It would be very easy to give the MediaMaster award to President Barack Obama on a monthly basis. In the final year of his tenure, he seems to have become an even more relaxed and engaging communicator. This week, I've been very impressed by the way he handled hecklers at a recent speech in Chicago. He allowed them to have their say, listened carefully, and asked that they be allowed to stay. He then told them that it was his turn, and went off-script to respond to their comments. It was a masterclass in professional communication, and in marked contrast to that chap with the hair. You know who I mean.

The sorry mess that is the rebirth of Top Gear continues. After reports of presenter Chris Evans becoming sick in fast cars, the programme has now hit controversy over a stunt filmed near the Cenotaph war memorial in London, where a high performance car did "doughnuts" by skidding in a circle. Many army veterans complained about the disrespectful nature of the stunt During an interview given on Monday morning, Chris Evans said: "That footage will definitely not go on the air, no question about it." Frankly, I'm not sure the new show should go on air at all, but let's see what it turns out like. A high-performance MediaMug award to the producers.

START AS YOU MEAN TO GO ON

There's a saying that runs "how you do anything is how you do everything". There may be some exceptions to that, but as a general rule, I think it's sound. That's why I believe it is so important to begin a speech in exactly the way you intend to deliver all of it. You need to be confident, interesting and entertaining. Alas, some speakers think that they have to break the ice by telling a joke or wittering on about their qualifications and achievements before turning to the topic that people expect to hear.

In my view, you are not only short-changing the audience if you begin with irrelevant detail, but you are also running the risk of losing their interest before you have told them what the speech is about. There are many ways that you can begin a speech with relevant material while keeping the audience engaged. You can make a promise to help them overcome business issues that we all share. You can pose a tricky question that makes them think, and explain how you will show them the answer. You can use humour as long as it is relevant.

In short, your speech opening should:

• Set the tone for the rest of the speech
• Engage the interest of the audience
• Make a promise
• Establish a common interest between you and them
• Move smoothly into the body of the speech

In the fictional West Wing TV show, written by the brilliant Aaron Sorkin, there's a clip that shows exactly how a bad speech opening can be transformed into a good one. If only everyone had speechwriters like this.

FOUR MEDIA MYTHS

Here are four things about media relations that are "popular wisdom", which are also "wrong".

1) Once I'm on national TV, I've made it. Wrong for several reasons. A one-off appearance is quickly forgotten. Your time will be limited. Local TV and radio has a more loyal audience. Being on national TV may be good for the ego, but may not be the best thing for your business

2) All publicity is good publicity. Try asking any organisation that's handled a media crisis badly if that is true for them (BP or Volkswagen, for example). Bad publicity is bad, and good publicity is good.

3) Getting press mentions is a matter of luck. Though there's sometimes an element of good fortune, most press mentions of an organisation or individual are the result of careful planning, combined with perfect timing. You won't get mentioned every time you contact the press, but there are a lot of things you can do to increase your chance of coverage.

4) Only bad news gets reported. While the old adage "it if bleeds, it leads" still has a lot of truth to it, there is also a demand for good news stories, especially about the economy. If you are creating jobs, increasing exports or building a successful company, your story will appeal to journalists, especially if you have a local angle.

WRITE A LETTER TO A FRIEND

I was browsing a blog the other day, and couldn't help but notice that the same words and phrases cropped up in just about every sentence. It was obviously written by someone who thought that the purpose of blogging was to attract Google, so that more traffic would arrive on their site. Well, that's as maybe (I'm not about to start a debate about search engine optimisation - I know better than that). Looking further down the blog, I noticed that every post was written in a similar fashion, and I quickly lost interest and decided not to visit that site again.

I've never been booked to speak by a search engine, but always by people. It seems to me that engaging content is what brings people back to your blog, and what makes them tell other people about it. Rather than write for Google, I'd much rather write for a person. When I say "person", I mean one individual. Whether or not I know you personally, I address myself to you directly. I may slip up sometimes, but I try to be conversational, and avoid phrases like "as you all know", since there's only one of you reading this.

If and when we meet in person, you will find that I speak in pretty much the same way that I'm speaking to you here. I don't have a writing "style" , and from time to time I make an error with grammar, or spell a word incorrectly that sneaks through the spellcheck. For me, and I hope for you, that's fine. Social media is a conversation, not a great novel or bait for unwary search spiders.

It's easy to write to a person. We used to do it all the time in the old days when we wrote letters. That's all you need to do on social media - write a letter to a friend.

The worst cover songs of all time is a debatable list, but I think this video is a pretty good selection. Some of them are utterly dreadful.

Only six places left on the next Exceptional Speaker Masterclass on June 14th - book now!

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."