The MediaCoach

Hi John,

I will try not to mention the World Cup this week. Except just then. But that's it, honestly. More importantly, there is a film being released today about my six-greats aunt, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. She is better known as Mary Shelley, author of The Modern Prometheus, also known as Frankenstein. I intend to go and see the film, although having done a lot of research on my family and Aunt Mary in particular, I suspect I may see some of the licence that film-makers often take with stories. If you want to see my account of my family history, take a look at my TEDx talk on the subject. Let me know what you think.

I received an email from my great friend, an expert on the future world of work, Graeme Codrington. He quite correctly put me right on a comment I made last week. I am grateful to him and apologise for the error. I can do no better than quote his message:

"I hope you don't mind a slight correction. I know how much you hate it when people misquote statistics and studies. You mention Gladwell and Outliers and his 10,000 hours rule in your newsletter. The 10,000 hours rule is for those people who have become truly world class, top of the field, undisputed world leaders in their field. It's not for mere competence or being good - it's for being the best. A subtle distinction, but an important one. Your point is still well made, and I support what you say completely. But for the sake of getting stats right, hopefully that distinction is useful. If you're interested, a great book by Josh Kaufman, 'The First 20 Hours: How to learn anything fast' suggests three levels of competence: 20 hours to get to a working knowledge, 20-10,000 hours is a broad range he labels understanding, and then 10,000 hours+ is mastery. I think too many speakers / media commentators get stuck in working knowledge without progressing. Anyway, I hope the tone of my email reflects my intent. This is not a correction, just a small addition to your outstanding work. Thanks again for all you do." Thanks Graeme!

I love simplicity. A while ago, I met an athlete with a simple formula for success - Canadian gold medal-winning Olympic rower Adam Kreek. . Listen to it in the Media Coach Web Radio Show. And keeping the Canadian flavour, there is a great song from Dawn Langstroth.
Go to the iTunes Archive of the MediaCoach Show
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The MediaMaestro is former Mozilla and Jawbone employee Aza Raskin. He discussed this week what many of us suspected - that social media apps are designed to be addictive. "It's as if they're taking behavioural cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface and that's the thing that keeps you like coming back and back and back" he said. "Behind every screen on your phone, there are generally like literally a thousand engineers that have worked on this thing to try to make it maximally addicting" he added. Facebook told the BBC that its products were designed "to bring people closer to their friends, family, and the things they care about". It said that "at no stage does wanting something to be addictive factor into that process". Hmmm. You decide.

The MediaMug award goes to Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali, head of Iran's Civil Defence Organisation, who alleged that his country was facing cloud 'theft' during a press conference. The general said: "The changing climate in Iran is suspect. Foreign interference is suspected to have played a role in climate change. On top of that, we are facing the issue of cloud and snow theft" However he was later contradicted by the nation's weather chief, who said "On the basis of meteorological knowledge, it is not possible for a country to steal snow or clouds". Snow joke, eh? Sorry!

THE OOPS FACTOR

TV presenter Dennis Norden used to front a show which featured clips of things going wrong on TV and in films. On one occasion, he mentioned the "oops factor", which he defined as "Objects Only Perform Sometimes". I believe it's a corollary of Murphy's Law, which states "If something can go wrong, it will" (to which I will add Stevens' variation "especially in front of an audience"). In short, you need to have a plan B.

It's impossible to anticipate every possible cause of problems on stage. There may be technical issues, venue problems or external factors that cause disruption. However. you can greatly reduce the chances of embarrassment by taking some simple precautions in advance.

The best advice I can offer is to stay calm. Your audience will understand that things can go awry, but as long as you deal with them with patience and a little humour, they will forgive you. In fact, you can make a huge impression on them by taking problems in your stride and not panicking. Here are a few things to reduce your oops factor.

CAN I CHECK IT BEFORE YOU PUBLISH IT?

If you ask a hundred reporters whether you can check their copy before it goes to print or online, ninety-nine will say no. On a rare occasion, you may be offered the chance to look over a piece to check for accuracy. However, in all my time in the media, I have never seen a piece re-written by the person it is about. It's about objectivity. A reporter is an impartial observer, telling the story to the reader. If there is any suggestion that their independence has been compromised, the reader will no longer trust them, or their publication.

That doesn't mean that you should never speak to a reporter after an interview. it is perfectly acceptable to send them some more detailed information, or an update on the position. However, you will have no control over the finished article.

When the piece is published, you may well find inaccuracies. You need to ask yourself whether it is worth calling for a correction, or even an apology. Minor details, such as a mis-spelling of your name, or adding a year to your age, are not worth commenting on. If there is a clear factual error that could be damaging, you should challenge it, in a communication to both the reporter and the editor. They may offer a correction in a later edition, or the next issue. Alas, it is usually far less prominent than the original story, and it may be better to simply contact the editor in the hope of publication on their site or pages.

I generally advise overlooking errors unless they are grave. The chances are that no-one will see the correction anyway, and it may damage your relationship with the reporter. It's better to make yourself as clear as possible in the interview, and provide the reporter with a written fact sheet, including quotes from you about the issue.

10 QUESTIONS TO ASK A SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT

Everyone is an expert in social media these days, or is looking for one. A recent survey of Twitter found that over one hundred thousand people have the phrase "social media consultant" or some variant in their Twitter profile. That's a lot of people looking for work.

Here's a check-list of questions that may help you whittle down your thousands of potential advisors to the one you need.

There, that should help.

Not quite like the real thing, but try a few penalties yourself.

Or any speech at all? You know where to get 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."