Media training advice - how to say sorry.

How companies should say ‘sorry’

We hope it’s not something that happens frequently, but there may well be occasions where you, or your organisation has to stand up and say ‘sorry’. At Comsteria, we’d always recommend putting a name and a face to the apology – a real human, fronting up in a video – rather than a text statement attributed to ‘a spokesperson’. Comsteria’s Colin Kelly is one of Scotland’s most in-demand media training and crisis communications specialists and Read more…

Company culture and crisis comms.

How company culture helps with crisis comms

Get it right, and you’re laughing. Recently, Comsteria has been working with some clients on what could be termed ‘crisis management’ issues. Often, this involves keeping an organisation, or a particular issue OUT of the media. This requires extremely careful handling in order to remain open and transparent with staff, while also making sure those same staff don’t take what they know and share it outwith the organisation. Some old fashioned operators try to achieve Read more…

Media training chat GPT.

Can I make ChatGPT recommend my business?

There’s a new episode of the Comsteria #powerfulcommunication podcast available now. You probably have some idea of where your business appears in Google’s search results for specific keywords. You might even be going to some length, and expense, to influence this in your favour. But what about artificial intelligence chat bots such as Chat GPT, can they be influenced to give increased visibility to a particular business? Comsteria’s co-founder Colin Kelly discusses this and has Read more…

A month in the life of a PR consultancy

A month in the life of a communications and PR training provider

We often tell clients that ‘the truth will set you free’. The idea is that if the audience you’re interested in simply knew the truth about who you are, what you’re doing and the motivations behind it all, then they’d most likely be drawn to you and interested in working with you. Life would be easy! Marketing sometimes likes to make a science out of the above with charts, graphics and maps and days away Read more…

Your half assed blog is costing you business

Your half-assed blog is costing you business

When someone (a journalist, potential customer, potential employee etc) visits your website, you’re not there to provide context. They come. They look. They make a judgement. And they leave. Anything that’s substandard, half-baked, below par or in any way not quite right, risks putting them off. Here’s Comsteria’s Colin Kelly with a true story of how this affected him recently in the latest #powerfulcommunication podcast. Click below to listen now. We’d encourage every organisation to Read more…

Froebel Trust podcast channel art.

Podcast production for The Froebel Trust

This is one of the most interesting projects we’ve worked on. It’s a series of podcasts we produced for The Froebel Trust, discussing early years education. A panel of experts tell me all about how children learn and what we can learn from them, while exploring the principles of Froebel, a pioneer of kindergarten and early years education. We learned a great deal making this and think you’ll enjoy it if you give it a listen. Read more…

Picture of a man hiding his face behind tinfoil.

Why your business needs a human ‘face’ – #mediatrainingtip

We live in a world where big brands reign supreme. It feels like everyone wants to build a brand. And sometimes it’s a necessity. The Comsteria we know and love today started its life with the much plainer name of ‘Colin Kelly Media’. But that had to change when Emma left her career in teaching to join full-time. We often meet small business owners who choose not to appear in their own videos because they’re Read more…

Picture of a dog looking sad.

Why is my communications strategy getting ridiculed?

We know that some of our clients work in public sector communications roles. Some of you work in government organisations. Others try to keep big businesses on track with what they say and do. And we know how professional and well intentioned you all are. Why is it then that sometimes, when you do the right thing, you still end up getting criticised or ridiculed? One example came last week when Chancellor Jeremy Hunt featured Read more…

media training advice from Comsteria.

Media training tip – the power of positive speech

In our media relations training, we always stress the importance of using positive speech and avoiding the temptation to give defensive or negative answers to questions from journalists. And contrary to some other media training specialists, we encourage our clients to tell the truth. We’ve been around long enough to know that any short term gain that might be associated with ‘dodging’ a question or ‘spinning your way out of trouble’ is almost always quickly Read more…