as your business taken advantage of local cable and public access television opportunities? There is a good public speaker and "ham" in every business. Assign a spokesperson or spokespeople - someone who knows a lot about your product or service, and your customer base.
Investigate the cable and public access stations in your area. To appear on a talk show program, you need to speak to the Program Director. Suggest a theme or topic you could offer that would be of broad interest to the residents of your community. You must keep your information educational, and interesting, and be ready to answer call-in questions on the spot.
Local talk shows like this are always looking for new and different speakers and topics to schedule. There is usually no fee to appear, nor do you receive any compensation for appearing. This is a wonderful public relations opportunity.
This is NOT the format to "hard sell" or "advertise." You are looking for an invitation to appear on a show, because you have valuable details and information to offer the audience.
Examples of topics might be:
1) "Ten of the top considerations when looking at a manufactured home."
2) "The twelve biggest mistakes new manufactured home buyers make, and how to avoid them."
3) "What are the benefits of living in a manufactured home community?"
4) "Fifteen reasons for retiring in a manufactured home community."
Prepare a letter of introduction on your company or retail center, along with the speaker's bio, and a brief summary of the subject of your talk. The Program Director will decide whether they are interested in your subject matter, and if the answer is yes, will schedule you for an upcoming show.
If you have visuals - tabletop models, large photos, or video clips, discuss these beforehand with the Program Director or Show Host (Hostess) to see how these might be used.
Arrive early. Avoid dressing in any busy patterns or colors. Listen to the instructions about where to look. It is distracting if you have never appeared on television before, and you are told to look into the camera versus at your host when answering questions. However, the caller who's asked the question is seeing you on television and it is more natural to look at them (even though you can't see them) by looking into the camera. Obviously, when the host is speaking to you, you can look at him or her.
Notice your body posture, and movements and try to keep nervous movements to a minimum. Pretend you're in the living room of your host, having an informal chat. Have fun!
There may or may not be many callers dialing in. Don't be discouraged. People are generally shy about calling in to a TV show. Occasionally, you get an unpleasant or challenging call. Don't let this throw you either - just give a brief, professional answer and keep your cool. The host (if he/she is good at their job) will keep the conversation rolling.
Take the time to answer questions thoughtfully. You don't have to rush into a lot of "um's" and stuttering. After the first 10 minutes, you might even forget you are on TV!
Thank the host by sending a follow-up letter when the show is done. The benefits of this free television exposure are many. They usually continue to run the same program over and over again (since they typically don't have that many good shows to air). You will probably get phone calls saying "Hey, I saw you on TV the other night!"
You may even get direct new business calls from this form of public relations. Good luck!
