54 WWW.AGRM.ORG MAY/JUNE 2017 DAY-TO-DAY the hard facts of a given problem your mission addresses. But there are other times when the public is ready to see a more human, everyday side of your mission. That’s when an expert with very practical skills can be invaluable—for exam- ple, when your head chef can deliver a recipe for a couple hundred chicken wings because that’s what he’s preparing for your guests at an Inde- pendence Day celebration. Think across media genres as you develop your strategy for expert exposure. Some of your experts will have great radio voices. Others will instantly engage a television audience. Still others can turn a phrase in such a way that stands out online or in print. Play to your experts’ strengths in choosing their platforms. Help your experts with media presence. No spokesperson-expert begins at a point of comfort with every media channel. So take the time to help them develop through mock interviews. Record them on your cell phone to provide playback so they can hear and see themselves. Work on the details and help them improve. You know what looks and sounds good even if you don’t fill every one of those needs yourself. When possible, help your executives become generalist experts. Subject experts aside, prepare your executives to deal with “big picture” ques- tions on the various services your mission offers. Arming them with a few national facts sets the context for telling your local story, buttressed by local facts. And remember, when your staff looks good in the media, so does their PR professional! Ĩ E very mission needs a resident expert—or several—on issues affecting your local population of homeless and impoverished people. The corresponding goal of a PR practi- tioner is to nurture the platforms that can best showcase your experts’ knowledge in a way that demonstrates your mission’s core competencies. So think about these things in that light. Understand that your mission probably has several subject experts you can feature, especially if your mission has more than one area of ministry. For example, you might have someone who is well-versed in the plight of the homeless people in your area. She can offer both local and national statistics and stories to “deliver the goods” on homelessness. You might have another expert leading your addiction recovery program who can cite why your mission’s recidivism rate stands up so well against the national average. If your mission has several areas of outreach, see if you can identify experts in each area. Remember that some experts at your mission might appeal to different people for different rea- sons. There are some experts who need to deliver PR TOOLKIT Steve Wamberg Let Your Experts Shine Developing staff members to speak on issues affecting your community Steve is on staff at Open Door Mission in Omaha, Nebraska. He can be reached at swamberg@opendoor mission.org.