When you break it down, typically you have only 8 seconds to get your point across during a broadcast news clip. That's not a lot of time. All too often people waste the opportunity to deliver their key messages (often referred to as talking points) effectively during a broadcast interview.
It makes me cringe when I hear someone answer a
journalist with a simple "yes" or "no" answer and don't use the the question as an opportunity to answer with a statement on who they are & their mission.
It makes me even more nuts when a spokesperson uses the interview to talk about their emotions towards a particular topic. What a waste of an opportunity to hear a sound byte such as "I am so excited," or "this is awesome."
It's OK to show some emotion as long as you do it before or after stating one of your talking points. Like this... "I am blown away by amount of support that we received today by the local community. The ADA relies on # volunteers each year to help raise the money needed for diabetes research and advocacy programs." The first sentence in this example is based on emotion and the second includes a key message about volunteers and the mission of the organization.
A good way to evaluate your interview is to ask yourself if the audience is now equipped with new information that they can act upon. If the answer is no, then you better pick up the phone and arrange for a session with media coach.
I heard a great interview on the NPR Toronto radio today. Living in Upstate New York, I sometimes pick up Canadian air waves. The topic of the interview was heart disease. The radio personality asked the guest on the show, a woman who represented a local Canadian organization that supported research programs for heart disease, why should woman be concerned about heart disease. The guest began answering the question by explaining what organization she represented, their mission and capabilities, startling facts about heart disease and then finished up by answering the question with statistics on women & heart disease. She got all of this information across in about 4 sentences. Pretty good, huh? I think so!
This is a great example. The spokeswoman shared with her audience three key messages before answering the question. So if for some reason the interview was cut short after one question, it would still be considered effective.
The interviewee did not leave it up to interviewer to ask all the "right" questions that would allow her to deliver all the key messages. Chances are they won't get asked about it, because only you are aware of the key messages that you want to get across in a particular interview. It's up to you to fit them in throughout the interview, or to work with a media coach that will help you to do so.
You should be prepared to share three to five key messages in a given interview depending on the length of it. Use them repeatedly throughout the interview, because if it's not a live interview you never know which portion of your interview will air.
Remember key messages include relevant information that is going to be beneficial to your audience and attract them to you, your product or service, a topic that will be viewed as newsworthy by the media, and representative of who you are and your purpose.
Test yourself! The next time your interview airs, count how many key messages that you were able to express during the interview and how many times.
I challenge you to start working on developing effective key message for your organization.
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