The MediaMaestro award goes feline this week. Ed Sheeran's cats. Yes, that's right, the two moggies belonging to one of the most popular singers on the planet now have their own Instagram feed. Known as The Wibbles, Calippo and Dorito already have over 150,000 followers. In June, a figure of Ed was unveiled by Madame Tussauds at a cat cafe in London in honour of his love of the animals. He may have set it up for his own amewsment, but for many of the meowsicians followers, it's purrfect.

The MediaMug award goes to Mohamed Sultan, zookeeper at the International Gardens Park in Cairo. A number of visitors reported that his zebras looked a little weird, and when they patted them, the black stripes smudged and came off on their hands. A number of vets have said that they believe they are painted donkeys despite Mr Sultan's insistence that they aren't fakes. The pictures have now gone viral, and everyone but Mr Sultan is convinced that they are the Sultan's fake Thing.

DISRAELI GEARS

The erstwhile rock supergroup of the late 1960's, Cream, featured Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. Two of them are still going strong. They released an album in 1967 called Disraeli Gears, the title of which turned out to be a comment by a roadie on Clapton's new racing bike (rock stars were poorer in those days). He said "it's got them new disraeli gears", referring to derailleur gears, and the band liked the misquote so much they named the album after it.

The thing is, many speakers use slightly the wrong expression from time to time, so here's a list of commonly misused words and terms to avoid:

1. "Chronic" - this means long-term, as in "chronic pain", but is often used in place of the appropriate word, "acute".
2. "Panacea" - this means a cure-all, so shouldn't be used to refer to one thing only such as "a panacea for poor management".
3. "Decimate" means to reduce by ten per cent. If something is totally destroyed, it's better to use "devastate".
4. "Enormity" means "extreme evil", not "enormous", so only use it when you mean something is really bad, not really huge.
5. "Flout" means to ignore something. If you're showing it off, you're flaunting it.
6. "Infer" is something that only listeners can do. Speakers, on the other hand, can imply something.
7. "Prevaricate" means to avoid telling the truth. Putting something off is procrastination.
8. "Revert" means to return to the original state. It does not mean replying.

A CRISIS WILL OCCUR

Some companies work on the assumption that a crisis will never happen. They're wrong. At some point, every company or high-profile individual will face a challenge to their reputation, which can be devastating if not handled properly. Some people claim to be able to "think on their feet", and believe that they can cope with any situation. They're wrong. A crisis can develop so rapidly that you can be overwhelmed.

Every company has procedures to deal with staffing problems. The rules are often documented in great detail, even though they are used rarely. I've even come across organisations with a holiday and sickness policy that runs to over two hundred pages, yet their crisis procedures aren't written down, and rely on a few managers knowing what to do.

These days, crises are made worse by the immediacy of social media communication. Millions of people may know about your problem before you do. How you respond is vital. So here's a checklist of how to prepare:

1. Ensure you have a crisis management plan
2. Ensure everyone knows their role in a crisis
3. Test the procedures at least once a year
4. Communicate clearly
5. Control the crisis communication, and declare it over when it's over
6. Review procedures after every exercise or actual crisis
7. Make sure key staff are trained

As always, it's about preparation, training and testing. A crisis will occur. Will you be ready?

USE OR ORNAMENT?

There's still a lot of people talking about search engine optimisation (SEO) and how to get people to visit your blog or website. For me, the most compelling reason to go back to a site is content that is either useful or interesting, and is also regularly updated. My dear old mum used to have a phrase that she used just before she threw something out; "This is neither use nor ornament". Alas, much of the content posted online falls into the same category.

That doesn't mean you can make your content interesting or useful for everyone, but if you know your target market well enough, you should be writing for them. And that's the thing. Whatever you write and post publicly should have an audience in mind, so that the content is not only appealing to them, but is so good they will want to pass it on.

Ideally, you should try to make your content both entertaining and educational. However, that's not always possible. Sometimes a "how-to" post simply presents the instructions on how to achieve something. On other occasions, you may simply want to comment on a topical issue in a way that makes others think differently. If you can combine the topical with the instructional, such as "12 business lessons from the Rolling Stones", you will get a lot more traffic.

So next time you post something, check that it's either useful or ornamental. Or ideally both!

Easy game, cricket. Nothing ever goes wrong....

At some point, you will face a crisis. Will you be able to handle the media?

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."