Bridging Techniques
Media specialist, Ann Wright from Rough House Media , is our January guest blogger. Sharing her expertise, Ann reveals the tricks of the trade when it comes to bridging techniques during media interviews.
If you’re a business and you want to raise your profile – and win more customers – an excellent way of doing that is by doing interviews in the media. After all, you’ll be talking to thousands, if not millions, of people in one go – a captive audience. But far too often, people finish interviews thinking “I wish I’d said that, but the reporter didn’t ask me about it”.
Don’t blame the reporter.
It’s up to you to seize control of the interview and make the most of every single opportunity to deliver the key messages which enhance your reputation and promote your business. We teach techniques about how to do this in our media training courses – and one of the most important is to learn how to use bridging phrases.
Rather than answering the question asked, or simply ignoring it and just saying whatever you want, these allow you to acknowledge the question then “bridge” to what you want to say. Politicians do it all the time: “The most important point here is ….”
It can sound hackneyed, so here are some variations that allow you to say the same thing:
- I see that, but … key message
- I’m not here/able to comment on that. What I would like to say is …
- I’d also like to add that …
- Just to put this into some context …
- What’s absolutely critical to remember is …
- People have said that but…
- I can’t agree with you
- To put this in perspective …
- What you’re talking about isn’t my area of expertise, what I can say is …
- That’s very interesting, but first let me make the point …
- The point is …
- What I’m most concerned about is …
- What we have to look at is …
- You wouldn’t expect me to discuss such sensitive issues with the media before talking to staff …
- I cannot speak for xxx, you should address issues to them specifically. What I can say is …
- Have you visited the site/seen the building/tested the equipment you are criticizing – I’d be delighted to show you …
- I’m sorry, I don’t have the precise details. I will come back to you on that.
- May I finish the point I was making …
- I’m sorry, I don’t know. However, what I can say is …
- I will come back to that but …
If you’ve prepared carefully, know what questions you might be asked, and know which of these you might use to avoid tricky territory and deliver key messages, then that should help you take control.
