Let's meet and Tweet

Twitter chats are now becoming a very popular way of creating a community, sharing expertise and solving problems. I participate regularly in several twitter chats myself, and find them great value and great fun. If you'd like to set one up yourself, around your topic of expertise and interest, here are some suggestions to help you.

1) Prepare well. Firstly, you need to let everyone know what is happening, and how and when to take part. It's a good idea to create a hashtag (such as #prchat) and a Twitter account (such as @crisismedia) to gather around. Tell your network when the chat will happen (ideally at the same time each week), and send out reminders just before it starts.

2) Encourage participation. Ask people to introduce themselves as they join the chat, and to both pose and answer questions. Ask them to use the chat hashtag in each tweet, so that everyone can follow the discussion. It's a good idea to have a few questions planned in advance for the group to discuss. Keep an eye on the time, and have a clear start and finish of each question and the chat as a whole.

3) Facilitate follow-up. Record and publish the chat soon after it has finished, using something like Tweetdoc.org. Tweets disappear after a couple of weeks so you need to archive each discussion. Make the discussions available online, and set up a Facebook or LinkedIn group to continue the debate between chats.

You will soon find that a community becomes established around the weekly chat, and it will be of immense value to all participants. If you already take part in Twitter chat, or you are setting one up, let me know how it's going.

Four rhetorical techniques

One of my all-time favourite comedians, George Carlin, once said "Rhetoric paints with a broad brush". That's largely true, but there are some occasions when it can be a sharp and potent weapon in speeches. Here are four techniques you can use to make your words even more effective.


1) Anadiplosis. The repetition of one or several words that end one clause and begin another.


Example: "Some men are born with greatness , some men achieve greatness , and some men have greatness thrust upon them" - William Shakespeare


2) Praeteritio. The pretended omission of something, which has the effect of strengthening its impact.


Example: "It would be unseemly for me to dwell on the Senator's drinking problem, and too many have already sensationalized his womanizing..." - An opponent of Senator Edward Kennedy


3) Chiasmus. A very powerful effective technique where the words in one phrase or clause are reversed in the next.


Example: "Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good" - Samuel Johnson


4) Tricolon A much-used and strong technique where words or phrases are used in threes.


Example: "Never in the history of human endeavour has so much been owed by so many to so few" - Sir Winston Churchill

More rabbit than Sainsburys

Forgive me for borrowing a line from the blessed Chas and Dave's 1981 hit, in order to create a tenuous link to Easter. Suffice it to say that this tip is about not talking for too long on stage. This was prompted by a debate in the National Speakers Association Facebook group, where are speaker was asking how to deal with someone who spoke for too long. I'm sure you can imagine the response. So how do you make sure you don't overstay your time on the platform? 

Obviously, the easiest way is to keep an eye on a timer. That may not always be easy, unless you bring your own or there is a clock (which must be showing the correct time) visible to you. If you're the type of speaker that wanders the stage without notes, then having a timer may not work, since you can't carry it around with you. 

Another option is to have someone in the audience who will act as your timer. Agree a series of signals with perhaps ten, five, and two minutes to go. Make sure that you look at them occasionally, and acknowledge their signals. This works very well unless (and I have seen this happen) your timing friend dozes off. 

Other things that can throw your timings are:

• Allowing extended audience debates during your speech
• Underestimating the time for audience exercises
• Going off at a tangent
• Technical hitches
• Forgetting (or not checking) the time you are allotted

Your job, as a professional, is to finish on time regardless of the above, some of which may be beyond your control. If that means cutting material out on the fly, that's what you have to do. But never, ever, cut the end of your speech, since that's the important message. Less rabbit in the middle is the key.

Less pitching in the elevator, please

One of the skills that business owners are advised to have is a good elevator pitch. Alas, it's something that is trotted out way too often. A 60-second description of what problem you solve, and who you solve it for, can be useful if you're asked to do a short intro to a group other people at an event. Otherwise, please leave your elevator pitch at home.

I don't know about you, but I've often received the full blast of a one-minute pitch at a networking event when I've asked someone what they do. Unfortunately, after the first fifteen seconds, I'm losing interest. After thirty seconds I'm looking for a way out, and before it's over I'm thinking how I can avoid this person in future.

It' not only boring, it's rude, to expect a person you've never met before to be talked at for a minute or more. That's not a conversation, it's a lack of respect.

It's great to have a short conversation starter, like "I organise prison break-outs" (from someone who helps people to start a business after corporate life) or "I create your own personal oasis of calm" (from a garden designer). They will generate a dialogue, and start to build a relationship.

Elevator pitches are broadcasts, not conversations. Those who deliver them are often so focused on getting their message out that they fail to listen and watch the signals coming back. So please, keep your elevator pitch for the occasions where it is appropriate, and focus on having a conversation instead.

Are you ready for Web 4.0?

As a journalist, I was lucky to be invited to Stockholm this week to see a presentation at the Skämta Institute. If you haven't heard about it, you soon will. It is probably the most significant change in technology since the invention of the World-Wide Web.

Much of the development is still under wraps, but what has been, and can be, revealed is mind-boggling. The next generation of access devices, known by the Swedish term Bedra, run at speeds approximately a million times faster than current tablet devices like the iPad. They use 4D technology, delivering not only 3D images, but also touch and smell, for a complete immersion experience. Thay have to be seen (an touched and sniffed) to be believed.

The developments will make all social networking sites obsolete before the end of the year, and will require everyone to re-assess their businesses. The main developer, Nobel-Prize Winner Professor Loof Lirpa said today "Few people will fully understand the implications of this announcement. Today marks a historic event"

Will you be ready for the change?

Five tips for a long speaking career

A colleague of mine asked recently for some tips to prolong a speaking career. I've been on stage for quite a few years now, so I suggested a few things that I've found helpful. I thought I'd share them with you, right here.

1) Treat every audience as you would treat your most important client. When you speak, that's what they are. It''s really important to do your best speech, every time. It doesn't matter how many people are there, or how much you are being paid (if at all). That may be the only time those people hear you speak. You owe it to them to deliver the best possible value for their time sitting listening to you.

2) Throw away a third of your material every year, especially any references to things that happened more than five years ago. If you have a cracking personal story that stands the test of time, then keep it, but be ruthless otherwise. This one is tough. It's tempting to keep everything you've put in a speech, and simply to refine it. If you don't change, your speech will go stale, you'll get bored delivering it, and your audience will notice.

3) Outsource anything you're no good at. You're a speaker, not an accountant, diary manager, web designer, etc. Many speakers are one-person bands, and get bogged down doing stuff that will be done faster and better by someone else. If you're a speaker, concentrate on speaking.

4) Keep doing what you talk about, and be a shining example of it. Current experience trumps long-gone successes (see point 2). If your speech is about something that happened twenty years ago, no-one under thirty-five will remember it. That could be most of your audience.

5) (bonus tip) If speaking is no longer fun, give it up and do something else.

How to be a social media magnet

There's a lot of advice about how to use social media to attract business. Some say you need a gazillion followers. Some say you need to automate all your posts. Some say you need to post to every network. I say it's rather simple, so allow me to offer three strategies. 

1) Deliver consistent, high-quality content There are two aspects to this (obviously) - consistency and quality. It's no use posting a large volume of material once every few weeks. Little and often is much better. It needs to stand out, so quality is vital. "How-to" lists work well (yes, I know....) 

2) Engage in conversation It's social media, not broadcast media. I've seen many streams of tweets and Facebook posts that are simply links to articles, videos and webpages, with no attempt at dialogue. That's no way to build rapport. People want not only advice, but a chance to interact with you. 

3) Promote others It's not all about you. If you see a good article, talk about it and link to it, even if it looks like a competitor. If people see you as a curator of valuable information, they will notice and remember you.

A tweet is a headline

Some of the most talented (and well-paid) journalists are the sub-editors. They are the ones who prepare a story for final publication, and often create the headlines. In the world of marketing, headlines are also critically important. As the great David Ogilvy put it "On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar." Here's one of his gems; "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock."
 
I believe the same principles that drive great headlines also apply to effective tweets. They need to be brief (obviously), eye-catching, enticing and ideally humorous too. Often, you will be using a tweet to encourage people to click on a link to an article or blog post. I suspect that the click-through rate is rather less than David Ogilvy's one in five, so you need to think carefully about what you say. 

Obviously, not all tweets need to be carefully crafted. Some are just "of the moment". But for those that include a call to action, take a while to pause and think how they would work as a headline, and whether they appeal to the audience you are trying to reach.

Speaking Tip; The Eyes Have It

Eye contact with members of your audience is a vital element in ensuring that your message is being received and understood. Alas, many speakers focus either on their notes (or worse, their script, which they read head-down) or on their slides. You should aim to make eye contact for more than half of the time you are speaking. I advise aiming for at least ninety per cent if you want to make a real impression. 


Eye contact is not just about paying respect to your audience. It's also a very good way of seeing whether they understand what you are saying. If you are looking directly at them, you will easily be able to detect either nods and smiles of understanding, or frowns and head-shaking showing disagreement or confusion. In the latter case, you need to change what you say, or the way you're saying it.

If you are working from a prepared script, and there is little time to rehearse, there is a technique you can use which still allows you to have eye contact while you are speaking. Known as the "Bowman Technique", it was used very successfully by the great speech coach Lee Bowman to improve the delivery style of many public figures and politicians, including many US Presidents.
It works like this:

1. Look down at your script and read a couple of sentences
2. Look up at the audience and deliver those sentences. You don't need to be word-for-word. It's the meaning that matters
3. Repeat until the end of the speech

The important feature is never to speak when looking down. It's easy to master the technique after just a little practice, and when you use it, you will be surprised to find that most of your audience won't even realise you are working from a script.

It ain't over 'til it's over

Picture the scene. You are called to a TV studio to do a pre-recorded interview. You plan carefully, have a good core message, and perform well, since the reporter doesn't ask any of the "difficult" questions that you feared. The interview finishes, and the interviewer leans over, shakes your hand, and thanks you for your time. You thank them in return, and say how glad you were that they avoided that particularly awkward topic. 

So far so good? Hang on. The interviewer puts a hand to their earpiece and the other hand towards you, gesturing you to sit down again. "I'm sorry" they say "There was a problem with the recording. Do you mind if we do it again?" 

Of course you don't mind, thinking it will be even easier second time around. You smile and wait for the first question, which, to your acute embarrassment, is on the topic you wanted to avoid. 

There was no problem with the first recording. You made the error of assuming that everything was over. It wasn't. Next time, wait until you are well clear of cameras and microphones before you relax.

What was I saying?

It can be a bit traumatic to appear on radio or TV, especially if you are new to it. One of the main concerns of new interviewees, and many experienced ones too, is that they will forget their message. The pressure of a live interview under bright lights can be intense, and it's not possible to refer to notes, even in radio interviews (most radio studios have webcams, and radio journalists really don't like guests with crib sheets)
So here are some tips to help you stay on-message, even in the most pressurised media interrogations:

• Write it yourself, in your language
• Simplify it, and simplify it again
• Use three points or fewer
• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse - out loud
• Write it down, and keep it in your pocket.
• Read it on the way to the studio and in the green room
• Use real examples
• Keep it up-to-date
• Keep the language very simple - no jargon
• The shorter it is, the more you will remember

It's not what you do on air, it's what you do beforehand that will guarantee success.

Advice for speakers - Something in Common

Your job, as a speaker, is to find common ground with your audience, and then gently lead them to pastures new. As we all know, the best way to do that is by telling stories. There's a temptation, is these days of sound bites and instant news, to try to tell a story as quickly as possible, so as not to bore the audience. However, that doesn't always work. It's the detail in stories that people find engaging. It's the evocation of sights, sounds and even smells that they can imagine, that make their connection with you very strong. 

Although your audience won't have had the same experiences as you (or there would be no point telling the story), they will be able to identify with elements of it. For example, you might start by describing your feelings before an important pitch meeting, and how you suddenly felt like you were back at school, standing outside the exam room waiting for the doors to open. Although your audience may never have pitched for a million-pound contract, they've all sat an exam, and will be able to remember exactly how they felt.

Some speakers introduce these common elements by saying "you know how you feel when.....", but I don't think that's necessary. If you tell the story exactly as it happened to you, describing your feelings and emotions at the time, they will identify with you. You will learn the phrases and analogies that work well, and also discover what will touch different audiences.

Aim to include three or four common experiences in every speech, and you will take your audience on a journey with you.

Who's in charge here?

In the old days, a speaker could arrive on stage, click into their first slide and deliver a 40-minute keynote to a hushed audience, interrupted only by the occasional ripple of laughter, before taking a couple of simple questions before heading backstage to await the happy forms. That was then. Alas, some speakers are still living in that era, unaware that things have changed. 

Audiences these days are more demanding of speakers. I don't believe it's because attention spans have dropped, even though there is much more short-form information around. I believe it's because speakers are now in a battle for attention with other sources of information. Most audience members will check their mobile phones at some point. Many will be using web-connected iPads or other tablets to communicate with people outside. For some, your speech may be background noise.

That doesn't mean that your audience isn't paying attention to your wisdom. It does mean that you have to be more interesting than whatever is happening on their iPhones. If you deliver a piece of information, you need to be aware that it can be checked in seconds, and you may be challenged. If you tell a story, make it so engaging that people have to give it their full attention. If you use slides, make the information so obvious that people can absorb it in a few seconds.

Some speakers bemoan the fact that control has passed from them to their audience. They're missing the point. The audience was always in charge, and the speaker is there to serve. These days, the level of service has to be even higher.

Tips for mobile Facebook

Where do you check Facebook? If you have it on your smartphone, the answer is probably "just about anywhere I have a few seconds to spare". That could be waiting for a train, while grabbing a sandwich, at the gym, in a bar waiting for friends, or even (well, maybe this is not you) in the toilet cubicle. OK, even if you don't check Facebook on the go, a lot of people (or potential customers as we sometimes call them) do. That means you have to take peoples' habits into account when you design your Facebook pages. 

Here are some tips for your Facebook content that fits both the small screen and the short attention time:

• Get to the point quickly
• Stick to one simple message
• If there's a call to action, keep it high on the page
• Keep any graphics small
• Avoid animations - stick to text and icons
• Encourage likes
• Make it easy to share
• Make it fun
• Don't make people go through several screens
• Thank people for clicking/liking

Of course, the above advice doesn't only apply to Facebook. It applies to your website, and any other type of your content that people may access on a phone too.