| Building and Protecting your Reputation |
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Hi John,
I hope you're well and managing your time in lock-down. It's not quite routine for me yet, but I'm getting used to it.
One thing that has been a small bonus is the connection with people that I haven't spoken to in some time. It may be me contacting them, or them getting in touch, but the conversation has always been welcome. It's tough for those of us (which is all of us) who just want to be with friends and all of our family, but the signs are that this drastic regime will help to steer away the worst scenarios, so we stick with it.
Anyway, if you'd like a chat, and especially if you'd like to be interviewed, just get in touch. |
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Mickey Wynne's multi-faceted career has involved him teaching guitar to luminaries like Julian Lennon, working with the legendary Who bass guitarist John Entwistle on a country-rock album of original songs, as “The Pioneers”; and playing and recording at the legendary Abbey Road Studios.
His debut album brings together a group of talented friends including the much-vaunted pedal-steel guitarist B. J. Cole, Irish singer Patrick Bergin, Jim Mortimore (bass) and ace engineer Joe Gibb (mixing, additional production) to help him celebrate his many passions; his influences & inspirations, the brothers-in-music he has met along the way; his sense of place & time; his rich musical heritage; his diligent morality; and perhaps most importantly of all, the complex relationships he’s had with life partners. The love of a woman, he says, has kept him, “going strong…”
I spoke to him this week, as you can hear in The Media Coach Radio Show.
Obviously, there's also a song from Mickey. |
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The MediaMaestro is the brilliant technology journalist Jack Schofleld, who has just died from a heart attack.
Jack was the Guardian’s former computer editor and author of its technology advice column, Ask Jack, for almost 20 years. Everyone that knew him, including me, remembers him as a gentle, knowledgeable and helpful man.
The Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, said: “Jack Schofield was one of the first true technology and computing experts in British journalism. In more than 35 years writing for the Guardian, he saw (and foresaw) the rise of personal computers, the advent of the internet, Google, smartphones and much more. His Ask Jack column was an essential and expert guide for generations of Guardian readers. Our thoughts are with Jack’s family and friends at this sad time.”
Tech journalist and former Computer Weekly writer and tech editor Eric Doyle wrote: “A kindly man with a good sense of humour and a friend to many of us whose careers he boosted. Uncle Jack and his pipe were never parted. I was looking forward to seeing him later this month at Absent Scribes (before the lockdown hobbled that idea) – now I’ll look forward to remembering him at the next one.”
Jack predicted and chronicled a technological revolution. He is a great loss, and will be much missed by friends and especially his loving family. |
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The MediaMug is Lizet Ocampo, the Political Director at People For The American Way.
She accidentally turned herself into a potato on screen during a video meeting - and couldn't figure out how to undo it. She activated the potato filter, and then failed to find a way to remove it.
One of her employees, Rachele Clegg, captured a screengrab of the hilarious moment and shared it on Twitter, where it quickly went viral.
She wrote: "My boss turned herself into a potato on our Microsoft teams meeting and can’t figure out how to turn the setting off, so she was just stuck like this the entire meeting."
More than 500,000 people have liked the post with over 122,000 people retweeting. Microsoft even replied to her post saying it was "TOO FUNNY!"
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| Speaking Tip - Time is on my side |
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When you're on stage, you have a responsibility to your audience. Naturally, you have to provide them with great value, but you also have a responsibility to respect their time. You have the same responsibility to your fellow presenters. For a speaker whose slot is scheduled just before a break, having their time cut sort by previous speakers who over-ran is very frustrating indeed.
You need to be aware of timing throughout the event. If it looks as though the timings are slipping, you must speak to the organiser to find out if you can deliver your full speech, or need to shorten it to get the event back on schedule. It's their call, not yours. You also need to finish your speech on time, or ideally a minute earlier. Remember that a speech delivered live on stage will always take longer than a version delivered solo to a mirror.
So if you do need to shorten your speech at short notice, what can you do? Here are some tips:
Prepare by highlighting the most important elements of your speech in your notes (if you use them). Stay calm. Never apologise for missing out content, since your audience won't know. It's easier to leave out a story than shorten it. Learn how to skip to a slide, rather than paging through them. If you lose your place in your slides, use the "B" key to turn the screen black, and just talk to the audience. Don't hurry, or speed up at the end. Take out content from the middle of your speech - keep the ending intact. |
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| Media Tip - The Last Time |
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You're in a TV interview, feeling thoroughly prepared for any question that may be fired at you. As the interview starts, you hear the reporter say "Let's remind ourselves of what was said in this studio two years ago by your MD, the last time this topic came up". Your heart sinks and you wonder about feigning illness, since you didn't think to look back in the news archives. Oops.
That should never happen of course. Your preparation should include a thorough review of every media statement made by someone from your organisation over the last few years. Sadly, there isn't an online archive of all broadcast news. It's the responsibility of your organisation to keep records.
I recommend to all my clients a way of keeping media records. Every time someone speaks to the press, or is quoted, it should be recorded and indexed. If it's done at the time, it's a simple exercise. Not only does it provide great preparation for interviews, it's also a decision-making time saver, since you don't need to come up with new position statements every time.
If you review your media archive and find that you no longer take the same position, you are able to come up with reasons why things are different. It will make your media performances much more confident if you know what happened the last time. |
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| Social Media Tip - You can't always get what you want |
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Many organisations and individuals use social media to ask their customers questions about products and services. I know of a number of banks who use private social media groups to test ideas for new services. It's like those focus groups, beloved by political parties, whose opinion is used to hone campaigns. I spent twenty years in a research organisation, and I have views about how this process works, and how useful it is.
One issue is that people often respond in a way that they think sounds acceptable, rather than how they actually behave. A recent study from Mintel showed that over 80% of visitors to a chain of fast-food restaurants said that they would prefer to purchase healthy options such as salads and herbal teas. The restaurant changed its menus accordingly, only to find that 77% of diners bought burgers and fizzy drinks (exactly the same percentage as before the changes).
Another factor is that people who respond to questions on social media will often be those who want to argue with your proposal, giving you a biased response. In neither case do you get what you want, which is how people will react in practice rather than in theory. Nonetheless, even the negative feedback can teach you something that you've overlooked about your offering. If you do use social media for research, be aware that you don't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need. |
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| Need some remote speaking tips ? |
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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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