The Successful Interview Formula For Maximizing Your PR Outreach

This is the last in a three part series on how to successfully handle a media interview.  If you’ve launched a public relations or media campaign, you want to take full advantage of it when an interview opportunity arises. which means, you want to be prepared.  If you study the tips and suggestions, you’ll find that most of them are useful in any type of conversation, speech or presentation.  They are basic communication skills, that most of us tend to forget.  Keep this media interview series somewhere you can refer to it.  I try to reread the points at least once a month.  Believe me they come in handy.

So, to continue…

13) If the interviewer takes the conversation into an area you’re not comfortable with, or tries to manipulate you into answering questions that you don’t want to answer, remember you have control over the situation.  Don’t be forced into saying something you don’t want to say.  Be polite, and stay on course.

14)  If a particular question throws you, or if you don’t want to answer a specific question, deflect it.  Acknowledge that it was asked, and then return to an area that you’re comfortable addressing.  You see and hear these types of responses every day around election time.  An example of an appropriate response would be: “I certainly understand why you’d ask that question, but what’s really important is…,” now return to your agenda.

15)  If you have three main points that you want to make and you are only able to mention one of them, don’t worry.  You’ll get ‘em next time.

16) Don’t recite a laundry list of information and sacrifice a good interview.  We’ve all had teachers who knew their subjects well, but bored the hell out of us.  That may work in school, because there’s a captive audience, but you have no such luxury.  You are there to interest as well as inform the audience.

17) Don’t be vague or use trade jargon.  Speak in easy-to-understand language.

18) Show the audience what you’re talking about.  Use a story or an account that illustrates a point, as opposed to just giving them vague ideas or theories.

19) Keep your information short, concise, and to the point.  Keep it clear, short, and easy to understand.

20) When trying to make a particular point, be assertive but not pushy.

21)  If it’s pertinent to your business, mention your location.  Although interviewers will often give your exact address over the air, many won’t.  That’s why, if one of your objectives is to attract clients or patients, always mention where your practice or business is located.  You don’t need to give the exact address.  That will sound like a commercial.  But you can make sure that the audience knows the general area where you’re located.  This may not be a huge concern if you’re appearing on a local TV program in a small town, but it becomes very important if you are being interviewed on a national show, or if you live in a large metropolis like Los Angeles or New York.   The viewers may love you, but if they can’t find you, you’re in trouble.  For example, if you own a health spa in the Palm Springs area, you can explain that, because your spa is located in Palm Springs, you have developed special treatments and products to combat the effects that the dry, desert heat can have on skin.  Make your location a part of your story.  Don’t simply blurt out your address, but weave your location into the conversation.

22) Relax.  Have fun.  You’ve worked hard for this – enjoy it.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2013