Swine Flu in Paradise

Your Verbal Body Language

By Eric Seidel, CEO
The Media Trainers®

Early on, Mexico became the epicenter of the swine flu virus. Clearly it’s the hardest hit point on the globe in terms of illnesses and deaths. Tourism is big business for this year-round vacation nation, where many escape to during winter, and college partiers congregate during their spring breaks. It’s only natural that the media would seek stories on the economic impact swine flu is having south of the border.

Those with much to lose have three choices vis-à-vis the news media: (1) be proactive, pursue media attention in order to reach target audiences; (2) be reactive and let the media call you and if they do, make sure you’re ready to talk; and (3) avoid media attention all together.

Frankly, I favor the first choice. In times of crisis, you have critical audiences that need information and you should want to reach them before your competition does. But make sure you’re ready for these opportunities.

Your first, and sometimes only, contact with some media will be over the phone. Have you considered what your “body language” says over the phone? Oh yes, body language is “heard” on the phone!

A sense, or lack, of enthusiasm is crucial to your believability and credibility. Inflection, enunciation, how prepared you sound, whether you make clear, concise points…all of this is important to persuasive messaging.

So consider the attached video below. It’s a phone interview with a spokeswoman with the Omni Cancun, definitely a fun-in-the-sun vacation spot with a lot at stake, interested in attracting families and college spring-breakers. Listen closely; see if you can hear a strong, credible overriding message. Consider how you’re responding emotionally. Do you feel convinced? Persuaded? Assured that the spokeswoman is confident herself in what she has to say?

After you hear (and watch) the interview, I’d be very interested to hear what you think. Take a moment and let me know: eseidel@themediatrainers.com.