Knowing Why Your PR Success Relies on a Solid Sound Bite
The first thing that we need to talk about here is how important it is to develop a good lift speech, or elevator speech as it is sometimes called. This is a short 15 to 30 second speech that sells your points in a clear and concise manner that is still very convincing.
This concept comes from a role-playing set-up. In this case you are imagining that you suddenly find yourself in a lift with the very person you have been dying to impress. Now you have about 20 seconds to make that all-important first impression.
Ready?
Go!
Now, if you are already familiar with sound bites, then this concept is along the same lines. The main difference between the two is that a sound bite is a 5 to 10 second summary of your main point. Basically you need to get right into the meat of what you are trying to pitch with your story. The whole idea is that you want a quick blurb, one that can be used by the media, mainly in radio and TV formats. A lift speech is a bit longer, but the goal of each of these tools is to quickly cover and then sell your information.
Lets take a look at the two biggest reasons why your organization must develop a catchy sound bite in order to be competitive.
1) Media Time Restrictions
The number one thing that you are competing for here is time. Time is an important factor both when you first pitch your story and then also when you actually land that sought after interview spot. Remember that there are a lot of stories out there and each and every one of them is competing for the very same chunk of time. Think about it this way. Most major nightly news programs have only 30 minutes to cover the news for the entire world.
Well, that’s not entirely true. First you have to take out about 19 minutes for commercials, and then another 10 for sports and weather. When you take out all the international stories you are left with about 8 minutes. Of that only 1 to 4 minutes will be devoted entirely to Australian news. So, now do you understand why you have to keep things short?
Now, lets say that you have done your homework and played your cards just right. You have your time in front of the camera. Whatever the circumstances, you now have to make the best of it. A microphone is waving in front of your face and they want to hear what you have to say.
But again, how much time do you really have? Even if they interview you for a full 20 minutes only one or two short “grabs” may actually be used. You have to be ready with your sound bite; because chances are that’s all people will ever get the chance to hear.
2) The Competition
Now remember that short window of time that we talked about? All the news on any given day is in direct competition for its time in that window. By opening up with a well thought out sound bite you can help position your story above the rest.
There are so many things that happen on a given day that no one ever hears about. They get thrown by the way side because of bigger catchier events. This may be because they are not newsworthy enough, but it might also be due to the fact that their pitches are not good enough.
You have to take into account that your story is in direct competition with natural disasters, wars, celebrity gossip, and any number of other top events.
So what do you have that they don’t? If you can’t answer this question then you may need to go back to the drawing board and do some more work.
Here is another example for you. Imagine that you are in a newsroom. Each and everyday the staff there has to sort through piles of press releases and then narrow them down to about 30 that they might choose to air that day. Now those 30 stories have to go through another round of cuts where the field will be narrowed again down to just around a dozen. And by the time that you make it to the actual broadcast only about 6 of those original stories will ever see air time.
With these kinds of time restrictions in place, if you can’t make your point clearly and quickly by constructing an attention grabbing sound bite then you will never succeed in getting your message in front of the public eye. This is why it is so imperative to work out your sound bite before you ever land the first interview. You will have one shot, one, and that is if you’re lucky. If you don’t seize that opportunity then you may never get a second one. Then all the hard work and time that you have put into your project will be for nothing. Remember, 5 to 10 seconds is about 30 words, so choose them carefully and make them count.
Don’t be scared by all this. Think about it like the competition it is and then play to win. You can do the work, and you can make yourself heard. Just take the time to prepare and think before you open your mouth to answer the first question.
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