| Building and Protecting your Reputation |
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As you are probably aware, I'm a great supporter of musicians, and for the past fifteen years, I've been interviewing musicians and playing their songs in my Web Radio Show.
As a result, I've been lucky enough to meet many great artists and had the opportunity to spend a little time with them finding out what makes them tick.
A few years ago, I met Judy Dyble. Though her name won't be familiar to many, she was a member of one of the most innovative British bands, Fairport Convention, who virtually defined a new genre of folk-rock. Judy was a founder member of the band and their original lead singer. She left after a few years to be replaced by Sandy Denny, and never really had the reputation that she deserved as a musical pioneer and wonderful singer.
She wasn't like other rock stars. On one famous night at London’s Speakeasy Club, she sat knitting while her boyfriend Richard Thompson jammed on stage with Jimi Hendrix. Even when singing with her own band, she was known to reach for her knitting when not required to sing during the instrumental passages. |
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Judy retired from music for many years and worked as a librarian. In the last decade, she returned to music and made many fine albums, with one due to be released in September. I chatted to her every week on Facebook and she was always full of good spirits, even when seriously ill. Judy died this week.
I'm paying tribute to her by playing our 2017 interview and one of her songs in The Media Coach Radio Show. |
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The MediaMaestro is the Iceland Tourist Board. In a very smart PR move, they have said that people can "send their screams to Iceland".
People struggling with the events of this year are being invited to let off steam by recording their screams and having them played over a loudspeaker in a remote part of the country.
Iceland's tourist board has set up a website for the project.
It says: "You've been through a lot this year and it looks like you need the perfect place to let your frustrations out. Somewhere big, vast and untouched.
"It looks like you need Iceland."
Psychotherapist Zoe Aston said: "The events of this year mean most of us have experienced increased feelings of frustrations, fear, loneliness, anger or guilt, and we have all coped in different ways."
She added: "Using a scream as a way to release pent up emotion allows you to reconnect with yourself, hear your own voice and reclaim the power that is inside you."
Altogether - "EEEKKKKK!" |
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The MediaMug is Twitter, which has failed to explain how a hacking attack has apparently allowed scammers to persuade users to cough up over a hundred thousand dollars.
Potentially thousands of people were scammed out of money after hijacked accounts of prominent verified users promised to double the money fans sent them in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Using Twitter's internal systems, the cyber-criminals' messages had a reach of at least 350 million people.
Early suggestions are the hackers managed to access administration privileges, which allowed them to bypass the passwords of any account they wanted.
Twitter appeared to confirm this, saying "We detected what we believe to be a co-ordinated social-engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools."
With a US presidential election imminent, and social media an important factor, let's hope they get to the root of the problem. |
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| Speaking Tip - Fail-safe online facilitation |
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Being a facilitator or moderator at an online event is a skill that it's well worth cultivating. For one thing, it puts you in the spotlight, without putting you on the spot, since you don't have to make your personal views known. For another, it gives you the opportunity to be helpful to everyone else, while making them feel good.
Here are my top tips for being an effective online facilitator:
Keep calm at all times. The more heated any discussion becomes, the more relaxed and soothing you should be. Set the tone early. Get online first, and welcome each person as they come online. Explain at the start how the event will be conducted. Welcome latecomers personally and privately. "Thank you for coming - send me a private message via this chat if you need help" Speak only when you have to. Allow others to express their views, and link the speakers together. Allow plenty of time for questions and debate. Everyone must feel that they have been heard. Encourage speakers to be brief and relevant. Try not to cut off debate, but summarise when the discussion comes to a natural end. Plan and manage regular breaks Most importantly, listen. At the close, thank everyone and provide links for more information.
As a facilitator, you're the conductor of the orchestra, not the soloist. Stay calm and smile. |
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| Media Tip - News or not news? |
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Some people become very upset when they spend a lot of time, effort and money on media releases that receive no coverage at all. Sometimes it's due to circumstances, since when a major news story breaks, everything else is discarded in favour of saturation coverage. However, much more often, it's because the media release isn't newsworthy.
Here's some examples of non-news;
A slight change to a product or service Minor personnel changes Something already reported elsewhere Something with no relevance to the readers or viewers The launch of a new small company in an existing sector
Here are some examples of real news;
A report that goes against conventional wisdom A strong local angle (for local press, obviously) Something that links to a major news story The first The largest A statement from a celebrity A great photo opportunity
Next time you send out a media release, consider whether the content is news or non-news. |
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| Social Media Tip - Why social media is the opposite of archery |
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In archery, it is quite tough to hit the target (believe me, I've tried). If you make the target bigger, it's easier to hit. So far, so obvious. However, the larger your target audience in social media, the harder it is to hit, or reach if you prefer. It's all about creating niches, something very easy to do on social media.
You can set up groups on LinkedIn or Facebook, or use a Twitter hashtag to group tweets together. A small, highly engaged audience is like a networking event where everyone shares the same interests. If you do business in that market, the chances are that some of your current and future customers will be there.
You already know not to do the hard sell to these groups. It's more about getting engaged and offering help. You can set up as many of these small groups as you can manage, but I'd advise keeping the number to two or three, since ignoring discussions is as bad as selling too hard.
So keep your targets small and focused on social media. You could even set up a group about archery. |
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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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