The MediaCoach

Hi John,

We're taking a few days break in Mallorca right now, but of course, that doesn't stop this ezine from arriving in your inbox as usual. We're having a break from the grey weather in the UK, but also from the grey comments on social media too. Don't get me wrong - I love social media and I have been using it for many years (my eleventh Twitter birthday is next week) - but I can't help but notice that some people use social media largely to air their frustrations. And since that is what I am doing right now, I will stop here!

Time for a bit of fun. At every major sporting event, some things go well and some things go badly. The Commonwealth Games, currently taking place on the Gold Coast in Australia, are no different. Some favourites have won, some have come to grief. Some new heroines and heroes have emerged. As ever, a reporter has made a twerp of themselves. Mike Bushell of the BBC was about to interview a bunch of swimmers by stepping onto what he thought was a ledge in the pool. He found it was actually around five feet deep, disappearing into silence as his microphone drowned. Mike drop, as the BBC website said.

Sarah Williams is a tough girl. I know that because she runs "Tough Girl Challenges", encouraging girls and women to get more adventurous. She told me more in a great interview in the Media Coach Radio Show. and there's also a fantastic song from Amanda Raye.
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The MediaMaestro is the head of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. He faced two long days of grillings by senators and congressmen in Washington, and came out of it with an intact reputation. OK, he didn't exactly set the place alight with his rhetoric, but he handled the questions well. On the other hand, his questioners appeared to be stuck in the 1970s, long before social media was around. The naivety of their questions was astonishing, but made Mr Zuckerberg's trip to the capital so much easier than it might have been.

The MediaMugs are the organisers of the Coachella music festival, which starts today in California. The festival itself is a fine event, though the organisers are clearly a worried bunch. They are being sued by the organisers of another festival in Portland, Oregon for a restrictive clause which the acts at Coachella have to agree to. The clause prevents any of the acts from performing anywhere within a distance of 1,300 miles from the Coachella site, for five months (I'm not making this up). That's the whole of the west coast of the USA. Seems like a poor way to run a show to me.

WORKING THE ROOM

You might think that if you assembled a random group of a couple of hundred people (like an audience that you speak to), then at least some of them would laugh at your funny lines, or gasp in amazement at your stunning information. Sometimes it just doesn't work. Yet on other occasions, lines that you think aren't remotely amusing can send the audience in paroxysms of laughter, which may require some of them to seek medical attention. It's all unpredictable.

Faced with the unknown, your best strategy is to play the numbers game, and try to present material which you hope will appeal to the largest number. Most of the time, you'll be fine. However, if you find that your traditional best material fails, but you get a reaction elsewhere, then change the emphasis of your speech to capitalise on it. OK, that may be difficult if you have carefully prepared your speech, but if the alternative is complete silence, you'd be best advised to drop the script and go with what works.

If you miss something out, or forget a punchline, don't go back and try to recover. Keep going. It's history. Consider your speech as a conversation, not a monologue. You need to retain the interest of the people you are speaking to, and be prepared to adapt. In short, you need to work the room - even when you are on stage.

TAKE THE INITIATIVE

Sometimes people say to me "I do all sorts of amazing things, but I never seem to get any press coverage." Of course not, since reporters can only report on what they know about. Sending out press releases is not really the answer either, since the sheer volume of information these days means that your carefully-crafted words will rarely be seen by a journalist, let alone read.

If you want to get noticed by the media, you have to do something about it. Despite the fact that Field of Dreams is one of my favourite films, I don't believe in the philosophy "If you build it, they will come". If you don't tell people what you do, you will remain - er - unknown.

So who do you tell? Well, if you want to get into a magazine or newspaper, look at the staff lists, and find the email address or phone number of the Editor and Deputy Editor. The latter is often more receptive, since the Editor is busy, and the Deputy is often seeking to make a name for themselves by breaking stories. For TV shows, watch the credits and contact either the producer or director (work out the email format that the TV company uses for names by checking their website). For radio, check the station's website.

In every case, contact a person directly and politely with some real news. Don't waste their time with announcements about a new branch opening in Neasden (or anywhere else).

GOOGLEY

You may have come across a handy search engine called Google. But you may not be aware of some of its features. Here are nine of the best.

What if company logos were really honest? Viktor Hertz has a few ideas. (Warning - some are a bit rude)

I can help.

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."