While we write fairly regularly about how important it is to simplify your message especially when preparing for media interviews, it isn’t so often that we, the public relations people, are the ones being interviewed by the media.
This was the case a few weeks ago when my colleague and I were contacted by a local business reporter who wanted to interview us about how the digital age has changed public relations. Neither of us knew this particular reporter, but we assumed she was probably pretty savvy about the tools of the Digital Age (as most media folks have to be). So we discussed our “talking points” and thoughts on the subject before heading into the conference room to do the phone interview.
The interview quickly became a great reminder about the importance of knowing your audience and simplifying your message.
Know (and Listen To) Your Audience
The reporter started the interview by letting us know she didn’t have any experience or firsthand knowledge of the tools of the Digital Age. This was pretty much confirmed when she asked us to rank the social media platforms, from one to ten, that we recommend to our clients. (This is an almost impossible task, we explained, as each client is different and has different audiences, marketing goals and objectives—there is no one-size-fits-all ranking of social media tools.)
My colleague and I realized this would need to be a much higher level interview than we had anticipated. We didn’t want to get too detailed or technical in our answers because our audience, in this case the reporter, wasn’t familiar with the subject matter at hand. We would need to help her understand what was most important about this topic in a way that she could clearly write about it after we were done. Our message triangles shifted a bit during the course of the interview.
(Our main point: While the Digital Age has given PR professionals many more tools to work with, new ways to leverage client content, and has changed the way we work, the marketing/PR basics remain the same. Start with a strategy based on research; set your goals/objectives; determine your target audience; and, then identify the tactics or tools you will use to accomplish your goals.)
Cut the Jargon
When you are being interviewed for a trade publication, chances are your interviewer will specialize in that field and, because it’s a trade publication, they will be writing for others within the field. In this instance, some industry jargon is likely to creep into the resulting article. (But this is probably the only time that’s okay.) Otherwise, there really is no good reason to toss jargon into your conversations with reporters.
In the case of the interview we were doing, there would be no discussion of hashtags, inbound marketing, SEO or the like. These are all buzzwords for frequent users of social media and marketing industry insiders. We risked losing the reporter completely if we peppered our conversation with any digital jargon.
Simplify Your Message When You Know Too Much
Our goal throughout the interview was to simplify the message—the thing we coach every client on—so that the reporter, someone not familiar with the industry or its terminology, would be able to take away what was most important for her article and write clearly about it.
We haven’t yet seen the finished article so we don’t know whether we succeeded in simplifying our message, cutting the jargon and sharing in a way that she understood. We haven’t received any follow up calls or questions from her—so maybe that’s a good sign. Or maybe her editor decided to put someone else (with more digital experience and firsthand knowledge) to work on the story.
Photo CC via flickr Lee Morley