When an unexpected opportunity or crisis arises, will you be media ready? Check out these tips on media training and preparing to expertly deliver your message.
By Stacey Ellis
Be prepared. The old scouting motto isn’t just about earning merit badges — it’s sound advice for entrepreneurs who want to take advantage of opportunities … or manage an unexpected crisis. And one of the best ways for businesspeople to be prepared is to invest some time in media training.
It’s relatively simple, and even without a budget to hire consultants or PR agencies, you can put yourself in position to handle any media situation with confidence.
The core premise of media training is to ensure you can effectively communicate your message(s) through any outlet, in any situation, for any medium, from traditional publications and broadcasters to social channels and podcasts. It also can strengthen your chops for speeches and appearances at events.
Media training involves developing effective messaging strategies, crafting talking points for interviews and presentations, and learning how to handle difficult questions from journalists.
It’s an essential skill that helps businesses, large and small, deliver information about their products, services and point of view. And it prepares professionals to develop authentic relationships with key audiences, which can positively affect your enterprise’s reputation, growth and profitability.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Mastering these skills takes practice, and role-playing is an important part of that practice, allowing participants to rehearse how they will respond to difficult questions. By simulating interviews with journalists, you can rehearse body language, tone of voice, and key messages in order to be ready and confident when an actual interview takes place. Role-playing also provides an opportunity for constructive feedback, allowing you to adjust your responses as necessary. It’s a key part of an effective media strategy that also lets you become comfortable when faced with cameras and microphones.
Enlisting a coworker or colleague to act as an interviewer and recording your role-playing on a camera or cellphone is a simple way to practice your performance, even if you’re a solopreneur with a limited budget.
Crafting Your Message
Throughline, a New York-based communications consultancy led by Brad Phillips, author of The Media Training Bible and host of The Speak Good Podcast, has a free guide to media training that includes these tips on how to craft the message you want to get across.
- Consistency: “The same message delivered with different words and different examples has a better chance of sticking.”
- Less Jargon: Keep it simple … imagine you’re explaining something to a 12-year-old.
- Brevity: Be succinct … the average newscast quote lasts less than eight seconds. About 18 words.
- Make it “ear-worthy”: Make it sound good!
- Support It: Use stories and statistics to flesh your message out.
Delivering Your Message
This is where recording your responses will be invaluable. Try different takes, but you’ll find that you’ll most likely want to dial up the energy. Another aspect is alternating the tone of your voice … mix it up. Kind of like a grunge song from the ’90s, switching between soft and loud and back again.
Eye contact is also crucial. In normal conversation our eyes tend to wander, in a media situation it’s important to lock in. “Lack of eye contact can signal unease or nervousness at best, evasiveness or defensiveness at worst,” says Throughline. Another physical element to keep in mind are hand gestures, which are a normal part of our everyday communication. Keep them! But don’t cross your arms or jam your hands in your pocket. Just fold your hands in your lap if you’re sitting or, if standing, keep them together at belly level.
Advantages of Media Training
- Increased Confidence: Sometimes funny things happen when you say something out loud for the first time or if you’re unfamiliar with the topic you’re speaking about. Media training helps to increase your confidence and lets you delivering key messages more effectively.
- Improved Messaging Strategy: You’ll be able to better craft a messaging strategy that is tailored for a specific audience or platform.
- Increased Visibility: By being more visible in both traditional and digital platforms, you’ll be able to reach a wider audience and spread your message more effectively.
Media training can also help build relationships with journalists, influencers and other important contacts who can help create exposure for your product or service. You’ll be able to make the most of any media opportunity that comes your way, as well as proactively put yourself out there as an expert in your field.
So …
- Develop concise soundbite-length responses to potential questions.
- Be familiar with the key messaging points you want to communicate.
- Plan ahead what type of message you want to give if asked difficult questions.
Tell Your Story
Creating story angles is another important aspect of media training. A good story angle should illustrate why a business’ message is important and relevant to its audience. It should also focus on the positive aspects of an organization’s mission and values — it’s not enough to merely give facts. Tie these facts back to why an audience should care about them in the first place.
It’s also important to understand how different platforms — such as television interviews versus a podcast — require differently tailored messaging strategies, which could include adjusting tone or word choice. For example, you’d likely use different language when speaking directly into a camera as opposed to writing up a blog post. Additionally, having knowledge around various communication channels allows you to reach out directly with specific messages tailored toward each one, effectively utilizing “push” tactics instead of waiting passively for content requests from reporters or other stakeholders. This means greater control over what kind of information gets released.
These tools — preparation, role-playing, creating story angles, understanding platforms, utilizing “push” tactics instead of “pull” techniques — are essential for media training. You’ll be ready for prime time, delivering key messages accurately, sincerely and confidently.
