 Don’t forget to tango

◦ You have a job to do and so does the reporter

#10 Practice◦ Old habits die hard


Trainings are available in: Half or full-day sessions One-on-one or small groups of 3-5 people

Classroom style training is also available All trainings include 2 brief, mock print media

interviews recorded on tape and critiqued by instructor

Public relations counsel are welcome to attend Call for free rate quote (not including travel and

expenses)

invert your pyramid linked in

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