This can put you under a lot of pressure – which doesn’t help your performance!  But there are some simple things you can do to help avoid falling into some of the obvious traps.

Don’t rush your radio interview

Even though time is limited and the natural tendency may be to speak as quickly as possible in order to get your message across, this can have an adverse effect.  If you speak too quickly on radio the following things may happen

• You will trip up over your words
• You will um and err
• You will ramble on and on………….

Tips for sounding clear in your radio interview

It’s important to sound clear and succinct on radio as any hesitancies are emphasised on air and they are an immediate switch off for the radio audience.  To help achieve this when you are being interviewed you need to speak at the correct speed without rushing.  To help speak at the right speed try to follow the following points:

• Speak in short sentences – one thought per sentence.
• Take time over the first three words of the sentence – so that you don’t rush into the sentence.
• Don’t rush any syllables – make sure each syllable in the word is pronounced.

By adopting these three vocal techniques, you will feel in more control of your voice so that you don’t speak too fast or too slow.  You will sound clear, and your voice will have the required energy needed to sound interesting on the radio.

Listen to the radio interviewer – don’t panic!

It can be especially nerve racking when you are waiting to be interviewed on ‘live’ radio. 

There is that awkward moment when you are waiting for the radio presenter / interviewer to speak to you.  The nerves can build up while you are waiting.  

So use this time to focus on what the presenter is saying before he/she gets to your interview.  You may pick up on some useful information or background context to the interview topic that you can use in your responses to the questions you get asked.

Contolling nerves in your radio interview

Listening is also a very effective way to help control nerves and prepare your responses to questions. 

More often though, we tend to start planning our responses to the question rather than just focus on the question in hand.  So when you are being asked a question by the radio presenter, to help listen carefully, try to do the following:

• Don’t butt in to the question – wait for the presenter to finish asking the question before you respond
• Focus on understanding the question, rather than rehearsing your response in your head
• Buy yourself time at the start of your response with a phrase such as “that’s a very interesting question” – if you need time to think about how to start your answer

These listening techniques will help you to stay calm and prepare your response to the question.

Keep your radio interviews interesting to your audience!

It’s easy to lose energy in your voice when you are being interviewed on radio.  Nerves can make a voice tense and dull.

And even though you may only be speaking for a very short amount of time, the need to maintain an interesting voice is very important. 

To help achieve this, try the following techniques when you speaking on the radio:

• Telling a story – if you imagine each of your responses are a short story – this will automatically inject more energy and expression into your voice
• Emphasise important words – these are the key words that make up the essence of your sentences and will help you to sound more convincing
• Smile – when you smile your voice smiles and it comes across more appealing and personable to the listeners.

Pactise beforehand and develop your media interview skills

You can also practise these three vocal techniques beforehand – so that it becomes natural to speak in this way when you are being interviewed on the radio.

It is common to feel nervous about being interviewed on the radio.  But by using the techniques we have discussed in this article, you don’t have to fear messing up your interview.   So, to help give successful radio interviews remember to:

• Avoid rushing
• Be clear and succinct
• Listen carefully
• Maintain your energy

These simple but effective radio techniques will help you to stay in control of the interview and deliver your responses with confidence and impact.

Media Training from Skillstudio

If you want some expert coaching to ensure you excel at your next media interview and get the media exposure you actually want then Skillstudio are there to help you:-

Executive Media Training & Coaching  – 121 Coaching
Half day or full day, 121 coaching and training in Media Interview Skills by an expert trainer.  Held throughout the UK and always tailored exactly to your personal requirements.

Media Training Courses  – Public Courses
This is a two-day, highly interactive public workshop designed to build your confidence and the critical media skills required to ensure success at your next media interview. Its held regularly in Central London.

Media Interview Training Course  – In-House Workshops
We can also run our 2-day media interview skills workshop for your organisation on an in-house basis at your premises throughout the UK and Europe.

Call us today on 08456 444 150 if you want to discuss how our training can help you excel at your next media interview.

We hope you found this media skills article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.   And good luck with your next interview!

Media Skills – Tips for Radio Interviews is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

However, although you may know your subject well and have no difficultly in being interviewed in a face to face conversation, when there is a camera in front of you, tensions can set in and you may come across more stilted and hesitant. This means that you are unlikely to present yourself or your company/organisation in the best possible light. So how you avoid this happening at your next media interview?

Prepare yourself beforehand

You may feel nervous before your television or camera interview and nerves can prevent you from coming across relaxed and professional, so it’s important to spend a few moments to work through a few relaxation techniques beforehand.

Take a few deep breaths before you start – focusing on breathing out for as long as possible, to help control any hidden tensions in the body that may interfere with your voice and body language.

Stay neutral in your media interview

Remember that your media interviewer and audience will pick up on your body language and make judgements about you and how you are coming across. Your face is a strong focal point on camera – and so any facial expressions you make will send out strong signals.

It’s important therefore to control your facial expression so that you don’t show any emotions that you don’t wish the interviewer or audience to see.

Frowning on camera

Frowning is a natural facial reaction that occurs when you are concentrating on a question or thinking about your response. However, to your media interviewer or audience, frowning sends out certain negative vibes. The interviewer may think you have been riled by the question and they will exploit this further – to try to get you to say things that you don’t want to.

To your audience, frowning gives the impression that you are not in total control of the situation – maybe you don’t know how to answer the questions and you don’t have the necessary expertise.

Camera control technique for successful media interviews

So how do you avoid frowning when the natural tendency is to do so? The way to control it is to replace it with something else that you can use when you are feeling tense. To do this you need to make a conscious effort not to frown and instead adopt a calm, neutral face when you are listening to the question. Try the following exercise to help you master this technique.

• Stand in front of a mirror and make a strong frown which you hold for 5 seconds
• Then release the frown and imagine that you are smoothing out your forehead
• Feel the difference between the frown and the smooth position
• Repeat a few times until you are used to the smooth position

Having done this a few times you will get used to taking on the smooth position so that you can adopt it when you would normally feel a frown coming on. You can then apply this technique when you are being interviewed to help you avoid frowning on camera.

Make the most of your media exposure on camera

Media Interviews on camera are normally very short and it’s easily to find that you have finished before you’ve managed to get your message across properly.

To help avoid this it’s important to prepare as much as possible so that you plan what you want to say.

Key Message for your media iterview

Your key message is the one most important thing that you want to say in your media interview. Work it out your before your interview and learn it off by heart. To make sure that it has the desired impact make sure that your key message is:

• Clear and succinct
• Easy to say
• Is reflected in your face as well as your voice.

To help achieve the above three points you need to learn your key message off by heart and practise it in front of a mirror. Once you’ve learnt it off by heart, try to say it with your face only – to see what sort of expression you want to convey on camera. This is important as if your face doesn’t match your words, your will lack conviction on camera.

By rehearsing your key message beforehand, this will help you to incorporate it into your responses to some of the questions you are asked. Try to deliver your key message near the start of the interview and at the end – to ensure that everyone remembers it.

Being interviewed on camera by the media can be a daunting experience especially if you are inexperienced. But with a little preparation beforehand, you can learn how to convey a confident and professional manner for all media interviews on camera.

Media Training from Skillstudio

If you want some expert coaching to ensure you excel at your next media interview and get the media exposure you actually want then Skillstudio are there to help you:-

Executive Media Training & Coaching  – 121 Coaching
Half day or full day, 121 coaching and training in Media Interview Skills by an expert trainer.  Held throughout the UK and always tailored exactly to your personal requirements.

Media Training Courses  – Public Courses
This is a two-day, highly interactive public workshop designed to build your confidence and the critical media skills required to ensure success at your next media interview. Its held regularly in Central London.

Media Interview Training Course  – In-House Workshops
We can also run our 2-day media interview skills workshop for your organisation on an in-house basis at your premises throughout the UK and Europe.

Call us today on 08456 444 150 if you want to discuss how our training can help you excel at your next media interview.

We hope you found this media skills article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.   And good luck with your next interview!

Media Coach Tips for a TV or Video Interview is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

The exposure the media can give you and your company is enormous and equivalent to thousands of pounds worth of advertising. For this reason it is worth being prepared so you can make the most of what is essentially a golden opportunity.

Why are Media Interviews a Challenge?

When we talk to the media we are required to use all our personal style and communication skills to put over our message clearly and effectively. For anyone who has had experience of this will know that it is not an easy thing to do, even for the professionals, as it requires extensive preparation and more specialised communication skills than we use normally.

Below are some of the fundamental rules to follow when giving a media interview:

Media interviews are never neutral

The journalist will always have their own perspective, so you need to make sure you have your own angle. You will need to think about who your audience is – find out when the interview will be aired or published and consider who may be watching, listening or reading.

Try to identify the issues and subjects that will most appeal to your audience. Television, radio and print interviewers are often focused on presenting a lively, entertaining article/program – not on promoting you or your company. If your angle can fulfill the journalists brief as well as your own, then you have more chance of succeeding in getting across the message you want.

Preparation is vital for your next media interview

Do your preparation thoroughly and try to cover who, what, when, how and why. Be confident in your knowledge, you should know your subject better than the journalist. Make sure you have prepared some notes on the subject you will be talking about before the interview.

If a journalist comes on the phone for an immediate quote spend at least a few minutes preparing your ground before you call them back. Try to anticipate what questions the journalist is likely to ask you and rehearse your replies.

Learn to Speak in Sound bites

Because of the nature of media interviews being in very short segments, it is good to come up with short statements or phrases (sound bites) around which you can build your interview. Most audiences will only remember 2 or 3 statements so it is best to work on a maximum of 3 sound bites.

Work on making your sound bites memorable; try using: Strong emotions, analogies, quotes, bold actions or statements, or rhetorical questions. A good test of the effectiveness of your sound bite is, does it answer the “So what?” question. The more succinct you are the more memorable you will be to your audience.

The 3 main Principles

Be confident in what you are saying – You are the expert after all and the audience/readers want to feel that they can trust what you are saying.

Use a concise and conversational style – Try not to patronise, lecture or get too technical.

Keep control – Use sound bites, stick to your prepared plan and make sure you get your pre determined message across.

About the author of this Media Skills Article

This article was written by James, one of Skillstudio’s consultant trainers. 

James is based in London, is an excellent trainer; and runs many of our media, presentation and interview skills training sessions (from 1-2-1 coaching through to Masterclasses). 

Read more about James here.

Media Coaching from Skillstudio

If you’d like James or one of our other media coaches to help ensure you excel at your next media interview and get the media exposure you actually want then Skillstudio are there to help.  We provide:-

Media Interview Training & Coaching  – 121 Coaching
Half day or full day, 121 coaching and training in Media Interview Skills by an expert media coach.  Held in London,  Reading, Oxford, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and throughout the UK and always tailored exactly to your personal requirements.

Media Training Courses  – Public Courses
This is a two-day, highly interactive public workshop designed to build your confidence and the critical media skills required to ensure success at your next media interview. Its held regularly in Central London and Birmingham.

Media Interview Training Course  – In-House Workshops
We can also run our 2-day media interview skills workshop for your organisation on an in-house basis at your premises throughout the UK and Europe. Our in-house workshops can also be tailored to your specific needs – both in terms of content and duration.

Call us today on 08456 444 150 if you want to discuss how our training can help you excel at your next media interview.

We hope you found this article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.   And good luck with your next interview!

Face the Media with Confidence – a Media Coach Writes is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.

Managing the Media

The prospect of being faced with a media interview – whether it is with the print media, radio or television, can be rather daunting. Common concerns you may have are:

• You will be mis-quoted
• You wont be able to get your message across properly
• You will be made to look stupid
• You wont make the best of the situation

The worst thing you can do is just try to ‘wing it’ on the day, especially if you are not used to being interviewed. Preparation beforehand is important, so that you can be ready for whatever questions you are asked and you are able to respond in a way that promotes yourself, your company or organisation in the best possible light.

Know your facts

You may be an expert on the topic that you are going to be interviewed on but it is also important to have your facts ready to hand when questioned, as when nerves kick in it’s easy for your mind to go blank. Key facts that may be useful to refer to are facts concerning your:

• Company/organisation
• The product or service you provide
• Financial information
• Current issues concerning your sector etc.

It is useful to prepare a factsheet to help you remember the most important detail to use in the media interview. You will then be more likely to provide an accurate and clear response when you are questioned on points such as turnover, how long your company has been trading for, how many employees your company has etc.

Know your media audience

A journalist will always be thinking about their audience and what story their audience will be interested in, so it’s also worth you considering this. The more you understand the intended audience, what they are interested in and what are their main issues, the better you will come across in the media interview.

Think about the language you use in the interview- avoid any jargon or abbreviations that your audience will be unfamiliar with. Make it interesting and remember that most interviews are very short, so keep your sentences succinct to avoid waffling on.

Anticipation

Some interviewers act like interrogators who are out to give you a hard time. The key here is to anticipate the difficult questions you may get asked. Think about any current contentious issues that have been recently highlighted in the media.

Write down as many difficult questions as you can think of. Then consider how you might respond to these questions in a positive light. Write down your responses as well. The more you do this, the more equipped you will be to manage any hostility by your interviewer in a calm, measured and confident way.

Your Key Message

It’s easy to allow yourself to get sidetracked in a media interview, especially if you are inexperienced and the interviewer is experienced at manipulating the situation. That’s why it’s important that you establish your key message beforehand. This is the most important message that you want to get across to the audience in the interview.

To help establish a powerful key message – here are some guidelines to follow:

• It should be simple – the one most important idea you want to convey
• It should be succinct – so that it’s easy to remember and easy to communicate.
• It should be memorable – with words or phrases that grab the audience attention

A media interview doesn’t have to be something to dread. With the right preparation it can be a very positive experience and a great way to promote yourself and what you do to a much larger audience.

Media Training from Skillstudio

If you want some expert coaching to ensure you excel at your next media interview and get the media exposure you actually want then Skillstudio are there to help.  We provide:-

Executive Media Training & Coaching  – 121 Coaching
Half day or full day, 121 coaching and training in Media Interview Skills by an expert trainer.  Held throughout the UK and always tailored exactly to your personal requirements.

Media Training Courses  – Public Courses
This is a two-day, highly interactive public workshop designed to build your confidence and the critical media skills required to ensure success at your next media interview. Its held regularly in Central London and Birmingham.

Media Interview Training Course  – In-House Workshops
We can also run our 2-day media interview skills workshop for your organisation on an in-house basis at your premises throughout the UK and Europe.

Call us today on 08456 444 150 if you want to discuss how our training can help you excel at your next media interview.

We hope you found this article useful

Please use the buton below to bookmark this page as a favourite, email it or share it with friends or colleagues.   And good luck with your next media interview!

How to Improve Your Media Skills is one of many articles from Skillstudio Limited providing expert help, tips & advice on how to improve your business communication skills. See Skillstudio Help & Advice for the full list of articles.