One of the most common questions I get is, “How can I get on the TV?” My answer is always the same: “Why?”
Why do you want to be on the TV? What is it that makes you want to be seen and heard in this way? And are you realistic about the chances?
TV coverage is often seen as the pinnacle of success in the world of the media, and it’s easy to see why. It is the most powerful medium available to us, and it has an impact and a potentially huge reach. For our potential clients, it hits all of our communication senses all at once — we see, hear, and feel all at the same time. With TV, there’s no hiding place.
We only have to think about movie stars and TV celebrities to understand the impact they can have on an individual’s profile. These can build a staircase to success or fame — and also can be a very quick way to fall back down that staircase.
These days, though, we have the ability to create a “TV persona” via the wonderful business tool called social media — you can actually create your own TV show and curate your own audience yourself through YouTube, TikTok, or other very visual tools.
Traditional TV is hard to reach because the stories they are interested in must be relevant, topical, interesting, and visual. The latter is the most important thing. You must be able to demonstrate what can be SEEN, and you must accept that your judgment around what makes a story is not the judgment that matters — what matters is what the news editor of the day thinks is of interest.
My first tip is this – if you truly want to have any hope of coverage on TV, you have to ask yourself why.
If it’s because you want to sell more stuff, then you will have to buy space. When I was in Las Vegas last year, many companies did this, particularly companies offering legal advice and selling cars. This is costly, but its impact may make the cost worth it.
If you want something more organic, then you have to build up to this organically by positioning yourself as an expert on certain topics that keep cropping up. As I’ve said before, news is a cycle, and certain things will come up again and again. Noticing this and planning to be seen and heard around these topics is an important step.
What might these topics be? They will often revolve around lifestyle, health, education, sport, and animals, far more than around business or other expertise such as leadership, transformation, or business growth. For TV news editors, much business expertise is as dry as an old bone. Therefore, TV works much better for some experts than others.
For example, experts who can talk about recurring themes tend to have more opportunities. Such themes might be:
- Crime – commenting on big cases and what they illustrate.
- Weather – most local TV channels are obsessed with it.
- Parenting
- Health
- Care – particularly social care.
- Education – examinations time, back to school, off to college.
- Animals
- Sport
To cultivate these opportunities, you can make yourself very visible in your community around your expertise. You do that by “doing things” and also by talking about what you are doing. You need to do this consistently and creatively — and we call this the media element of “PR.”
As with many business disciplines, this requires patience, investment, and time. If you are impatient and have deep pockets, you can short-circuit this by buying up advertising space on local, regional, or national TV.
If not, start by paying attention to what your channel of choice is actually featuring — what stories are they telling? What events are they hosting? What experts are they featuring? And then ask, “Where do I fit in all of that?”
TV channels know their audiences really well, and they will cater to that audience, so if you watch “Dog Racing Daily” (made up name), they are not going to be interested in your business around cats. So be realistic.
If you do fit, then follow them on social media and pay attention to the moments when they do a “shout out” for voices — as most do. And be ready to help when you “fit” the brief or help if you know someone else who fits a brief. Be a very helpful person.
Also, get comfortable being recorded on camera. It’s not as easy as it looks for everyone. Like all things, it requires practice, and the only way to learn is to actually do it! It helps to offer yourself as an expert if you can include a couple of YouTube or Vimeo links to share your expertise. It shows commitment, expertise, fluency, articulation, and character.
