The Media Coach

Hi John,

There are a lot of elections around this year. Since I'm writing this before the results of the local and mayoral elections are in, I won't make any comment about the outcomes.

However, I have been listening to the candidates presenting themselves to voters. Once upon a time, I was a candidate for a local District Council myself (I won by five votes after four recounts), so I've heard plenty of promises being offered.

Sadly, in the 40 years since I was elected, the quality of speeches doesn't seem to have improved very much.

Of course, I do what I can with the handful of politicians I work with, but I suspect most candidates neither seek nor receive any coaching.

Perhaps they think it can all be done by social media.

One person that I do admire as a great presenter is film critic Mark Kermode.

He's always clear, interesting and opinionated, and it's a pleasure to listen to him.

Every month, he presents a show at the British Film Institute (BFI), and it's become a regular event that my daughter and I attend.

This week, Mark was almost lost for words as he interviewed Johnnie Burn, who won the Oscar for sound design on The Zone of Interest. Mark said "I wish I'd asked you to bring your Oscar" Johnnie then took it out of his bag and handed it to Mark. That's when he lost his voice for a moment.

My speaker coaching programme has just two places left.

If you'd like to raise your game, get more speeches and earn higher fees, just get in touch for a chat.

I look forward to chatting to you - and you can have 15 minutes of free advice just for getting in touch.

My guest in the radio show this week is Ben Afia.

Ben is a consultant, speaker and author who'd had his fill of cold, corporate organisations treating their employees and customers like robots.

So he set out on a mission to make businesses more human.

He realised that when you deeply connect your culture and brand, you’ll give people the experiences they yearn for.

For almost 30 years, he’s been trusted by companies like Allianz, Vodafone and Google to change their culture, build their brand, and make staff and customers happier.

His first book, The Human Business, shows how to do that by aligning culture, brand and experience.

Hear our chat in the in the radio show.

Go to the MediaCoach Show

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And there's another great song from Sons of Town Hall who I saw perform a terrific gig in London this week.

The MediaMug of the week goes to the team running the Coop Live Arena in Manchester.

They've had a disastrous time with their scheduled opening events.

Artists have had to postpone or cancel, often at very short notice.

This week, an event was cancelled just ten minutes before doors were due to open.

There is now uncertainty over when the venue will open, with Keane and Take That still scheduled to perform there in the coming days.

Gary Roden quit as general manager of the arena last week over delays to its opening the venue, and after being criticised for saying some small music venues were “poorly run”. Looks like the same applies to large ones.

Do you need to pitch for business, funding or sponsorship? Here's a guide about how to succeed.

OK, maybe I contrived the link to the title of this tip, but that's what radio presenters do. My point is that radio is not television, and different skills apply when you're involved in a radio interview. You still have to deliver a clear, simple message, and you need to stay calm and confident. However, there are a few other considerations that you must be aware of on radio.

Firstly, radio interviews often begin suddenly. In a TV studio, you will have been through makeup, sat in the green room, and had plenty of time to get ready. On radio, especially if you are on the end of a phone, you may get only a few seconds warning before you are live on air, so you need to be ready in advance. Sometimes you may be put through to the feed from the studio before your interview. Don't say anything until spoken to, since you may already be live.

Secondly, you won't have any props, such as your latest book, to show the audience. You can't rely on the interviewer to mention it, so you need to find a subtle way to work it into the conversation yourself. You could answer any question by saying "That's an issue I refer to in my book (insert title here), and it's a question I'm often asked". Remember to answer the question, though.

At the end of the interview, you may not be sure what to do. In a radio studio, you will be led out by a runner. On the phone it's less clear. My advice is to stay on the line for at least a couple of minutes. You will probably receive thanks from the producer, or the presenter if they are able. More importantly, they may check if you are available for a future interview. That's a real prize.

When you are writing blogs or Facebook posts, my advice is to behave like the sub-editor of a website or newspaper. The art of both headline and article writing is to do with brevity and interest. The idea is to present something which is eye-catching, but also delivered in as few words as possible.

People tend not to linger long over online articles, so you face the twin problems of grabbing their attention, and then keeping it. The first is the job of a sub-editor, who is responsible for crafting the headlines.

It is the headline, or first line of your piece that will make people want to read more, and so you should pay a lot of attention to it - perhaps half of the time you spend on the article.

The article itself should use as many words as necessary, but as few as sufficient to make your point.

Here I turn to the man I regard as one of the greatest journalists of the last century, Alistair Cooke. I met him three times, and on the final occasion, asked him for his best advice to a journalist. He smiled and said "Never miss a deadline, and never waste a word".

Looking for weird punchlines, drawings, and crazy stories? Visit The Oatmeal.

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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."