Do I Know You?

I was recognized at the Post Office this week and not because I'm a frequent customer.  It's because I used to be on TV.  I stopped anchoring the local news about ten years ago, but I'm still known.  When I was on every night, people "recognized" me all the time.  They'd stop to chat when I was out shopping, doing errands or at a restaurant with my husband. They'd ask me about issues of the day, comment on stories I'd done, even ask for my autograph.  They used my first name and treated me like a friend, yet also seemed thrilled to meet someone "as seen on TV" in the flesh. 

I used to joke I was "world-famous" in Allentown."  Now, these encounters are less frequent, but I still get recognized. I'm not telling you this to impress you. I'm surprised and grateful for it. 

To me, it's an example of what marketing experts mean when they say your potential customers have to get to "know, like and trust" you, before they'll do business with you.  It's why big
companies want celebrities and sports figures to represent
their brands. The familiarity and trust factors are already built in.  Since people feel they "know" these famous folks, they're interested in what they have to say.

And it's easy to achieve.   I was just doing my job, but over time, I became a familiar face they trusted to keep them informed.   In a literal sense, most viewers were strangers to me, but to them, I was a regular guest in their living rooms.

This is what on-air publicity can do for you.  As people repeatedly see and hear you on TV and radio or in online audio and video, they become more comfortable with you.  Plus the popularity of the host or interviewer, and the audience's trust in THEM, rubs off on you to boost your credibility.  

It amazes me that, after all these years, I continue to have a certain visibility and seem to be instantly liked and trusted.  People come up to me and say, "You look so familiar. How do we know each other?"  Once that's settled, they still ask me about issues, tell me their stories and talk about what I'm doing now.  That and much more is the power of media.