The Media Coach | August 18th 2023 |
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| Building and Protecting your Reputation |
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| Everyone I know (which probably includes you) is watching the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
It's down to the last two teams - England and Spain and I think the co-hosts have done a tremendous job staging the tournament.
It's getting increasingly difficult to find countries prepared to stage large sporting events, as the withdrawal of hosts for the next two Commonwealth Games has shown.
However, the potential of sport for bringing people together and raising their spirits is hard to over-estimate.
I hope you won't mind a bit of patriotism as I express my hope that after 57 years, football may be coming home.
Well done to the Lionesses and good luck on Sunday. |
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| I'm off to a couple of gigs this weekend - one at the Sound Lounge in Sutton, and one in Sutton organised by The Sound Lounge.
The latter is an all-day festival in Manor Park, featuring Nick Lowe, Del Amitri, Dana Gillespie and Iain Matthews. Expect plenty of interviews from them in weeks to come. |
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| A couple of places are still open for my speaker coaching.
Six-month or one-year packages are available, and I'd be more than happy to have a chat with you about options.
There's also an intensive package if you have an important speech looming.
Drop me a line on [email protected] or call me on 07986 852621. Be quick! |
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| My radio guest is Brian Walter. He is a past president of the National Speakers Association in the USA. He is also a fantastic speaker, MC and an organiser of terrific meetings.
He was also one of the MCs at the Global Speakers Summit in Dublin last autumn, which was all the better for his input. He talks about how to be an amazing MC, and how to run "extreme meetings"
Hear our chat in the in the radio show. |
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| MediaMaestro, MediaMug of the Week |
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| The MediaMaestro this week is the superb interviewer Michael Parkinson, who has died at the age of 88.
Some years ago, Jeremy Nicholas and I wrote a book called "MediaMasters" where we interviewed media celebrities.
Jeremy interviewed Michael Parkinson, who said: "An interview is a consensual act between two people in public. That's what it basically is, because if one person doesn't want it, it won't work. The question is how to achieve that consensual act in what is a phoney situation in the main. That's the fascination and mystery of interviewing"
Farewell to the best in the business. |
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| The MediaMug of the week is Amazon Alexa , a "smart" speaker that responds to voice commands.
I must admit, we've got a couple of them and find them very useful indeed.
When asked on Wednesday "for the result of the England-Australia football match today" it said there was no match.
"This was an error that has been fixed," an Amazon spokesperson said.
Academic Joanne Rodda - who alerted the BBC - said it showed "sexism in football was embedded in Alexa".
Dr Rodda, a senior lecturer in psychiatry at Kent and Medway Medical School - with an interest in artificial intelligence (AI), said she had only been able to get an answer from Alexa when she specified it was women's football she was interested in.
Amazon has apologised and repaired the response. Just in time for the final! |
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Speaking Tip of the week - Use the Power(point) |
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| You might recall that I hate using Powerpoint, yet I do use it from time to time. Why? Because it can help understanding, particularly if you are speaking to an audience who don't share your first language. But whatever type of presentation you are delivering, to whatever audience, please think carefully about your slides, and whether you really must use them.
OK, if you really must, here are some tips that I've found useful: Use bullet points very sparingly, if at all Keep every message as simple as possible Avoid sound effects and animations Use images as often as possible Never use complex graphs or charts Avoid numbers - they can confuse Never read your slides out Edit ruthlessly
The best tip of all? Press the "B" key once. The screen turns black, and your audience looks at you. Press it again, and the slide re-appears. It works in every version of Powerpoint. (I bet you can guess what the "W" key does too). Try it, and your slide presentations will be much more warmly received.
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Media Tip of the week - Seven things not to say to a reporter |
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| Sometimes it not what you say, it's what you don't say that matters. Here's a checklist of seven things which may seem to be a good idea, but can backfire seriously if you say them to a member of the press.
This is off the record A phrase which will make the reporter remember everything that you say, and reproduce it (unattributed) to your acute embarrassment. I don't think you'll be able to understand this, so I'll try to say it as simply as possible Never ever talk down to a reporter. They know when they're being patronised. I've never heard of your magazine/radio show/TV programme More often than not, this will be true, but local reporters grow up to be national reporters and if you treat them well, you'll remain a handy contact in their little black book. We're the best in the business As soon as the reporter leaves, they'll check up on your rivals to see whether you're boasting We've had fantastic press reviews in Ireland Journalists prefer to make their own minds up. Being told that they should copy their overseas colleagues is not a good idea The person who deals with this is away for two weeks - can you call back then? You'll receive a very short answer to this one No comment A popular one this, which leads to one of two possible outcomes - "XYZ training declined to confirm or deny rumours that - " Or "XYZ training refused point-blank to talk to us about - " Neither of these is good news for you
But then, you'd never use any of those phrases, would you? |
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Social Media Tip of the week - Think Different |
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| I know, it should be "Think differently", but just go with me for a moment. When you create messages on social networking sites, you may need to change the way you think about information. Here are a few things to consider.
Think collaboration, not competition. It's how you help that matters Think in headlines, or short phrases, like Twitter Think about your audience. It's not what you know, it's what they want to hear Think carefully. Your message can be misinterpreted. Consider how it might be perceived Think permanence. There's a site that takes snapshots of the Internet on a regular basis. Deleting messages doesn't hide them completely Think twice. Don't send a message in haste (see above).
Most of all, think about what you are trying to achieve. If you have no idea why you are using social media, or you are simply there because everyone else is, you will be wasting your time. Are you raising your profile, demonstrating your expertise, developing contacts (clue: all three are good ideas). So think (as Aretha used to say). |
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Looking for a speaker coach? |
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The information in this ezine may be freely re-used in any online or offline publication, provided it is accompanied by the following credit line - "This information was written by Alan Stevens, and originally appeared in "The MediaCoach", his free weekly ezine, available at www.mediacoach.co.uk." |
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