Managing Director Chelsea Koski shares five key lessons everyone can learn from the recent Harry and Meghan interview.
The groundbreaking interview with Harry and Meghan was a master class in owning the narrative and perfecting the message. While you may not be a royal watcher like some (ahem, me), here are five things everyone can learn from the interview:
Own your narrative: Now more than ever a company, industry, or individual can own the narrative. While traditional media offers opportunities for publicity and validation, narratives can be led by you. When you own the message you want to deliver, maximize all channels for self-distribution, and creatively deliver to your target audience, you can become your own publisher and not rely on traditional gate holders.
Test your message: The best narratives are practiced, tested, rehearsed, edited, and reframed. Message testing via surveys, stakeholder focus groups, or informal gut checks will help you perfect your message for the maximum impact and better understand what examples resonate, and what language to avoid.
You won’t win them all: Every narrative will not win over all parties. No matter how hard you try, there will always be naysayers. Understanding who is most important, and how to influence them is essential to framing your communication and achieving the desired outcomes.
60-40 rule: Spend more time promoting content than you did creating it. The two-hour interview was promoted with a week’s worth of pre-clips, shared via multiple channels, and followed with days of post-event recaps and analysis. When you create content, it is easy to make the mistake of quickly jumping to the next thing. Make sure to promote, repurpose, tweak for different channels, and promote it again. Don’t assume your audience has seen it.
Know your interviewer: Oprah is the queen of American interviews – a master of the familiar, the follow-up, and conversation focus. She understands what people want to hear, and how to get her interview subjects to address a question. While she comes across as soft and welcoming, she gets to the deeper questions and does it all like your BFF. Understanding your interviewers’ style, approach, lens, and bias is essential for your preparation and how to present your narrative appropriately.
Now more than ever, you can own your narrative, and be the gatekeeper to your story. While the world’s eyes will not be on every one of your priorities, like they are on Harry and Meghan’s chickens, the lessons of their interview hold true.