Thursday, October 31, 2013

10 Ways To Give A Great Media Interview


There are scores of tips I can share with you about giving media interviews that sell books and make an impact, but I believe if you focus on these 10 you will be ready to take on the world.

1.      Don’t mumble, whisper, ramble, go off topic, act crazy, or sound like an infomercial.

2.      Speak with energy, passion, emotion, conviction, awareness, sensitivity, humor, and confidence.

3.      Look to inform, enlighten, entertain and inspire.

4.      Know the media outlet’s demographics and speak to their needs and desires. Be relevant.

5.      Raise an idea, issue or point and back it up with a fact or statistic and a real-life example or analogy.

6.      Practice and have notes to help you get through the interview.

7.      Focus on indentifying your key points and then sharing them at every opportunity.

8.      Ask for an action step, such as giving people a reason to buy your book or go to your Web site.

9.      Go out on a limb -- you have little to lose. You don’t score points for being conservative or reserved. You need to be on the offensive, seizing every opportunity to score a knock out. Act out of a sense of urgency, desperation, and even fear.

10.  Show the benefits of your message. Paint a picture of how you offer a resolution to someone’s problem. You need to create an enemy that only you can defeat.

The media loves a good personality, controversy, news, shock, extremes, oddities and anything that makes you ask questions. Be the guest or interview subject that makes things exciting and amusing.

A media interview is your chance to shine. Say something memorable and people will not only remember it, they will share it, and act on it. Say the norm, the typical, or what everyone else says or expects you to say, and you really say nothing.

An interview with the media is your chance to make an impression, not play it safe. You can’t be defensive or protective. You’ll need to feel the burden of saying something witty, interesting, unusual, or news-worthy, because the truth is you need to move people to buy into your message. You need to tease them into wanting to know more, and to invite them to your world.

Good Luck!

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2013

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