Since the start of December, we’ve been giving a daily media training top tip on Twitter.
To mark the mid-point of our Advent countdown, we’ve wrapped up the first 12 here:
1. Before a TV interview, have someone check your appearance e.g. for chocolate marks from that Advent calendar sweet!
2. Don’t start your answer with, “I think…”; it sounds uncertain.
3. In a crisis, use the interview to convey a helpline number, product recall information etc..
4. Don’t repeat negative phrases from the question – the audience hears damaging words twice.
5. Avoid saying “quite” in print interviews e.g. “quite significant”; the reader can’t tell if it’s negative or positive.
6. Don’t promise information for the journalist by a deadline, if there’s any chance you won’t deliver on time.
7. If you can’t answer the question, say so, but explain why you can’t.
8. In print interviews the last thing said can end up as the headline.
9. Take a card with key stats, phone numbers etc.. into a radio interview.
10. During a radio phone-in refer to a caller by name.
11. Avoid jargon…unless you want to sound out of touch.
12. Don’t be over ambitious in a media interview – distil knowledge into a few points.
Keep checking our tweets @AB_Biz_Training for the final dozen!
