The follow-up call to a reporter after he or she visits your school can be really important.

I'm assuming at this point that you've successfully lured a reporter into your school to write about your academy. As with the other columns, this focuses on promoting a BJJ or MMA school, but the same principles can be used to promote another type of school, your fight career, etc.

You know the anxiety that you felt in school when you wrote a paper or took a test, and worried about the grade you were going to get? A reporter’s work is graded every week by thousands of people – maybe tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands. In some cases, even more. If he gets something wrong, he is going to hear about it! There’s nothing worse than getting a call from someone saying that you got a fact wrong, or spelled a name wrong.

Oh yeah, there is something worse -- having to go to your boss to explain why you have to run a correction.

So reporters have a certain amount of anxiety every time they write a story, particularly if it’s about something unfamiliar to them. And when they get anxious, they are often less likely to write a story – even if they have already completed an interview or two. I speak from experience.

I know that one of the things that always made me feel more comfortable as a reporter was the opportunity to have a follow-up conversation with the sources of my articles to make sure that I got the details right. Some news outlets allow a source to review an article prior to publication to ensure it is accurate, but like many other papers, mine does not allow me to send a source my article for them to review prior to publication.

Feel free to offer to review a reporter's article, but you may get turned down, and it may irritate them -- some can perceive it as meddling.

Instead, try this tact: give them a call the next day, and let them know how much you appreciated their taking the time out to come to your school. Tell them that you enjoyed talking to them, and that you are excited about the prospect of an article appearing in the paper. Say something like “Your paper probably has a policy of not letting sources read stories before they run. I know we gave you a ton of information that was probably difficult to digest all at once, so feel free to give me a call or drop me an email if there are any facts that you want to make sure you got straight.”

They’ll likely appreciate that -- reporters often feel that they don’t want to bother the sources of an article too much, and might opt not to call out of that concern. You’ve now opened the door for them to do so.

Then follow up with an email. Reiterate that you enjoyed talking to them, and that there are a few key points that you want to make clear. These may be different for each person and school, but here are a couple of things I recommended to Fernando Yamasaki when the Washington Post interviewed him for a major feature story. While I did not ask Fernando afterwards to see if he had followed my advice, the article clearly came out great.

Stories about Brazilian jiu-jitsu schools have often focused on the connection between the style and UFC, which has the perception that it is a bloodsport where people are routinely maimed. I can think of countless examples where I read a story in a local paper that is posted on a BJJ message board, and the students are all frustrated that the story paints their art as a bloodthirsty brawl where people are ripping each others limbs off.

It’s such a valuable opportunity to have an article written about your school that I told Fernando that he could not let this happen to our school.

I recommended that Fernando send him an email that outlined the following:

The UFC had that perception of being a bloodsport, but it is a common misconception, and in fact it has rules that protect the combatants.

BJJ is an art that people practice for fun, to stay in shape, and self defense.

The level of injuries in a BJJ class are similar to that of adults playing basketball. Sure, some people hurt a knee or throw their back out, but overall its fun and safe.

In addition to the physical fitness and self-defense skills gained at the Yamasaki Academy, the students share a rare level of comraderie.

Feel free to use my suggestion to Fernando as the basis for an email that you may send to a journalist after they visit your school, and hopefully together we can stamp out this misperception of our sport. A follow-up email can go a long way towards correcting this misconception, and help them avoid other errors as well.


Take care,
Jeremy