Article at a glance:

• Even the pros occasionally stumble on live TV
• If it happens to you, smile and keep talking.
• Be conscious of your body movements.

It’s bad enough when you stick your foot in your mouth at a dinner party or walk out of the office bathroom with the back of your dress tucked into your underwear (no that wasn’t me, thank goodness). It’s a whole lot worse when your red-faced moment is beamed to thousands – or millions – of television viewers.

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8 Tips for Being a Great TV Talk Show Guest

Article at a glance

• Relax and treat the host like a friend
• Dress in solid, darker colors
• Be an expert guest, not a salesperson

Making your first television appearance as a guest on a news or talk show can be one of the most thrilling, and nerve-wracking, events in your publicity campaign.

Let’s face it – we think TV, we think celebrity. It’s exciting. Ever spot the anchor from your local TV newscast dining in the same restaurant as you? Did you grab your companion’s arm, point, and say, sotto voce, “Look!”?  (Yes, I’m guilty, too.) Read more →

Just last week, I showed you an interview I did with Lisa Hess, our TV campaign manager, about a typical day in her life here at EMSI. In it, we learned a lot of the different things she does in order to get our clients booked. Although I can always count on Lisa to arrange good TV bookings each week, last week she outdid herself with 4 national TV appearances and 5 local TV appearances on network affiliate stations. So I thought it might be helpful as a follow-up to share with you how she got these bookings.

In her world, there are two kinds of pitches that she uses to garner the interest of national TV producers. While national news programs and talk shows tend to follow the news cycle and seasons, they also sometimes respond to a pitch that is more evergreen, a message that’s not tied to the news but is one that’s timeless. However, in order to generate interest on the evergreen pitch, it has to be creative and really offer the viewers some serious added value. Read more →

Every week I write about the things I think can help people do a better job of marketing themselves by using PR. From a purely media standpoint, it makes sense for me to do that. After all, I’m the CEO.  I wrote the book. I’m the expert.

But, I am profoundly proud to say that I am not the only expert. At EMSI we have a team of experts and quite frankly, this team is one of the best I have had in my 21 years of running this business.  The work they do on a daily basis is phenomenal.

I thought I would introduce you to them, one by one, over the summer months, and allow them to tell you about what they do every day to book interviews on radio and TV and obtain print coverage. I believe it can be truly enlightening and helpful for you to learn how they overcome obstacles and meet challenges in order to consistently arrange media day in, day out, week in and week out. Read more →

My Senior Campaign Manager, Tony Panaccio, wrote a great piece the other day about the state of TV advertising and I thought it was so interesting I wanted to share it with you.

Maybe it’s me, but I read something the other day that made me wonder if I’m the only one who doesn’t see the logic here.

The Nielsen Company tracks the audience viewership of TV programs so that programmers and advertisers can get a handle on how many people are watching certain shows. Programmers take that data and figure out how much they’ll charge to advertise on their shows. Of course, they pay attention to key demographics and more granular statistics, but at the end of the day, this is the data that helps them figure out that they’re going to charge $3 million per minute to advertise on The Super Bowl broadcast and $1 – $3.80 per minute on reruns of the recent reboot of Hawaii Five-0. Read more →

For decades, police detective shows have dominated the airwaves. From Dragnet to Hill Street Blues to CSI, people can’t seem to get enough of the good-guys-catching-bad-guys formula. But a long time ago, a veteran police detective told me that most of those shows have no relation to reality. In fact, he said the most realistic TV police show that was ever aired was the long-running sitcom Barney Miller. With a dose of humor and very little drama, that show depicted what really goes on behind the scenes in the police world.

This same problem happens in the public relations industry. I can’t think of any TV show or movie that has ever depicted PR people accurately. What’s more, I think the way PR professionals have been portrayed in popular culture has not only hurt our reputations, but has also provided a very skewed concept of what we actually do. Read more →

Sometimes It’s Not What You Say, But How You Say It

My Senior Campaign Strategist has been speaking for years to groups on the topic of “Tone and Content” as it relates to a successful publicity campaign. Because this information has been of great value to our clients, I wanted to share it with you as well. So, here’s Tony…

After many years in the public relations business, I have discovered that there is at least one unchangeable truth; there are really only two elements to every media interview: tone and content.

I know this sounds something like “inside baseball” theory, so let me explain what I mean. Read more →

There’s More to It than Just Sending Out a Press Release

In the past few months, I’ve covered a lot of ground with regard to how to do your own public relations campaign. I’ve explained how to make yourself or your company appealing to the media, how to write pitches and why articles work better than press releases.

But I haven’t yet explained some crucial elements with regard to orchestrating a PR campaign and more specifically with regard to landing TV appearances. Radio and print publicity definitely require attention to details – but the number of logistical issues you have to deal with for TV exposure is far greater. Read more →

Over the years, I’ve always advised my clients that if you want to get in the news, you have to watch and read the news. I know it sounds a little like “bumper sticker” advice, but it’s really not meant as a sound bite. In fact, we use a practical application of that advice every single morning at our agency.

It’s actually a very simple list of easy steps that anyone can do, and it can get blockbuster results. Read more →

Ever since the days when every TV set was a massive 12 inches, and millions of Americans tuned in to watch I Love Lucy in glorious black and white, television has been in the center of our living rooms.

Today, the screens are larger, the picture is in high-definition color and the programming choices are near infinite. Also, in addition to shows of general interest, there are now literally hundreds of cable network shows that cater to specialized niche markets. Plus, millions are now watching TV shows on their cell phones and computers. All in all, TV viewership continues to soar. Read more →