The MediaCoach

Hi John,

Firstly, a very Happy Easter to you. I hope you have the chance to spend it with your loved ones. Easy on the chocolate. I'm back in the UK after a superb trip to Macedonia, where I met a lot of inspiring people, and saw an overnight hackathon, where participants as young as ten years old were coming up with brilliant ideas for start-up businesses. I'll be featuring interviews with some of the speakers at the event over the next few weeks.

It's been a busy media time for me. The various slip-ups by companies and individuals has led to calls from more than a few reporters, wanting my views on the damage to various reputations. I chatted on Sky News about the Kendall Jenner Pepsi advert, which was withdrawn soon afterwards. No surprise that I also commented in the Daily Telegraph on the United Airways debacle, which may take a long time to reach a conclusion. I'll get back to that in a moment.

My real highlight of the week, and of many weeks, was to interview a musical legend, who has been the heartbeat of American music since the 1960s. Richie Furay was a young musician in New York when he met Steve Stills, moved to the west coast, and wrote and recorded many iconic songs, in bands including Buffalo Springfield, Poco and the Souther Hilman Furay Band. A few weeks ago I featured his daughter Jessie in my show. This week it's Richie's turn.

You can hear our interview in the Media Coach Radio Show. There's of course, a superb song from Richie's first solo album.
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The MediaMaster award goes this week to Charlie Chan. He is a breast cancer and melanoma surgeon. He is also a rock star photographer. "My patients always come first so I work full-time as a surgeon and photography is my night job," he says. "I decided to become a surgeon at the age of 12 and concentrated on that." His photography subjects include musicians Jamie Cullum, Gregory Porter and Wilko Johnson, who was encouraged by Mr Chan to seek a second opinion after he had received a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis in 2013. Mr Chan arranged for Johnson to see surgeon Emmanuel Huguet, who later operated to remove the tumour and save his life. So he's a rock star in every sense!

The MediaMug award was a tough one. There were a number of worthy candidates. In the end, I opted for Oscar Munoz, the CEO of United Airlines. I don't blame him directly for the incident on a plane where a passenger was dragged from his seat. I do feel that Mr Munoz acted too slowly, failed to take responsibility as CEO, did not comprehend the seriousness of the situation, and failed to appreciate the natural human reaction to what happened. It took him a full 48 hours to apologise. His position as CEO must be in jeopardy.

THREE SPEAKING MYTHS

Things work well in threes. But here are three things that don't really work from a speaking point of view.

1) If you know your stuff, you can wing it. No professional speaker would ever go on stage unprepared. They may look as though they are ad-libbing, but a lot of work has gone into creating that impression. A speech needs to be carefully crafted, with a great opening and closing line and a strong message. That takes work. Every great speech has probably gone through dozens of re-writes and rehearsals. Never, ever, go on stage and try to make up a speech on the spot.

2) You need to know more than your audience. This is one of the greatest concerns of inexperienced speakers, and they will avoid speaking to any audience where other experts may be present. It's rare that a speaker will know more about their topic than every member of an audience, and that's not what it's about. You're there to deliver your take on a topic, not to demonstrate your encyclopaedic knowledge. No-one else can do that but you.

3) If I have great slides, they'll carry me through. Yes, great slides will help, but they won't outweigh poor delivery. You need to be able to engage and entertain regardless of the quality of your visual aids. Similarly, a great presentation style won't compensate for awful slides. Everything you do must be good.

HOLD THE LINE

Just to the south of Philadelphia is the Mason-Dixon line which was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, an English astronomer and surveyor respectively. It's often regarded as the line between the northern and southern states of the USA.

Holding a line is very important in media interviews. It's not just about defending your position, it's also about delivering a strong message. Many interviewees fail to recognise that their best strategy is to plan an approach well in advance, and use their time on air to weave around the line, but never deviate too far from it.

Holding a line can be achieved by using the same phrase often, or by making the same point in different ways. I always advise my clients to use exactly the same wording at least three times, and to ensure that the message is delivered in their final answer. If the reporter asks "just one more question" after what appeared to be their last enquiry, repeat your message one more time; "As I just said"

If your message is strong enough, it will withstand any amount of journalistic probing. If you find that your argument is fragile under pressure, you simply didn't prepare well enough (but you should repeat your message nonetheless). Under every circumstance, just hold your line.

THE VIRTUAL WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

I've heard both sides of the argument: "Social media is a waste of time, with no business benefit" and "Unless you're on social media and engaging with your customers constantly, your business won't last much longer". It's no surprise that I regard both views as too extreme.

I am very clear about one thing. Social media on its own is not enough. You need to use it as part of your business strategy, not as your entire strategy. Here are three traps to avoid:

1) I need to check my messages and notifications. Well yes, but only up to a point. If you leave yourself logged in to Facebook, and click on a new notification every time one appears, you will never get anything done. Make the effort to log out, turn off notification sounds, and put your smartphone face down.

2) I may miss some breaking news. That's also true, but you'll also miss what happens while you are asleep, in the bath (tell me you don't have your phone in the bathroom with you), or spending time with family and friends. Whether you hear news the second it breaks, or a few hours later doesn't really matter.

3) People want to hear from me. Again, yes, sometimes people do want to hear about your time at a great concert, or what you think of a TV show. However, there's literally a time and a place for keeping your pals updated on the minutiae of your life. They can cope without your news, possibly for days at a time. Ration your updates to extraordinary moments.

Some airlines are even worse than - well, you know...

Book now - only three places left for May 9th at Theatre Royal.

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."