Building and Protecting your Reputation |
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It may be coming home. We'll know on Sunday.
If the collective heartbeat of England was being measured on Wednesday evening, it may well have gone off the scale. I was thirteen years old when there was this type of sporting success before. My goodness I'm old. It was three years before "Sweet Caroline" was recorded.
Win or lose, there's been a change in the national mood that few other things can cause. Look out for a spate of books called "The management style of Gareth Southgate" in the next few months, not to mention LinkedIn articles and Facebook posts. Ah well.
And it's knocked COVID-19 off the news headlines for a few weeks. |
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While many people are in a good mood, allow me to make a rare appeal. Like many people, my family and friends have been touched by cancer. My brother has recovered after an operation a year ago. Many of my friends are in recovery and enjoying life to the full.
Much of this is due to the wonderful medical research, much of it funded by charities. So I'll be on the run later this year in the Royal Parks Half Marathon, trying to beat my personal best and raise some funds for the Cancer Research Campaign.
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In return, my co-author and I have set up a preview of our book, The Exceptional Speaker.
Enjoy! |
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 | My guests in the radio show this week are telling an emotional story about medical transplants.
Ray Mussell and Aaron Pritchett are legends of the Canadian music scene. They have joined forces for a powerful and important message expressed in a beautiful song.
“Still, You Breathe” was produced by Mussell, Pritchett, his son Jordan Pritchett, and future daughter-in-law Danielle Marie King at Bryan Adams Warehouse Studios in Vancouver, B.C. at the end of January.
I spoke with them about music, touring and most importantly, the cause they are supporting.
And of course I am playing their special song. |
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The MediaMaestro is of course the great Neil Diamond, who has found his song "Sweet Caroline" becoming a tournament anthem for the England team.
Written in 1969, the song first became part of a sporting event in the late 1990s when it was played during a Boston Red Sox baseball game for an employee who had named her newborn Caroline.
The Red Sox decided it was good luck, and started playing it every week from 2003. In 2013, the singer pledged all future royalties from the tune to a charity supporting victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.
It's a real feelgood song, and perhaps we'll be hearing it just a little bit more.
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The MediaMug is internet giant Amazon, which has apologised after threatening to take legal action against a fishmonger advertising ‘Prime Day’ boat fish.
An email sent to Robin Moxon, who owns four shops and a fish smokery in London demanded the phrase was ‘pulled’ from Moxon’s website as customers could mistakenly think it was an Amazon offer.
The company’s lawyers wrote to Moxon’s on June 21 – when Prime Day sales on the website kicked off – telling him the ‘matter could be closed’ if he stopped using the phrase.
The business owner made his feelings crystal clear in a phone call with Amazon representatives.
He said: ‘I basically said to them, “Are you taking the p***? This phrase has been used by many people probably for hundreds of years, and I’ve been using it regularly for 30 years”.
Amazon made a U-turn after the phone call, admitting they were wrong to consider legal action. |
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Speaking Tip - How credible are you? |
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When you speak, why should an audience believe what you say? Do you have the necessary credibility to persuade them that what you are saying is important and valuable to them?
One way of establishing credibility is to provide evidence, especially for controversial statements. For example, if you are making a definitive statement, be sure that there is solid research to back it up, and that you mention the research. I've heard many speakers just make remarks which sound credible, but have no basis at all. For example, how many times do you have to have contact with a prospect before they buy from you? I've heard six, seven, thirteen, fifteen and twenty-one all quoted as though they were accurate, when the real answer is "it varies".
Another way of establishing credibility is through personal experience. If you have worked in a sector for many years, your knowledge will have been honed and refined. Make sure that you explain this if it's how you generate credibility. Use stories, pictures and examples.
A third way is by testimonials and endorsements. If you have been recommended and praised by sources that your audience trusts, your credibility will be raised. Some people use their books as proof of credibility. However. with the advent of self-publishing, and the fakery around "Amazon best-sellers", that doesn't work as well as it used to.
Finally, there is the delivery of the speech. A confident delivery will always sound more credible, but without evidence, experience or endorsements, it's just hot air.
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Media Tip - When you have nothing to say |
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You may find yourself in a position where you have to speak to the media, but you may be either unwilling or unable to say very much. So what do you do? Well, here are three strategies that may help.
1) Avoidance I've explained on many occasions why avoiding media contact may not be a good idea. Firstly, it looks as though you have something to hide. Secondly, someone else may comment on the story, which could be to your detriment. So could you ever avoid the media? Well yes, in a few circumstances you can. If there's an urgent requirement for you to be elsewhere, like a crisis meeting, or if you arrange a time in a few hours to be interviewed, or if you issue a statement but decline questions because the matter is sub judice.
2) Holding statements Especially if you are speaking in the wake of a crisis, you may have little information. Nonetheless, you can use a statement such as "We are aware that an incident has occurred, and we are taking every possible step to ensure that everything is being done to help those involved and ensure that everything is safe".
3) Offer something else Another tactic when faced with a media interview you can't avoid is to offer them an interview on another story which they may find even more intriguing. It's not always possible, and you need to handle it with care, but it's surprising how many tricky interviews can be sidestepped by offering another piece of exclusive news.
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Social Media Tip - Do you take your own social media advice? |
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Some people put out a continual stream of social media posts which offer advice. It may be their own, or they may be quoting others. There's nothing wrong with that, unless it's the only information you ever post, since that would be terminally dull and unengaging.
However, there's a big danger in sending out streams of advice, especially if some of it is automated. Social media, by its very nature, is a public medium. Not only that, it's very easy to spread the word about anything at all. Some "experts" have been caught out acting in a very different way from the advice they are offering.
For example, if you tell people to behave with courtesy and respect online, it looks bad to start an argument on Twitter. If you show your public support for animal rights campaigns, it's not great to upload an Instagram snap of yourself in a real fur jacket. If you tell people that you only ever eat in one New York restaurant (which has engaged you as an "ambassador"), don't check in at a rival establishment and say "it's the best food for miles".
Alas, all of those have happened on social media. Online hypocrisy is alive and well. Better to do what you say, and say what you do.
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Here's the real reason why England teams didn't always perform. It was Smithy. |
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An online or in-person speech to make? I can help.
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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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