You might have heard the statistic that 95% of all communication is nonverbal; that is to say, your body language and vocal tonality convey far more information than the literal meanings of your spoken words. From a public relations perspective, you might have the most logically persuasive arguments which advocate the strengths of your new product or service, but if you’re mentioning them with a jittery vocal delivery and weak eye contact, your potential clients are hardly going to be enthused.
With the presence of a camera, conveying yourself in a positive light is even more important, and ironically, all the more challenging because you’re conscious of this fact! Fortunately, there are numerous ways in which you can beat the jitters and deliver a confident interview, allowing you to deal diplomatically with tough questions and convey all key pieces of information exactly as you intended.
Be prepared, be very prepared
It goes without saying, if you’re expecting to be interviewed, you better know your stuff! Let’s say that your company is exhibiting at a trade show and you’re expecting to be interviewed by a leading industry periodical regarding the recent launch of your new product. By the end of your preparations, you should have a comprehensive understanding of the technical specifications of your product, including all USPs and other advantages. You should also have a very good prediction for how the product will fit into (and hopefully revolutionise) the market place.
If you’re asked about the key advantages of your product, you should have a sentence memorised which explains them clearly and succinctly. You shouldn’t be coming up with the advantages on the spot – this might lead to you kicking yourself when you watch the interview at a later date and see that you forgot some of the most important ones. Likewise, you should have a supremely polished answer for questions regarding why people should pick your product over the offerings from your competitors. Basically, all eventualities should be covered. If you’re struggling to predict the kind of questions that you might get asked, it might pay to have a brainstorm with a few colleagues to get some fresh perspectives.
This isn’t to say that you will be immune from receiving a curve-ball during an interview, but it certainly helps to ease the nerves if you’ve prepared as much as possible.
There’s nothing wrong with a dress rehearsal
Unless you’re used to being in front of the camera, there is probably a significant disconnect between the way you think you’re coming across and the way that you’re actually perceived. Why not recruit a colleague or two and have a recorded test run of the interview? You could even ask your colleague to be as difficult as possible when conducting the interview – this will help you to assess your ability at handling challenging questions on the fly.
The biggest advantage of practising the interview on camera is that you become more conscious of your sub-communications; especially the behaviours that don’t present you in a good light, such as: touching your face repeatedly, looking to the ground or saying “um” and “err” in between sentences. Practising also allows you to perfect the nuances of your delivery so that you can confidently drive home the most important pre-prepared facts with ease.
Most importantly – relax!
Remember to loosen up – being relaxed is important for giving a confident interview. There is a fine line between being professionally formal and being so rigid that you come across as inexpressive and awkward. Breathe deeply and at a steady rate, and loosen up your body language so that you’re open and welcoming instead of closed off and contracted. Believe it or not, the way you hold yourself actually has an impact on your psychological state; so by adopting the body language of a relaxed person, you actually become more relaxed.
These are just some of the basics. If you’d like to do a bit better during media interviews, you may consider contacting Fortune PR for some media interview training. Our specialised services will provide you with tailor-made, transformative advice to help you convey yourself in the best possible way during media interviews.
(Photo by www.audio-luci-store.it)
Tags: media interviews
