I’ll always remember my first broadcast interview – it was more than 12 years ago, at Breakfast Television (BT) in Winnipeg, and the topic was “Healthy Lunches for Kids.” All these years later I am still a welcome guest on BT Winnipeg. I attribute this to a key secret of success – building a solid relationship with this media outlet.
Having successful, working relationships with journalists is fundamental to your media success! Try using some of my tried and true tips to build your own successful media relationships:
Before your interview: Practice and preparation makes perfect – it’s true! The more you practice and prepare, the better your interview will flow.
During your interview: Try to make your responses as conversational as possible. The term ‘sound-bite’ is important to remember – try to get across one key message or memorable ‘bite’ of information with every answer and keep it simple. If you get bogged down in detail, your key message will be lost (and so will your audience!).
After your Interview: Follow up with an email to the producer or host or tweet a photo, and indicate that you’d be pleased to participate in other interviews. Suggest other interesting topics – journalists are always looking for great ideas! If you do some of the work for them, they will be likely to call you back!
