Every so often you’re going to get interviewed by a newspaper reporter or TV news crew. That’s a good thing. Getting your name out will help you grow your practice. If you’re a good source of helpful commentary and information you’ll get quoted with frequency.

But, you can screw that up. You can do something that will keep you from getting those calls from the media.

When you get interviewed you need to keep your mouth shut about the interview. Don’t mention your interview on Facebook or Twitter or anywhere else until after the interview gets published or televised. Keep it to yourself.

Why? Because reporters are serious about beating their competition. They don’t want anyone to know the stories they’re working on until after it’s too late for the competition to respond.

It used to be that no one really had to worry about you spoiling the story. That was before social media. In the not very distant past you didn’t have the ability to tell the world what your local paper or TV station was working on. Now you do and you need to understand the need to exercise discretion about releasing the information.

This is not a hypothetical situation. I’ve watched a number of lawyers let the cat out of the bag before the story reached the public. I understand the desire to tell the world that you were picked for the interview. That’s fine and I encourage you promote yourself and the attention you’ve received from the media. You must, however, wait until the release of the story. Once it’s out, go wild, tweet it, Facebook it, blog it, and mention it on your website. Just don’t jump the gun.

If you’re not sure if it’s okay to tell the world about the interview then ask the reporter. If you’re not clear on what to do then don’t mention the interview. It’s important for the reporter to have a chance to scoop the competition. The fastest way to never get a call from another reporter is to expose the story idea before it gets published.