Snappy Sound Bites will turn a TV appearance into a smash hit
Anyone who wants to be a guest on Oprah or Good Morning America must learn to master the fine art of generating sound bites for television. Television thrives on sound bites, those short, quotable comments that will be repeated over and over on TV news and talk shows. Sound fragments are the pearls that flow from our mouths into the ears of television producers and into the airways.
If you want to be quoted, you need to convert the message points in your book into sound bites. To do this, remember that analogies, bold action words, emotions and personal examples, attacks, and absolutes are good quotes and sound bites. The classic and highly personal sound bite has action, emotion and attacks – all of these elements will work to make reporters swoon.
My experience as a book publisher and marketing consultant has taught me to steer clear of humor, which can be a tricky business. What seems like fun to colleagues, friends, or family at 5:30 pm may not seem as fun the next morning when you read your comments in USA Today. Sarcastic and derisive types of humor do not usually work well in the media because control of the context is lost and, in the case of print media, the ability to communicate with voice and facial expressions is lost. The humor that is most effective is self-deprecating humor.
And you? Are you skilled enough to produce sound bites to win an interview on local or national television? If you haven’t had any media training, trust me, it’s too late once you get the call. You may need to board a car or plane an hour early. It’s too late to get the training then. That is why you must be prepared before receiving the call. When my clients accept media coaching, my first choice for them is TJ Walker, CEO of Media Training Worldwide.
TJ Walker is one of the world’s leading authorities on media training. With more than 20 years of media training experience, Walker has trained thousands of CEOs, authors, and experts, including leading government officials in the United States, European prime ministers, and African diplomats.
Here’s TJ Walker’s sound bite checklist:
1. Create 10, 15 and 30 second sound bites.
2. Work an example on the sound bite.
3. Clichés make good quotes and sound bites. Reporters can’t write cliches, but they love to quote other people using cliches.
4. Humor makes good quotes and sound bites, but the problem with using humor in front of the media is that someone somewhere is likely to be offended, resulting in a permanent public record of your comments. So joke around if you have to, at your own cost and risk.
5. A great way to get reporters to quote your message is to state your ideas in the form of a rhetorical question.
6. Opposition quotes are good quotes and sound bites. Opposition quotes remain a favorite with reporters, but use them only if they are appropriate to your message.
7. The first letters of the following: Analogies, Bold Action, Emotions, Attacks, Clichés, Humor, Pop Culture, Rhetorical Questions, and Opposition Quotes spell out A BEACH PROFESSIONAL. The greater the number of A BEACH PRO items you use, the greater your chances of being cited. If you have not used any A BEACH PRO elements, you will not be quoted.
8. Absolutes are absolutely worth listing. If I say “We’ll be the next champions”, that has a better chance of landing in history than “We’re hoping to win”. Saying “Our company is the best in this field” would be another example.
9. Recycle your quotes. If one worked well with another media interview in the past, use it again.
10. Fill in your quotes with pop culture references.
11. Put analogies in your answers, use bold and action-oriented words, let your emotions flow freely and attack your way to the headlines.
Memorize that checklist, but understand that a sound bite is only one aspect of a successful TV appearance. You also need to be concerned with your total message, the knowledge you display and the self-confidence you display.
As a book publisher, I prepare questions for our clients ahead of time and include them in our press kits emailed to stations. Often times, the TV host will read those questions in order. Other times they refer to our questions and include some of them. This will help you because you will know what to expect and you will be able to respond with the “sound bites” that you have already developed.
The bottom line: Prepare some clever responses and short sound bites ahead of time, rehearse them every day, and you’ll sound like a pro, making your TV appearance a huge hit.