How to Get Experts to Speak up in the Media?

Marketing and communications manager Heleri Michalski shares her experience on how to support expert communication in a way that even the most media-shy experts can be convinced to speak up.

I've been fortunate to work mainly with subject matter experts for over eight years, helping to convey their messages to the public. Below, I'll outline some starting points that may help in organising substantive expert communication so that outstanding expertise actually gets covered, and as smoothly as possible.

As a communications professional, have you had to convince experts in your organisation that their knowledge is of public interest and that they should speak out on a topical issue? Or have you found yourself in a situation where you had to “squeeze an interesting and juicy" idea out of an expert, phrased in an understandable way, or get an idea for some future communications project? Then you know that this process can be time-consuming and energy-intensive - it can take months to go from idea to execution. And nothing makes you frown more bitterly than your boss returning from vacation asking, "So how far along is that idea now?" More in the article: Expert is a charismatic individual!

More in the article: To truly understand the expert

More in the article: Be empathetic and ease the pressure More in the article: Build trust

Convince the expert - what they know is genuinely interesting

The more erudite a person is, the more they may doubt themselves and the information around them. An expert immediately wonders, who am I to speak up on this matter? "A colleague from a competing company (or another department) is actually a bigger specialist; they should be the one speaking." Sometimes they don't want to comment because it seems like they're criticizing the work of competing colleagues. Before starting communications, you have to take that most strenuous initial step - convincing experts that what they know is not self-evident.

What to talk about - help to find the topic

More media-savvy experts usually find their own way to the communications department. But the main reason why media coverage is often not achieved is a lack of time. There may be situations where the field is broad and interesting things are constantly happening, making it difficult for the expert to decide what to focus on.

I often intensively scan articles or other media content related to the field and ask the expert what they think about one topic or another - whether their view aligns or differs. This alone can provide inspiration. Another way is to have the expert "start from the beginning." Ask them to explain to you as a "person on the street" what they do, why it's important, how it changes things, what they can't change, and why that in turn is good or bad. Allow the expert to envision! Have them describe how things could ideally be and what would be needed to achieve that. If the communications expert also catches the wave of inspiration here, an article draft is already in place. It's important to also give the expert confirmation. It's clear that if an expert has dedicated ten, fifteen, or even more years to a particular field, then they have better discernment and generalization abilities in their subject than others. Advice - compliment their knowledge!

The expert is a charismatic individual!

Sometimes there is also an encounter with more complex personalities. The more in-demand the expert, the more aware they are of how much their "hour costs" and the more impatient and demanding they can be about the communications person's questions and approach. The "more difficult experts" may show their superiority, as they are usually incomparably more familiar with the topic than the communications person sailing on general knowledge. It also happens that, for some reason, experts feel they simply "have" to share their knowledge, even though they really don't want to or find it an annoyingly unbearable and slightly reluctant obligation. This is usually preceded or followed by the sigh-laden concession: "Let's just get this over with." In this situation, I've said to myself: "Well then, let's just get this over with!"

Preparation work and follow-up – to truly understand the expert

If the topic is broader, the communications person could, certainly, do a lot of the preparatory work themselves in order to be able to ask relevant questions before meeting with the expert and sitting down for a brainstorming session or preparation for a particular format. When interviewing an expert for input, be present in the moment and carefully listen to the person. Communications people are accustomed acting quickly and communicating a lot. We all too often nod automatically and tend to finish someone's sentence before they've had a chance to do so themselves. In most cases, we don't actually know what the other person wants to tell us, and we interrupt their train of thought. Since the specifics and terminology may be unfamiliar, active listening is necessary to ensure everything said is written down in notes and will be understandable later. Even when listening to a recording later, you may still identify misunderstandings and ambiguities. One thing is usually certain – no matter how well the communications person has worked with the text or other input, the expert will still sense that what they said has been primitively forwarded and that the actual backgrounds and connections remain unexplored. Then it's the right time to remind them of the specific features of the chosen channel and audience – a daily newspaper or an evening TV show is not expert-to-expert communication. Indeed, things need to be said more simply there.

And true, sometimes things can't be simplified because there's a risk of cutting out something important, or the story becomes so distorted that the information becomes outright wrong. It may also happen that the speaker is afraid of appearing unwise as an expert, and no one wants that reputation.

Be empathetic and ease the pressure

Having conveyed the knowledge of experts from such diverse fields as the circular economy, art, construction and energy efficiency, and also law, I have recently discovered a tendency that unites all experts. I also articulated this thought in an interview for the Estonian Marketing Association - it seems to me that nowadays there is an expectation that if you are an expert there is an "obligation" to be also an excellent communicator on all fronts. You should be able to talk about your activities in every medium and present it convincingly! The condition includes a good sense of how to communicate all of this also in a personal way - you have to be versatile as an expert, have cool hobbies and a modern worldview. Let's be honest, the pressure to be a perfect human being (not just an expert) is enormous. On top of that, experts no longer just need to be competent and up-to-date with the latest information in their field, not only in locally in their country and region but at least in their economic region (if not the whole world). Based on my observations, I recommend bringing up this topic and discussing it openly before an important radio or TV appearance, in order to neutralise any fears. No one has to know everything, including experts!

It would be good to articulate what the worst thing is that could happen and say it out loud, discuss it. The communications expert's duty is to be in the role of listener and reflector - it is reasonable to encourage the expert and help them write down, for example, three specific things that they must definitely say. Ask them to imagine that they would have to do this even if the studio ceiling collapsed during the radio show or the host fainted.

Build trust - collaboration with you is beneficial for the expert

When finding yourself as a communications manager in difficult situations, whether it's a suddenly changing situation, nervous two minutes before going live, or a sharp-tongued expert, try to avoid judgments (even internal ones) and simply be understanding. This is especially true for the previously mentioned "difficult" personalities. If your conversation partner tries to test you, you must affirm to yourself that the person is probably doing it out of self-defense and insecurity. It is their way of essentially asking whether I'm saying the right thing, whether I'm comprehensible, whether I'm understandable? It's important to keep in mind that you never know when you might need to collaborate with that expert again. Especially during the first collaboration, the preparation for an important appearance can be nerve-wracking for both the communications manager and the expert themselves. But once “It’s in the bag" and everything is otherwise neat, the expert will also be pleased. In other words, remain balanced, support the expert, and know that trust often arises precisely from going through shared trials together. Once the worst is over, i.e. the first article has been published or the show has aired, you can be quite sure that your expert colleague is also pleased to have been able to contribute their knowledge to society.

The article was originally published in Bestmarketing.ee