Training for media interviews is essential for everyone who speaks to journalists because so much is at stake. Get it right, and the people who matter to you will get the right message, loud and clear. Get it wrong, and you might stir up a crisis.
The greatest media spokespeople appear natural, relaxed, authoritative, likeable, engaged, controlled and spontaneous. They make their case convincingly and memorably – whether promoting everyday news messages, or managing a full-on crisis.
For a few, it comes naturally. For most, it comes with good media training. Promedia media training builds exactly these skills through high quality intensive interview preparation and coaching, custom-designed for YOU.
A well-delivered interview can convey a persuasive and memorable message to your key audiences and stakeholders.
Broadcast, print and electronic media interviews all have special power because people trust and pay attention to the media they have chosen as their source of information.
Media training helps you make the most of interviews as a powerful tool to shape and influence behavior, understanding and reputation.
Intense media scrutiny is an everyday reality for all companies and organizations with a public profile. You need the skills to deal with it if you want the story to go your way. On the other hand, there is strong competition for valuable media coverage: your competitors and peers want it just as much as you. Journalists are inundated with news choices and skeptical about being used as a channel for publicity. Strong interviews get prominent coverage; weak performers get none at all.
Interviews are unpredictable and unusual situations with special rules and strange dynamics. The greatest spokespeople are great because they media train regularly. They recognize the tricks and traps and know techniques to steer away onto positive ground. Many bright and successful leaders have damaged their organization’s reputation – and their own career – by neglecting to train for interviews.
When a media crisis arises, you will not have time to train and coach spokespeople: they must be out there immediately defending your reputation in challenging media interviews. Media training is a forward-looking investment in preparation for handling issues and responding to specific crises as they occur. Strategic PR Media training is a key part of any good public relations program. Strong spokespeople multiply the value of PR investment by capitalizing on interview opportunities to extract tangible results, from profile and reputation to sales.
Following are the key goals that we target with media training at Promedia for YOU.