The way you communicate in a media interview is not just about what you say verbally. How you come across with your body language is equally important. Experts believe that more than two-thirds of communication is non-verbal.
If you’re nervous during your interview, you can look less trustworthy. You may be a little uptight and not maintain eye contact, maybe you’re even sweating a little. Experience can help improve your body language but being aware of its impact and finding ways to improve will also help.
Look at great communicators like Barack Obama with the sound off and you’ll be able to see what good body language looks like. The smile, the hand movements, and the assured presence, all add to the message he is conveying.
What is Body Language?
From the way you hold your shoulders, to how you look at the screen when you’re answering a question, down to your hand movements, these are all non-verbal bits of communication.
We tend to take them for granted and concentrate more on what we are saying. But when people see us being interviewed or speaking on stage, they’re taking everything in, both consciously and unconsciously.
Presenting On Stage
One of the most terrifying challenges you may have, is giving your first presentation on a stage to an audience.
Making a few critical decisions before you get up is vital and it’s more about your body language and what you feel comfortable with than what you say. For example, do you want to stand at a podium, or do you want to walk around?
If you are at a podium, you can put your hands on it and steady yourself. If you are mobile, putting your energy into hand movements and having the right stance can help keep you balanced.
Sitting Interviews
In some circumstances, you may be sitting down, either at a desk or on a sofa in front of an audience. This is a little less daunting but can mean that you relax too much. That could make you look as if you don’t care.
Make sure that you have both feet planted on the floor and sit back and upright (a good acronym is Bum Back in Chair or BBC). You can use hand gestures effectively while seated but avoid the temptation to fidget and move about in the chair.
Video Interviews
Everyone has different non-verbal habits. You might stick your hands in your pockets and hunch your shoulders forward if you are not quite sure about what you are saying. You may have a slight tick such as touching your face or brushing back your hair. We often don’t realise that we have these little traits that make up our personality.
Videoing your interviews and spotting non-verbal habits that you want to minimise or get rid of gives you awareness and should improve your interview technique.
Maintaining Eye Contact
Finally, one of the key aspects of any interview is eye contact. When you are not looking straight at the interviewer or the camera, it can seem like you are uncomfortable, even a little shifty.
In all cases, you should be maintaining eye contact with the viewer. If you are at an event in front of an audience, you should make eye contact with different people as you work through your speech and not focus on some spot in the distance.