Getting Media Interviews and High Google Key Word recognition

My friend Diane has wonderful Grits Bits cookies she sells in Gift Stores and Gourmet Shops. She is getting ready to do media interviews on National Grits Day on April 14^th.   She is a savvy sales person and marketer and wanted some tips on getting media interviews.  Here are some rough notes I just sent her.

 

I just Goggled National Grits day to see what came up. I want to see your name on that first page!  You’re the grits expert you deserve to be there.

If you have a YouTube channel, Blog or website I would suggest you write or  video tape something fun each day on Grits and include the words National Grits day and your name a few times in each entry.

Perhaps grits humor,

Your favorite grits stories.

Videos of people eating grits for the first time or having your grits bits

recipes, ways to celebrate the day.

You’re a wonderful song writer who has written hit songs, perhaps you can make up a grits song and have you and your daughter sing it with the dog watching while wearing a bib and eating grits?

List restaurants that have the best grits like South City Kitchen in Atlanta and Wahoos in Decatur.  See if the restaurants will mention you in their newsletter or website. I know there are other restaurants in other cities that have that as a specialty so you could list them as well.

You honey, Jeff has his wonderful comedy website and all those comedy class students that go to his site. Can Jeff ask for grits jokes on his site and mention you?

Can your daughters tweet about you and grits for the next two weeks?

Do you want to send a link for me to put on my blog? 

 

Get the key words “ National Grits day, eating Grits, What are grits?” associated with your name so when journalist get your press release and Google you and or the words National Grits day you are all over the place?

What's your advice for getting calm and relaxed before public speaking or an important meeting? One night when I was in Grad School I was nervously going over material for my first presentation on to my body language professor, He was the expert in my chosen field and I kept imagining myself messing up forgetting what I wanted to say and not being able to answer any of the professors question. My boy friend Michael came in my office. He realized I was a nervous wreck, He said, “Patti, you know in college I was sold books door to door in the summer and I was the top sales men for the company. When I started I imagined I was going to fail, I rehearsed my failure, that I wouldn’t know what to say or not be able to answer questions. But I learned from my boss to visualize my success. Michael sat me down and had me visualize my presentation. I rehearsed my successful speech from the start to finish, what I would do nonverbally how I would stand how brilliant I would sound, how the audience would smile and nod their heads, How brilliant I would be, how the professor would praise me and the audience would give round of applause. From that day on I have visualized my success the night before every single speech or TV interview. It makes an enormous difference in my confidence level. When I am traveling and giving a speech I like to see the banquet room the night before so I can see myself and the audience in the actual room, when I am going on TV I watch the show or ask the producer about the set were I will be sitting.

How do you deal with remote media interviews?
Another body language difficulty comes when you’re interviewed remotely and you are talking to a camera and forced to interact with it as if it was a person. That took me awhile to get used to and the bright lights in your eyes in those remote shoots will tend to make you blink. Prepare for those interviews as well so you can stay looking at the camera and smiling and nodding your head and leaning forward to it in response to the interviewer. Again just as if it was a person. Story about Wrigley gum, Story about Pup-peroni.

To help you be aware of your body language and insure you are in sync in a media interview?
Practice answering the questions out loud. Don’t just read them off your computer silently. Use you’re the video device on your computer or phone to record your answers so you see and hear your responses and can self monitor. In my experience most journalist and producers have very short deadlines, sometimes only 4 or 5 minute deadlines before they have to move on the cover the next story so you need to practice answering questions quickly for TV and Radio you need to practice giving not only quick clear responses but also one sentence rather than a paragraph response. That is the part that I find is difficult for my media coaching clients. They want to explain their answers or add on to them and in a live broadcast there is not time for that. So if you haven’t practiced giving short answers you can get flustered as most hosts want to keep the pace of the show going and will interrupt you or jump in with a pithy comment if your don’t give them a high energy quick response. So Practice responding to questions with one sentence and watch your mouth and eyes on the tape to make sure your expression and tone match the word message. Someone experts look to the host to for feedback that they have done a good job or make a face if they feel they didn’t give a great answer or if they are interrupted. You need to make sure your face stays still or shows interest in the conversation when you finish speaking. I can’t tell you how many times I see guests face scrunch up after they finish talking.

How do you deal with stressful media interviews?
When I am working with my media coaching clients I help them prepare. You need to prepare answers for all the questions you can possibly be asked,
Make sure you also brainstorm all the questions you hope they won’t ask and prepare a response for those tough questions as well.

What kind of body language exudes confidence and approachability in an interview or meeting? Prepare. Find out if you are going to standing or sitting and if you’re sitting if you will be on a stool, chair or sofa. Ideally you want your body to be relaxed and open. You want to show your confidence by taking up space leaning backwards and forwards as the interview or meeting goes on rather than freezing or planting in one fixed pose.