Building and Protecting your Reputation |
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The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games begins this week, and as usual, I will be volunteering.
I'll be part of the media team, gathering quotes from competitors after their races, and putting them on the media database for all reporters to use.My role is called, rather grandly, a Flash Quote Reporter.
However, I won't actually be in Birmingham. I'll be at the Lea Valley Velodrome in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, just up the road from me in East London. In order to deliver a sustainable games, it was decided not to build a new velodrome in Birmingham, but to use the existing one here in London.
So if you watch the cycling, which starts today, you may see me in the centre of the track, notepad in hand, trying to get a few words from exhausted cyclists. It should be fun! |
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Last week, I picked Sarina Wiegman as the MediaMaestro of the week, praising her communication and management skills.
As you probably know, this week she guided the England women's football team to a famous victory in the semi-finals of Euro 2022, as they put on a blistering performance to beat Sweden 4-0.
Alas, I'll be too busy at the Commonwealth Games to watch the final, so could you give the England women a cheer from me? Thanks,
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Headline of the week is from the Bristol Post (above). There's nothing I need to add. |
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 | Geoff Muldaur is not only one of the great voices and musical forces to emerge from the folk, blues and folk-rock scenes that emanated from the US East Coast over half a century ago, but he also lived in the legendary Woodstock for many years and played at the Newport Folk Festival several times when the original Americana/folk genre was at its height.
During the 1960s and '70s, he made a series of highly influential recordings as a founder member of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and later with Paul Butterfield's Better Days group, as well as collaborations with then-wife Maria Muldaur and notables such as Bonnie Raitt, Eric Von Schmidt, Dr. John, Phil Everly and Jerry Garcia.
‘His Last Letter’ is the most ambitious project ever undertaken by him; an 18 song tour de force recorded in the Netherlands. We spoke about the project, and life in general!
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There's also a superb track from Geoff's album. |
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MediaMaestro, MediaMug of the Week |
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The MediaMaestro is Lord David Trimble, the former First Minister of Northern Ireland, who died this week.
He was a brave politician. He became the first unionist leader since the 1920s to negotiate with Sinn Féin and pushed ahead with talks in spite of the opposition of half his parliamentary party.
The Good Friday Agreement, which brought peace to the province after centuries of conflict, is a lasting legacy to his skill and courage.
In 2017, Lord Trimble wrote to the former deputy minister, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness shortly before he died, telling him how much he appreciated his efforts to make devolution in Northern Ireland work."You reached out to the unionist community in a way some of them were reluctant to reach out to you," he wrote. "I and my colleagues believed that you were indispensable."
What a marvellous communicator he was. |
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The MediaMugs are a group of four men in India who set up a fake cricket competition in a farmer's field, and streamed footage of it online, fooling many gamblers into thinking they were watching the Indian Premier League (IPL).
According to reports, labourers and local unemployed people were hired to masquerade as players and created fake team names, with the players wearing official IPL kits.
The Times of India reported that a local man who could do a good impersonation of commentator Harsha Bhogle was brought in to add authenticity to the footage."Crowd noise sound effects downloaded from the internet made the ambiance appear authentic," the paper reported.
The elaborate hoax was not clever enough to fool local police, who apparently fell about laughing when they visited to farm to arrest the scammers. |
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Speaking Tip of the week - Five ways to improve your speech |
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1) Keep your "I"s down. Go through your speech and count all the times you use the word "I". Then count how many times you use the word "you". If the former exceeds the latter, you are talking about yourself too much. In fact, the "you" count should be much higher, since communication is all about your audience, and what they are interested in.
2) Tell your story. Use stories that have happened to you, not stories involving others. If you keep a lookout, there will be plenty of incidents you can use to make your point. It's easier to remember your stories, and they will not have been heard before. Never, ever use a story from someone else and pretend that it happened to you. Remember to tell your story, emphasise the point, and then give a practical example your audience can use.
3) Be original. People are fascinated by originality. Your ideas are unique to you, and though they may have been influenced by others, will be yours alone. That's what people want to hear - your take on the world. There are no bonus points for plagiarism.
4) Be controversial. Make yourself stand out by going against conventional wisdom, or delivering a rarely-heard point of view. If you agree with everyone else, why communicate at all? There's no need to be critical of others, but giving solid reasons why you take another view is good copy.
5) Give advice, not instruction. Pay respect to your audience by giving them suggestions about how they might change, not ordering them to do so. If you tell people they must act in a certain way, a likely reaction is that they will decide not to. Of course, you don't have to take this advice! |
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Media Tip of the week - Play nicely |
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The exchanges between the Tory candidates for the leadership of the party and office of Prime Minister have been pretty bad-tempered, with both candidates criticising each other. It may not have done either of them a great deal of damage, since the party will still pick one of them.
When you are interviewed on radio or TV, things should be different. You should be trying to make yourself look good, rather than others look bad.
The real danger of "going negative" is that it can backfire, branding you as being unfair and unreasonable. It rarely pays to criticise your competitors. If you are asked to give your opinion about another company's products or services, the best response is "That is a question you should put to them".
If an opponent criticises you live on air, you should make every effort to stay calm. In fact, the more hostile they become, the calmer you should become. Never respond to their criticism with hostility or aggression, but calmly take on their arguments and deal with them in a mature fashion. You will be seen in a much more positive light than your adversary.
Many politicians stage mock debates before the real thing, with aides playing the part of their opponents. If you have a critical media interview, adopt the same approach. It will help you to stay calm and balanced if the insults start to fly.
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Social Media Tip of the week - How to use the news |
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It can be tough to keep coming up with topics for social media posts.
No-one wants to hear constantly about your misfortunes with broadband or the remarkable achievements of your offspring (of course you're proud of them, and rightly so).
Fortunately there's a steady stream of topics that you can use - the news.
It's sometimes called "newsjacking" though that's a rather weird portmanteau word for a simple practice, which is simply offering your take on a news story. Of course, the idea is not just to repeat the news and say "Isn't this terrible" or "Isn't this great", it's about bringing something new to the story.
For example, I've used the current leadership debates in the Tory Party to make points about media communication and rhetoric. You may be an expert on leadership, body language or effective communication, any of which would be good topics for a debate based on the candidates' performances.
Twitter is excellent for commenting as an event is live. Other people who are watching will often respond. LinkedIn is for a more considered take, perhaps the next day. Facebook is a place where you can enter debates at any time and make your point.
Make sure you don't just promote your services - "in my presentation skills training I show people...", but position yourself as an expert with an interesting view.
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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." https://em-ui.constantcontact.com/em-ui/em/page/em-ui/email# |
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