Media training Archives - Page 11 of 11

Something I said at a webinar last week seems to have resonated so it may be worth sharing again.

When you hire a public relations company, or marketing company or indeed a media trainer like me, it can be worth listening to what we have to say and advise. Clients often tell us they want something specific, whether it’s increased sales, a wider distribution network or whatever else it might be – and then they instruct, say, their PR company, about where they want coverage.

It is often better to give the PR company, marketing company or whoever, a good guide as to what you’re aiming for and then take their input. What I said in the webinar was that service providers are like a satnav; we work best when we’re given the destination and then we apply our expertise to work out the best route. Anyone wanting their satnav to get from, say, London to Brighton and insisting they had to stop off in Newcastle on the way would soon find themselves wasting a lot of time and get frustrated at the competition arriving much earlier than they did.

In communications this can apply when someone asks me for techniques to shut down awkward questions, when the most productive thing can be to assume the reader/viewer will also have thought of the question – so the best strategy is to give a decent answer. PR professionals, as distinct from trainers like me, might be told someone wants their story in the Financial Times to increase sales, while a less prestigious publication might actually provide a better line to their market and primed buyers.

You’ll have your brand and some strong ideas about it and that’s a good thing. It’s a mistake to let us take over and make it in our own image. But remember that satnav metaphor; it can be well worth starting a briefing with the destination you want your business to reach and then letting the experts work out the best way to get there.

I’ve often used this blog to highlight bad practice in interviews so I thought it might be worth highlighting some people who’ve done incredibly well.

Put it another way: I’ve been watching the Commonwealth Games and been incredibly encouraged by how the competitors treat each other. This seems to be a common feature among modern sportspeople but the Games have highlighted a few interesting examples.

For example, I was watching the diving yesterday. I know nothing about diving other than I once stood behind Tom Daley in a fast food place at King’s Cross Station which doesn’t make me much of an expert, but the skills and athleticism on display was awesome.

In the 10m synchronised event yesterday, British diver Matty Lee won the bronze. The BBC pulled him over and interviewed him and he was fine, speaking respectfully about the other participants and ensuring everyone knew he was happy with his bronze and that he was just glad to be in the others’ company. So far so routine – then the winner, Cassiel Rousseau, happened to be passing so the BBC pulled him into the interview and asked him about how he felt.

So your media interviewer suddenly loses interest

There were two interesting points from my point of view as someone in communications.

First, no serious competitor in the history of the universe has ever enjoyed coming third. It’s not why people compete and when they’re asked immediately afterwards how they feel, many people such as tennis players or footballers can be pretty grumpy. I don’t criticise that just after they’ve been focused on the win but I do feel Lee was incredibly gracious and positive given his circumstances.

Second, basically the interviewer decided they’d found someone more interesting and pulled them in – with Lee still standing there dripping. He had to listen and nod graciously as Rousseau celebrated the fact that he’d pulled off more or less the perfect dive (and he’d done so, there’s no question that the right person won). Lee continued, nodding and congratulating him.; Rousseau acknowledged Lee, of course.

These were very young people just after the battle of their lives so far, and one will have been bitterly disappointed. They still managed to conduct themselves perfectly and professionally. Maybe next time you see a businessperson, possibly someone from your own team, growing impatient with a journalist, next time you see a politician accusing the press of being “deliberately misleading” because the point wasn’t made clearly in the first place, you might reflect that some very young and inexperienced (in life at least) people in Birmingham have given a masterclass on how to cope over the weekend.

Do you or (if you’re in PR) your clients need help with your media interviews? My team and I can help – drop my assistant Lindsay a line, Lindsay@Clapperton.co.uk, and she’ll set us up an initial chat.

When media training I often find the same questions come up, particularly around repeating yourself. Is it a good idea, ask people who have been giving presentations as part of their job for decades if not longer. These are inevitably people who wouldn’t hesitate over the odd repetition in a presentation.

The answer, as I said on yesterday’s video tip (less than two minutes, check it on this link) is yes – but be careful.

In the previous video I talked about the TV series, Line of Duty, and why the interrogation scene with the Jo Davidson character was an object lesson in never saying “no comment”. For those of you who haven’t seen it, her character says “no comment” about ten times and the assumption of her guilt seems to mount higher with every repetition.

So if you get asked, are you making redundancies, hiking your prices, whatever, “no comment” an audience is likely to hear it as “absolutely yes”.

Then they tried it again

The final episode of Line of Duty has had something of a critical mauling and although it’s not prime among the reasons quoted, I think getting the actual villain to keep repeating “no comment” was one of the flaws. There’s no problem with having the mastermind unveiled as an unlikely character we’ve known since episode one, also no problem with slamming us with the idea that we’ve been rooting for the wrong side all along.

The problem is that you need to make it exciting, so just having the same schtick as the week before in a less tense setting is going to be problematic. And this is where interviews and presentations can fall over as well. Here’s a video of the fairly young Ed Miliband when he first became Labour leader:

The problem isn’t that he repeats himself. The difficulty is that he doesn’t vary it – he has his message and he’s going to drive it home. He actually seems unaware that he’s saying the same thing over and over again. Had he started an answer with “as I’ve already said”, or “I don’t have anything to add to my previous point” or whatever, he might have looked better. He might also have considered refusing to answer more questions (I have no information but my guess is that he was expecting only one answer to reach the airwaves).

So you’re being interviewed – great. You want to use the opportunity to publicise your business – of course you do. However, if you have important points and want to repeat them, remember at least to look as if you’re aware you’ve made the point already. I’ll bet Ed Miliband wished he’d done so.

Do you need help with your media and interview skills? My Mediamentor media training service can help. Ask my assistant Nikki to set us up some time for an initial chat.

It’s been a big week for news about communications and the right to reply but I want to reflect on one thing today: The Simpsons. OK, two things, I want to consider the singer Morrissey as well, and his management. Three things.

The story is simple. The Simpsons has made an episode taking the whatsit out of a celebrity. This is not out of character, it’s something the show does all the time. As you’ll gather from the intro, the celebrity in question was Morrissey and the character they portrayed him as was a former vegetarian, principled star of the 1980s who was now an overweight meat eater and a bit of a reactionary. The BBC had the story on the Today programme on Radio 4 and on its website, you can read it by clicking this link.

As I said in yesterday’s video above, I’m not interested in the rights and wrongs of what Morrissey does or doesn’t believe, either now or in the present. I have no idea whether or not he is still vegetarian but either way I am in no position to criticise someone for being an overweight person who eats meat. I believe he and his management have made one major error though, and that is in exercising the right to reply.

Right to reply can backfire

Many years ago, the then prime minister of the UK and Northern Ireland John Major was accused of having an affair. Ironically it emerged subsequently that he had done just that, with minister Edwina Currie, but not with the person in the accusation (one of the Dowming Street catering staff). The allegation appeared in a magazine called Spike and Major’s decision initially was to ignore it. His logic was impeccable; Spike was a tiny magazine with a low circulation so hardly anyone would have seen the story. Taking them to court or making statements about it in public would simply have drawn attention to the issue.

Later, when the Daily Telegraph carried the story, he sued successfully. His judgement was that it now had traction and needed to be intercepted.

Nobody is saying Morrissey has done anything similar. However, by deciding not to let the issue fade by itself and instead putting vicious statements about The Simpsons out on social media he and his management have drawn attention to the issue. I like the cartoon but it’s a while since I’ve seen an episode; I would not have been aware that there was an episode saying so many unpleasant things about the singer had he and his team not made so sure I knew all about it. I also know how rattled they are by the incident, something I’m guessing they’d rather I hadn’t seen.

In your business or that of your clients you might have a related issue – not that they’ve grown into an ageing rock star or that they’ve had an affair with a member of their catering staff but you or they may be receiving negative coverage. The question I’d challenge you to ask yourself is that although a journalist is likely to offer the right to reply, is that going to help or just repeat the negative in a fresh story about your response?

Do you need help with your media interviews and presentation skills? We can help – simply get in contact and we’ll set us a time for a brief initial call.