How to succeed at Rapid Response in 10 Steps

One of the most successful methods for cybersecurity companies, and a mainstay of PR activity at Eskenzi, is the rapid response process. This is where you comment on an existing story within the cyber media cycle, about which your company has valuable insights. This is one of the main ways to ensure that your client remains useful to journalists; adding colour to a story that they are already writing, helping them by offer multiple perspectives on a story, and ultimately, filing their copy with their editor quicker.   The rapid response process, if done correctly, should catch a journalist whilst they are writing a story, and therefore still in its embryonic stage. It can in turn spawn further opportunities for follow up interviews, bylines, and more regular contact with the journalist on a given subject, once something insightful has been provided.   Below are 10 tips and considerations for rapid response success:  

1. Speed is Key – Rapid Response is all about turning around comments quickly, so be on-hand to ‘rapidly respond’ where possible. Journalists will be on a tight deadline for breaking news so set short deadlines of sometimes just an hour!  
2. Be Open – The more issues and areas you are happy to comment on, the greater awareness you’ll create for yourself and company.  
3. Be Brief – Don’t write an essay, comments only need to be 50-100 words and must focus on the issue and NOT be product or company centric.  
4. Insights, not waffle – We encourage clients to offer their particular insight into what’s happened – or could happen – for example, in the case of a vulnerability, tie it to strong advice to help organisations keep themselves, and their virtual assets, out of the hacker’s clutches.  
5. Teamwork is crucial – Work as a team to get comments together. If you’re unable to get a comment, out see if one of the other Rapid Response team can help.  
6. A quick quote is a good quote – If an interview is requested, keep your conversation to no more than five minutes and make sure you have good strong ‘sound bites’.  
7. Talk to us – If you’re struggling to draft something or are away from a computer, pick up the phone to your PR team and we can draft it for you.  
8. Let us know – If you see a breaking news story you’d love to comment on, lets us know! A PR relationship is a two-way thing, we love to hear what think would make the headlines. 
9. Trust your expertise – Remember, you’re the expert so write with authority and share your knowledge.  
10. Don’t feel the fear – Never feel nervous about writing a comment, if it is newsworthy we can used it. Comments also can be used for further content, an opinion article, interview pitch or blog post. 

This blog is part of our ongoing ‘how to’ series. To read more, click here.