Building and Protecting your Reputation |
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One of my favourite speakers passed away this week.
Jeanne Robertson was someone I always sought out when I visited the National Speakers Association convention every year in America.
Jeanne had the rare ability to poke gentle fun at herself, and did it in a way that everyone could relate to and find hilarious.
She delivered her speeches in her wonderful southern accent, and used stories of her family and friends to make important points about life.
She will be much missed by her family and many friends around the world. |
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I don't know about you, but I've been riveted by the Tokyo Paralympics, which I find even more entertaining than the Olympics.
I was a Gamesmaker volunteer at the London Paralympics in 2012, where I made a huge mistake. As part of the media team, my job was to interview the competitors as they left the field of play, and get quotes that could be shared with journalists.
One afternoon, I was on duty at the weightlifting event at the Excel Centre, which was dominated by the Iranian team. There were hundreds of Iranians in the audience and as their competitor lifted a world record to win the gold medal, the roof nearly came off.
As he came to be interviewed, I forgot my role and held out my hand for him to shake it. He did. I couldn't use my hand for the next three days. |
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 | Technically speaking, Jeanne Robertson wasn't a comedian, she was a humorist.
“There’s a big difference between comedy and humour,” she used to say. “Humour is not about one-liners or being able to tell jokes. It’s about accepting things about yourself that can't be changed and finding the humor in situations around you. Things happen on a daily basis that are really funny, but people often let the funny stuff get away, either because they don’t notice it as funny, or they don't make it a priority to look for it.”
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The MediaMaestro is one of the greatest drummers ever to appear in a rock band.
Charlie Watts, the heartbeat of the Rolling Stones, passed away this week at the age of 80.
Not only his bandmates, but musicians from all over the world and from every genre paid tribute to him.
Charlie couldn't have cared what people thought of him though. He went his own way, and even said once that he didn't really care much about the band he was in.
The music journalist David Hepworth coaxed the best quote from him, when he asked Charlie what it was like being in the Rolling Stones for twenty-five years. Charlie responded "I worked for five years and spent twenty years hanging around".
The clip below shows how good he was. He never missed a beat throughout, and kept the band together. |
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The MediaMug is internet preacher Paul Begley.
He has predicted the end of the world. Again. He says seven volcanoes dotted around the planet could cause "climatic chaos, cataclysmic events" and will result in the world catching fire.
However, his track record on Armageddon predictions is obviously not too good.
He has also warned that a solar eclipse over Tasmania would lead to demons walking the earth and a passing asteroid would wipe out the planet. I don't recall either of those events happening.
He has over three hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube. I can only assume that many of them tune in for a good laugh. I may be wrong, but if you glance out of the window, I doubt if you will see a river of molten lava. Still you never know... |
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Speaking Tip - Are you credible? |
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When delivering a speech, you must come across as credible, otherwise your words are of no value. There are two elements to credibility; competence and character.
Let's take competence first. If it's not already apparent that you are an expert on your topic, you need to demonstrate it. Have you done copious research? Then say so. Do you have unique experience that gives you a special insight? Then say so. Start with the assumption that people in your audience may be sceptical. Persuasion is based on providing them with credible evidence that leads to an obvious conclusion. Here are ways to use evidence:
- Be specific. Rather than saying "a lot of people" say "34 million people worldwide"
- Cite credible sources. Use figures from The Economist or New York Times
- Use novel evidence. If you can come up with something the audience hasn't heard, they will be interested.
- Make the point clear. Explain why you are giving evidence, and what it means.
Then there is the credibility that comes from your character. People need to find you trustworthy. Some of that will come from your reputation, and how you have been introduced or profiled in the conference programme. On stage or screen, you need to be sincere, and to show a genuine interest in the needs of your audience. How you handle questions and interruptions will make a strong impression about your character.
Credibility, of course is not something you have inside you, but is in the mind of the audience. You may be credible on one topic, but not trusted on another. It can change during the course of a speech, for better or worse. Your job is to arrive appearing credible, and leave with your credibility enhanced. |
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Media Tip - Phoning it in |
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While it's always nice to do in-studio radio interviews, it's increasingly common for phone interviews to be the method of choice for radio stations, especially in these times. That not only provides them with access to experts (you) anywhere in the world, but also saves on transport costs, as well as saving you time. Clients of mine who get their first local radio in-studio interviews are often delighted with the experience, but the novelty soon wears off as they realise they spent three hours on a three-minute experience.
What happens if you are asked to do a phone interview? Firstly, you, or your communications department, will receive a call from a researcher asking if you are available for interview at a certain time. If you agree, they will probably ask a few questions there and then to find out if you are the right guest, and to guide the interviewer too. Make sure that you get a contact number for them, and that you also give them your mobile and land line.
When you interview time nears, you should arrange to be somewhere that you won't be interrupted (put a sign on the door if necessary) and be available at least five minutes before the time agreed. You will receive a call from the studio, who will check that the line sounds fine, and that you can hear them and they can hear you. Make sure your mobile phone is off now.
They will then switch the connection so that you hear the studio output, when you may hear your interview trailed. - "And coming up next, we'll be speaking to:" That's the time to get a few deep breaths in. You will probably hear a cue ("with you in ten seconds"), and then the interview will start. Treat it as what it is - just a conversation. When it is over, the technical operator will cut in and thank you, at which point you can put down the phone and breathe a sigh of relief, before jotting down your notes. Easy, eh?
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Social Media Tip - Test it on Twitter |
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Some fourteen years ago, when I wrote a book on social media (It was called Ping!, and was a steady seller), I included a case study about an online bank that used a private Twitter group to test out ideas before deciding whether to develop new features.
And Twitter is still an excellent place to try out ideas, but now it's perfectly OK to do it publicly.
Whether it's a graphic, a link to a blog post or a valuable tip, you can use Twitter as a content lab to gauge the interest and engagement in whatever you post.
You can then use Twitter Analytics to see how your tweet performs. Analytics are under "More" on the Twitter menu. They show the number of impressions and engagement of your tweets for every month, your top followers and how often you were mentioned. If you are thinking of using social media to market your products or services, or simply to raise your profile, the information they provide can be invaluable.
You can also find out an extraordinary amount of information about your followers - location, interests and who they follow.
Give it a go and test it on Twitter!
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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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