Therapist Media Cheat Sheet: Building Your Practice Through TV Interviews

If you got an email today from a local news station asking to interview you as an expert on camera about one of your specialty areas for a news story, how would you respond? Surprisingly, many therapists let the opportunity to speak on camera for a large audience pass them by because of their own anxieties and insecurities about being on camera. Landing interviews on local news and talk shows allows thousands of people "get to know you," hear about your areas of expertise, and become aware of your private practice.

In my experience, the most effective marketing and public relations opportunities for my private practice are the ones I don't have to pay for, where someone else is featuring me as an expert, where I can reach thousands and thousands of people in one shot with accurate information, and where I can let them know that I am in private practice. Several years ago I decided I wanted to not just accept invitations to interview on TV but to actively seek them out and gain media experience. Over the past few years I've become a regular contributor on Utahs #1 women's lifestyle show KSL TV's Studio 5, as well as being interviewed frequently for various news stories. Here are a few things I've learned in the process to help you land local TV interviews in your area in order to educate your community and to draw potential clients to your private practice.

1) Know what's 'newsworthy'

When pitching stories or interview topics to local TV stations it's crucial to know what they're looking for. The fact that you're going into private practice specializing in family therapy isn't newsworthy, but news and other TV shows might be interested in getting your thoughts on a new study showing how cultivating self-compassion helps individuals manage divorce. Last week I was invited to share my thoughts on KSL TV evening news on the topic of interest to families - "Can a playground be too safe?" This story was prompted by a recent story published in the New York Times.

MediaCollege.com defines a story as newsworthy if it has the following characteristics:

Timing - News is all about stories that are current and new. Significance - Something that affects large numbers of people. Proximity - An event happening close to home. Prominence - Involves someone famous or well-known. Human Interest - Appeals to emotion, novel, off-beat, interesting.

• Watch national news headlines. Pitch a local spin on those stories to local TV producers.
• Suggest seasonal topics. Pitch interviews around managing holiday stress, or Halloween safety tips for children in October.
• New research is "news." Keep an eye out for interesting research that's relevant to your practice and offer to interview.

2) Know how to write a press release

When pitching to media you need to speak their language, which means learning how to write a press release.

• A press release needs to be in a specific press release format. Here's an excellent example at EReleases.com.
• Read other releases. Here's a release I helped one of my therapists at Wasatch Family Therapy, LLC write last week based on her dissertation research, Mean Girls Get Married: Teens Don't Always Grow Out of Mean Girl Behavior and End Up Using Emotional Manipulation On Spouse.
• Don't send attachments. When you email it to local news and TV producers cut and paste it in the body of the email, and do not send as an attachment.

3) Know how to make their job easier

TV reporters, producers, and journalists are extremely busy and always on a deadline. They don't have time to calm your anxiety or to walk you through the interview process.

• Respond ASAP to interview requests. If you get contacted by your local media respond immediately or the opportunity will pass you by. Decide ahead that you'll say "yes."
• Send only relevant information. Highlight the most important information you'd like to talk about and a brief line or two about you and your practice or your basic message (remember my elevator speech posts?). Through a brief stint as a producer and host of a local lifestyle TV show I learned what makes a good and a difficult interviewee. One of the hardest parts of screening potential guests was skimming through too much information hunting for the relevant points.
• Limit your correspondence. Respect the reporter, journalist or producers time. Though getting a TV interview might be a big deal for us, as the therapist, it's just one of many details they are trying to juggle.
• Do your homework. Understand the demographic for a given newscast or TV show so you can pitch relevant and helpful topics.

In upcoming articles I'll give tips on how to look and sound good on camera, how to maximize your TV interviews to draw potential clients to your practice, and tips to turn a one time TV appearance into a regular gig.

Have you been on local TV? I'd love to hear about your experience. How did it go? What do you wish you'd known beforehand? If you have any questions for me feel free to comment below or ask me on Twitter @Julie_Hanks or contact me directly here.

Overcoming Blogophobia (part 2): Quick and Easy Blog Post Ideas

Are you a beginning blogger feeling overwhelmed by the thought of coming up with original content to write about on a regular basis? I have some good news for you! Much of what is posted online is not entirely original content. Braden Talbot posted this insightful comment on my post  5 Tips To Overcoming blogophobia.

Once you understand that 99% (if not 100%) of information [posted on blogs] isn't really new, it’s not so scary.

The new part is your story and your spin and you’d be amazed at how many people are interested to hear it.

Adding your perspective on existing information makes blogging less overwhelming. I'm not talking about plagiarism here. I'm talking about using other people's ideas, books, posts, videos as a springboard to sharing your perspective on a particular topic. Remember, always credit the original author you are citing and provide links to the original work.

Here are some easy blog content ideas and examples to help spark your creativity, help you overcome "blogophobia", and add blogging to your private practice marketing strategy.

1) Share a video

Embed or share a video link that explains or expands on some aspect of your therapy work, your philosophy, or approach. Pick one of your favorite psychology "gurus" and write a brief paragraph about how this model or theory informs your clinical work. Here's a video from a brilliant psychologist who has revolutionized couples therapy that I recently shared on my clinic blog.

What is a healthy marriage? video by Dr. Sue Johnson

2) Bulleted or numbered lists

Give quick nuggets of advice or recommend resources that speak to your ideal client in a bulleted or numbered list. For example -- Top 5 parenting books, 6 ways to survive new parenthood, 5 things never to say to your teen, or 10 tips for managing depression. Here's a great post in this style from PsychCentral's Therese J Borchard.

5 Ways to Silence Your Inner Critic By Therese J. Borchard

3) Summarize relevant research

Watch for new and interesting research studies, summarize the research, and share why it's relevant to your practice. Here's a recent example of a research summary post from PsychCentral News.

Attention Problems Limit School Success By Rick Nauert PhD

4) Q & A

Solicit questions on social media sites, on your website, or make up the question based on commonly asked questions or themes drawn from your clinical practice and provide answers. This fun and informative style provides practical information and tools for potential clients and helps them understand your therapy style and philosophy.

For the past 10 years I've been unhappy By Dr. Marie Hartwell-Walker

6) Current events

Regularly visit a local or national news websites and select a top news story to use as a springboard for your blog post topic. Hurricane Irene could lead to a post on helping your family deal with natural disasters, for example. Here's a recent post by one of my colleagues at Wasatch Family Therapy inspired by the 10th anniversary of 9-11.

How to talk to young children about 9-11 By Clair Mellenthin, LCSW

7) Seasonal topics

Consider the time of year and blog about seasonal topics. If you work with families, back to school time could lead to a post about helping your child with attention problems transition back into a routine. If you work with mood disordered clients you could blog in December about surviving the post holiday let down. You get the idea. Here's an example of one of my blog posts that I posted during spring.

"Emotional" Spring Cleaning by Julie Hanks, LCSW

Now that you have tools to overcome "blogophobia", and some blog post ideas, I want to read them! Feel free to post comments, concerns, questions, and your own blog post links below. Happy blogging.

photo credit: miguelavg