YOU’VE BEEN LYNCHED

Cristiano Ronaldo. Kanye West. Andrew Tate.

If Piers Morgan was an undertaker, he’d be investigated for filling his own coffins such has been the fallout for these men following their appearance on his ‘Piers Morgan Uncensored’ show.

Since their chin wagging with the gobby gammon, all three men have experienced catastrophic professional collapses – even if Ronaldo is being soothed by $4m-a-week to play exhibition football in the Saudi Arabian league.

Professional cigar smoker and misogynist, Andrew Tate, was arrested by Romanian police in one of the most brilliant self-owns ever, while the idiot formerly known as Kanye West has self-immolated, in honour of his fellow entrepreneur and misunderstood artist… **check notes** Adolf Hitler.

Morgan’s Midas touch might be only a coincidence, of course, but if he had his way there’d be a fourth victim – one Mick Lynch, the head of Britain’s Rail, Marine and Transport workers’ union.

Alas, while Morgan enjoyed friendly fireside chats with Ronaldo, Tate & Ye, his attempt to take Lynch down at the knees went awry, with the presenter’s attempts to rattle his guest falling flat – inspiring no end of humiliation on social media.

“Is that the level your journalism is at these days?” Lynch asked, when Morgan attempted a ‘gotcha’ by taking aim at Lynch’s obviously humorous Facebook profile photo – a bald puppet from cult 60s TV show Thunderbirds that bore a passing resemblance to Lynch.

“You’re about to wreak havoc on the country, and [The Hood – a fictional terrorist puppet] that’s a man who wreaked havoc on the world!” Morgan continued, unwilling to stop digging, before being put back in his place by Lynch; “Is that the level we’re at, don’t you want to talk about the issues, instead of a little vinyl puppet from when I was a kid?”

“You seem very irritated” Morgan argued, to an utterly nonplussed Lynch. “Well, I’m not”, he responded, as Morgan’s face became ever more crimson.

It was just one of a number of tete-a-tetes in which Lynch won by unanimous decision, going from an unknown trade unionist to a much respected national figure in a matter of months.

As we head into 2023, with public anger growing in many countries due to spiralling costs, inflationary pressures and a general disillusionment with elected leaders’ unable and/or unwilling to make a positive impact – Lynch has become a beacon of common sense and sensibility, in no small part due to those straight talking media appearances.

Morgan has been buried, with Kay Burley, Richard Madeley and others suffering similar fates. I have yet to see anyone ruffle Lynch’s feathers, and that applies to politicians who have endured the same fate as interviewers. He’s given the gotcha kings and queens on GB News a wide berth, however, insisting ‘They’re a bunch of right wing bigots from what I can see”.

Straight talking like that can get you in trouble, but only if you’re not concrete in your views and certain you’ve done your homework. Lynch nails both.

The 61 year-old, born in London to Irish parents from Cork and Armagh, cites James Connolly as his inspiration and has enjoyed quite the rise from a 16 year-old school leaver to a man holding the British government – packed with Eton and Oxbridge graduates – to account. He has gained support on the left, as one might expect – but a quick social media search will prove he’s earned respect from outwith the expected groups.

“If (he) had to do what my members do, getting up at all hours of the morning, working shifts in arduous working circumstances, putting up with all sorts of conditions…he wouldn’t survive a minute, and he wouldn’t have a future in the real world, where they’ve never done a hand’s turn – as my mother used to say.”

This comment, referencing Piers Morgan’s ‘bile and hate speech’, as Lynch called it, showed why and how he’s become so popular. In any media training, we speak about knowing your message and your audience, and being able to weave both into a conversation in an authentic way.

Lynch stands up for his key audience, speaks with a calm authority, and knows his topic inside out. Not a single interviewer or politician has been able to outdo him when it came to facts and figures (Brexit vote aside).

“As my mother used to say” is a classic soft touch to add to a quote – aligning him with his members; the average man and woman in the street.

He’s taken advantage of big ticket appearances on the likes of Piers Morgan’s show, Good Morning Britain, Sky News and the BBC – but he doesn’t over do it. A burst of media appearances ensures that each time he shares his message it’s fresh and we’re not tired of seeing and hearing him.

He’s also shown an eagerness to embrace social media and online channels that may reach a younger audience, an audience recent studies show are trending more to the left than previous generations, and staying there even as they age.

“The new media outlets and social media give us more opportunities,” Lynch said recently. “More and more people don’t trust the mainstream media for various reasons. The main thing is we have to convince our people, trade unionists, to take the action, and that spreads to other people in the community – whether it’s in your pub, your mosque, your church or temple, people have those discussions about what’s going on.”

Once more, Lynch gets his message across in a calm, concise tone, and effortlessly touches on multiple audiences by going beyond just ‘the pub’ when referring to communities where he’d like his message heard.

You may not be planning on becoming a national icon in 2023, but if you end up in front of cameras and microphones, then watching and listening to Mick Lynch will be time well spent.

It’ll be more entertaining, at least, than watching Piers discuss the Saudi Arabian league.

Why You Should Pay Attention To The Games Played After The Game.

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In the Times, where I worked as a rugby correspondent for a fistful of years, and many other newspapers, the sports department is sometimes known – tongue firmly in cheek – as the ‘toy department’.

The correspondents in politics and news may look down their noses at the folks who fill the back pages, but there was no doubting the importance of the toy department.

For many, the sports pages are a reason to buy a newspaper, and the coverage in that section will be treated by many with more import than the tales of philandering gerrymanderers who populate the early pages.

Arrigo Sacchi, the famous ex-Milan and Italy coach, once said that sport is ‘the most important of the less important things‘, and he wasn’t wrong.

When you think of a crisis in ‘public life’, you’d be forgiven for thinking immediately of a political scandal.

But for the highest crises-to-personality ratio, you’d struggle to look beyond professional sport.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp during the press conference at Anfield, Liverpool.

How many CEOs (football managers) earning millions are dumped in a number of weeks or months each year? How many CEOs need to front up to media interviews in the double figures each week? How many CEOs are heroes to millions and demons to millions more?

When it’s framed that way, you begin to see that the “toy department” has a coalface that makes it a hell of a place to hone your PR skills!

Next time you’re watching Jurgen Klopp or Jose Mourinho, consider how they speak – often off the cuff – on behalf of themselves, their players and their fans, with a skill that many CEOs would fail to ever attain.

Think of how they send subtle (and not so subtle) messages to their players while they speak, while remaining conscious of what the journalists need in return. Consider how they speak to the fans, while being cautious not to get caught up in something that could create an unwanted headline.

Some managers will intimidate – Giovanni Trappatoni was well versed in whipping out his CV when he wanted you to cower – while some will talk and talk and talk and talk…..to avoid answering your question directly.

Former Ireland rugby head coach Joe Schmidt loved to reel off the entire opposition team lineups to eat into the sparse minutes offered up, while Brian Kerr would wander off on a tangent and it felt like landing a great white to pull him back on track.

Lessons from the “toy department” may not be studied that seriously, but it’s time for that to change.

Alex Ferguson, the legendary ex-Manchester United boss – was tapped by Harvard Business School for his leadership and management skills, so maybe now the rest of us should pay more attention.

The next time Klopp, or Pep, or Cody, or Farrell speak – take notes. Take more notes when they don’t speak!

Ciarán

Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh is a Senior Account Manager, and part of the Media Training Team at Fuzion Communications, with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland.

Avoiding the Snowball Effect

The beauty of the flurry of snowflakes falling outside my office/spare bedroom window is magical. Yet experience, and probably age, inspire a level of concern and consideration as to the knock effects a heavy and prolonged snowfall can have.

This may be the start of the snow that we’ve been warned was coming over the past week. We’ve been braced for ‘Beast from the East 2.0’ conjuring memories of the Siberian snowstorm that shut much of the country in 2018.

Little did we know that being restricted in movement would be so passé by 2021, having spent the last 12 months in some level of lockdown and what seems like a constant degree of crisis management and “pivoting” as a result of a global pandemic and Brexit, among other things.

As head of Communications back then for Dairygold, the ‘Beast from the East‘ posed immense risks and consequences to the logistics and operations of the business.

How to reach farms to collect milk when the rural roads were impassable, what of the milk that couldn’t be collected? How to support suppliers when they needed their Co-Operative most? Not to mention, the day-to-day operations of the international business, the welfare of hundreds of staff, its processing and manufacturing sites, retail stores etc.

Business continuity kicked into action early, with planning for such scenarios already in place to as much of an extent as possible. I was proud to have been part of the business continuity task force regularly updating management, assessing risks and addressing the complex requirements of all stakeholders. Again, little did we know that orchestrating remotely with efficiency and in collaboration would become a modus operandi for so many of us two years later.

Communications, both internal and external, is critical to linking the elements together. I’m grateful to Dairygold’s management and in particular its CEO Jim Woulfe who astutely valued and recognised the role communications plays in continuity planning and situation management. They led by example on the value of communication across the business.

Underestimating the importance of communications in continuity planning and situation management is one of the biggest risks to a business that can have serious and long-term consequences to safety, operations, reputation, staff morale, you name it.

If you’re a corporate working with an agency or have communications support internally, it’s vital that you see them as your partner. If you don’t have day-to-day support, it’s important to recognise when you may need it and where to go if/when you need Crisis Communication, Litigation Support Services.

We may not always know, or need to know, the nitty gritty but it’s crucial to know enough to devise a strategy, trouble-shoot effectively and be as proactive as possible. From our perspective, business continuity planning, Crisis PR and situation management is a heady mix of proactive and reactive communications. Above all, for it to work, clear and effective channels of communication must be open.

At times we remind and reassure clients that we’ve got their back.

We’re there 24/7 to support, prevent and mitigate adverse outcomes for our clients but we can’t support if we’re in the dark. A quick call or line to your communications partner helps to identify and tease out the risks and the requirements, if there are any.

It gets the cogs turning and can be one of the most important calls that’s made. Communication is not the enemy, it’s the solution. If you have time on your side, media training is also a hugely worthwhile exercise for preparedness which you’ll hope you never need.

Whether it’s for reasons of a lack of time, clarity, silo mentality or containment, communications support can fall down the priority list and it can snowball from there...

Aoibhinn

Aoibhinn Twomey, former journalist, is an Account Director with Fuzion Communications and is part of the Crisis Communications team, offering Crisis Consultancy services from offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland 

Media Training Tips

So you’ve been asked to take part in a press interview…

Interviews, be it on radio, TV or with a journalist face to face for a print article, can be very daunting.

Even for those who are very experienced, nerves are normal – you are human after all!! Often it can feel like you have no control and could be entering the lion’s den but with some simple techniques, you can master any interview and even better come across believable and communicate your key messages.

Here are five simple media training techniques that I use to prepare and calm clients for an interview:

 

1.Remember; You are “the” expert

Remember you might not know the questions, but you definitely know the answer.

A journalist is interviewing you because you know something they don’t, you are the expert so remind yourself of this before any interview.

 

2.Never say no comment!

No comment is like a red flag to a journalist.

It makes them think you are hiding something if you don’t have anything to say. More importantly it makes your audience think you are hiding something if you are quoted saying “no comment”.

 

3.Silence is golden

It is best to keep your tone steady and also keep your sentences short.

Don’t feel like you have to fill silence as silence shows confidence and credibility – don’t be afraid to have the confidence to stop talking!

 

4 Watch your body language

Body language can often show you are nervous.

Everyone has little habits they do subconsciously. This can be a dead giveaway for nerves, so I recommend that you record yourself on camera or get someone else to record you, and try to correct your body language. 

 

5. Breathe!

It might sound silly, but remind yourself to take a moment to breathe to calm yourself down!

Training..

If you would like to find out more techniques for controlling and preparing for press interviews, we provide media training services from our offices in Dublin and Cork.

Our training is very practical and we always prepare thoroughly in advance to ensure that the sessions are relevant to you and your sector and that you are given tips to keep you on message and in control of the interview, even when it could be a pressurised situation.

I lead the media training team at Fuzion and my experience as a former journalist will help to carefully support you and your team in those interview situations, allowing you to achieve best results for you and your organisation.

With our help, you will learn how to speak authentically and memorably, making you a more polished spokesperson, business leader or elected official. You will learn how to plan and prepare your media strategy and once “live” we will show you how to stay on message, how to turn a hostile interview into a positive outcome and how to rise above the white noise of everything else.

Whether on-camera or on radio you will become calmer, confident, engaging, personable and most importantly believable.

As part of our training we will digitally record you in front of a live camera for immediate feedback and help you to skill-up faster than you ever thought possible.

Our media training includes;

• Interview techniques for in-studio, and telephone interviews, familiarisation with the interviewer
• Interviewing methods to stay ahead of all journalistic approaches
• Simulated interviews with hard hitting questions and helping to analyse answer direction
• Introducing an opponent for interview and hone your combat technique

If you are interested in our Media Training services please contact us and we can create a bespoke training solution for your needs.

Ciara

Ciara Jordan is an Account Director with Fuzion Communications and she leads the media training team, from our offices in Dublin and Cork.

Take AIM at your audience and make them like you

Today I am going to talk about likeability.

It’s something you should strive for when you’re presenting in a business setting. Practically every business communication event involves selling something. If not directly a product or service, then at the very least, a point of view.

You are likely hoping to persuade your audience of something or trying to motivate them to do something, aren’t you? Therefore, finding a way to demonstrate that you care about the people with you in the room when you present is precisely the way to encourage them to care for you and your position.

Last week, when I emceed the Irish Centre for Business Excellence conference, keynote speaker, psychologist, and author, Owen Fitzpatrick, reinforced this idea as he explained how influence is best achieved when you spend time asking questions of and taking an interest in the other person first.

In short, we teach people how we want to be treated.

For many, this “be likeable” notion might not come naturally. Instead, we focus on our proof points and logic to carry us through. Sorry, folks, because I do want you to like me but, blech – that is often super boring.

But knowing some need a structure to dial up on “likeable”, I teach my clients to apply a logic-based methodology.

Derived from communications lecturer JD Schramm of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, this approach helps you get systematic in your presentation preparation – especially if you’re not naturally inclined to consider others.

The methodology is boiled down to three simple letters: AIM.

Audience. Intent. Message. In that order.

1 Audience

Take a moment to consider who is in your audience.

Are they new-hires or veterans? Senior management or the executive board? Women or men? Both? Other? Do they prefer Elvis or the Beatles? PCs or Macs? Coffee or Tea? For my Irish audience, Barry’s or Lyons?

When CNN first promoted me to anchor, they sent me to an anchor-training school in Dallas, Texas.

I didn’t realise there was such a place. There is. One thing the trainer told me back then in Texas particularly stuck with me.

He said that no matter how dry or dense a story may seem, someone out there watching will be emotionally affected by it.

“Every story has a ‘hope, dream or fear’ attached to it,” he said. It’s important to try to see the pictures inside their heads.

I sometimes ask clients to write their presentation agenda.

Next, write a second agenda from the audience’s point of view. Then I have them throw out that first agenda and begin again from the second one.

This is what I mean by truly considering the others’ points of view.

2 Intent

Your intent is never simply to inform.

If you’re just doing that, then you might as well simply put your information in an email and hit the send button. You must be trying to motivate or inspire your audience to some sort of action.

Define your goal very clearly. Too often I see this one overlooked.

The goal is too broad and ill-defined. What is it exactly that you want your audience to do after you’re finished speaking? Even if it’s just to agree to another meeting. That’s okay. Be very specific.

3 Message

Only after you have dealt with points one and two should you move on to craft your message. Like intent, this must be clear too. Write it down. One sentence!

Here’s the definition I learned from organising campaigns:

A message is “Brief, Memorable, Repeatable, Emotional and Data-backed“.

But it’s not only the data. While supportive, taken stand-alone, data dumps, as I already mentioned, are often dry and boring.

Your message is your ‘call to action‘ – your spoken declaration of your written intent, your motivation!

State it clearly and state it often. Don’t assume your audience is just “getting it“.

If you know your AIM, before you start writing, you will be better at framing and outlining your talk.

A client wrote to me just this week proclaiming that he now realises “this isn’t going to be an easy fix. It will take serious effort“.

He’s right!

Here’s a prime example from one of the readers of my column:

The 82-year-old writer shared that he learned how “to think and speak more clearly” through communications training.

He applies the training all the time, including just last Saturday when he said a few words at his 80-year-old sister’s birthday party in London. “Communications training has become a way of life.“, he wrote.

To my client and you lovely people reading today: Exactly.

Applying AIM and becoming deliberately more likeable to your audience will take time. But I promise, it is worth it.

From presentations, to one-on-one scenarios, from spoken to written if you have a question about communications that you would like me to deal with in my column in the Sunday Independent please send me an email at gina@fuzion.ie .

Gina London

Gina London is a former CNN anchor and international campaign strategist who is now a Strategic Communications director with Fuzion Communications. She serves as media commentator, emcee and corporate consultant. @TheGinaLondon

Gina London: Become a more deliberate communicator

Today I ask this question: What three adjectives do others likely use to describe you?

I often have my clients first write down how they would like to be described and then square that up against how they imagine they currently fare.

That’s the challenge today in my “The Communicator” column in the Your Work section of the Sunday Independent.

If you’ve ever had a 360 report done on you, you know what I’m talking about.

If you haven’t, reach out to me or your employer to get one. It’s kind of like President Trump’s 100 Days gauge, without hitting the front pages. Reality. Check!

What we think about ourselves is less important that how we’re perceived by others.

It’s helpful to identify what traits or behaviours of ours may be holding us back.

It’s also important to not get defensive, but to get determined once you identify it.

Don’t cop out with the old, “Well, that’s just how I am” excuse. Instead, to use this expression I’ve learned since moving here to Ireland, “Cop on!”

It’s a lot like when my mom used to make me sit down at the piano in our dining room and practice every day for an hour. She would set the clock on the stove and I wasn’t to get up from the bench until the buzzer rang. Except sometimes, like the cheeky eight-year-old I was when I first started taking lessons, I would sneak over to the stove and move the alarm forward a few minutes to hurry it along.

Naturally, my mom had no idea that somehow in our home, the passage of time was magically accelerated. Ha!

But, like learning to play the piano, you also can practice taking incremental steps toward changing your behaviour as I discuss in today’s column.

Experts agree leaders are made not born. So now that you’ve been born, let’s get together to make you better!

If you have an A. B. C. (Appearance, Behaviour or Communication) question for me – please write to me here (gina@fuzion.ie) or in care of the Sunday Independent and I’ll try to answer it in an upcoming column!

That’s your first homework challenge – make it a great week!

Gina

Gina London is a former CNN anchor and international campaign strategist, now Strategic Communications Director with Fuzion Communications. She serves as media commentator, MC and corporate consultant.

Gina London: Your posture and smile are key

Mae West is quoted as once saying, “I speak two languages. Body and English.”

As a communications consultant, I work with executives and organisations on improving all facets of communications. Body language is a key component of that equation.

Recently I worked with a director at the Ireland office of a large multinational. The organisation’s annual sales conference was coming up and she was preparing her presentation.

Together, we watched a video of her in action previously. Or not in action.

During this presentation, although she clearly had command of the topic and delivered her words smoothly, we agreed she did not connect with her audience.

The video cut out towards the audience and showed their reaction – or lack of it. Most of the people were sitting passively with their arms crossed. Not at all engaged.

While my client delivered powerful and emotionally-charged words, her body didn’t match them.

Her posture behind the podium was rigid, her face devoid of emotion.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming you naturally communicate well in presentations.

If you don’t believe this, have someone record you speaking at your next meeting, then watch it – with and without sound.

You’ll learn a lot about yourself because we generally don’t acknowledge how much of our communication is done through expression, gesture and posture.

Here are a few things you can try:

1 Power up your posture

Many people in pressure situations hide behind the podium and hold on to it for dear life.

If there’s no podium, nervousness may cause them to rock on one foot or shift their weight from side to side.

It can be very distracting. If they come out from behind the podium, they may race back and forth. Stage presence is executive presence.

I encourage my clients to ‘plant‘. Stand with your legs about shoulder-width apart, plant your feet solidly and distribute your weight evenly. Feel comfortable.

Now deliver your introduction in strength and poise while standing still. If you want to address another part of the room, try turning your body from the waist.

Lean forward and stretch out your arms to make a point. If you do move, do it purposefully and please stop for a bit before you about-turn.

Staging is challenging for many people who either stand like statues with moving lips or run like frightened deer.

2 Use your eyes to make contact – and more

A client of a large telecommunications company once told me that a former coach advised him to look slightly above the heads of an audience during a presentation. No way!

Acknowledge the humans in the room. If you see someone out there you didn’t know was attending, say hello to them. Make the event personal.

I sometimes place large photos of people’s faces showing various degrees of boredom (like most business audiences, unfortunately), in empty chairs around a room for a client to practice looking at them.

I can always tell if my clients really look if they notice that among the face photos is one of Marilyn Monroe and another of Elvis Presley.

Another way to engage your audience with your eyes is by changing their shape – your eyes, not the audience.

We do this naturally when we’re speaking with friends. If something is compelling, we may narrow our eyes. With something surprising, or exciting, our eyes become wider and our eyebrows go up.

Don’t turn off those lovely windows to your soul when you speak before a business crowd. Your product or service should be exciting too.

3 Broaden your smile

My client who watched her past video with me was really struck by how unhappy her face looked. Imagine what the audience felt. No wonder they didn’t laugh at her jokes.

For most of you out there, smile more than you think you possibly can, and you’ll probably be about halfway there. And, guess what? Even if you don’t feel happy, smiling makes your endorphins kick in so it will help relax you and make you feel more at ease when you present.

Oh, and before any of you comment that my column photo “screams negativity” as a friend of mine, who’s a dentist, not a communications expert, wrote to me, please let me add that the study of body language, or kinesics, emphasises three Cs. Pay attention to Clusters, Context and Consistency to help you better gauge others’ intentions and help you become more engaging to those others.

Arms crossed doesn’t always mean defensive.

So, for your next presentation, remember, your body is not just a vehicle to move your head from room to room.

Start practising now in those inconsequential situations – and then you’ll be geared up for the next big communications crunch.

Your audience, minus Marilyn and Elvis, will take notice and thank you.

Gina

Gina London is a former CNN anchor and international campaign strategist, now Strategic Communications Director with Fuzion Communications. She serves as media commentator, MC and corporate consultant.

This column is part of ‘The Communicator’ series that Gina writes for the Sunday Independent

 

The importance of remembering people’s names

Early on in my professional career, I learned how important it is to get names right and here I will give you my simple tips to help you get them right too.

My first job in Washington was on Capitol Hill in a Congressional office. The Chief of Staff’s first name was Christopher.

“It’s Christopher. Not Chris,” he corrected me after I erroneously referred to him in the more casual manner.

Christopher wasn’t being fussy. He simply preferred his name how he preferred it. We went on to have a very solid working relationship. I always respected him for reminding me. Nothing wrong with that.

Our names are possibly the most important part of our identity.  

Later on, when I began working in television news in Washington at WTTG, I carefully made it a part of my job to learn and remember the names of everyone I met. I even made a little spreadsheet – listing names, positions and something cool or interesting about each person.

One day, about a couple of months in, I passed a producer in the editing hall whom I had probably met only once or twice before. “Hey, Mark,” I tossed out as I walked by. I won’t tell you his last name, but the cool thing I had listed was his ponytail. Very un-Washington-like!

“Hey,” he turned, “You’re new, right? You clearly make an effort to remember names.”

He went on to leave WTTG to become the producer for The McLaughlin Group, one of the best-known and longest-running current affairs panelist talk shows in US television.

I never forgot Mark. Or Christopher and to this day, I try not to forget names.

Last week, I traveled to Shannon to work with a group of directors from an aviation company. One of the directors’ first names was “Iarlaithe.” I have learned plenty of great new names here in Ireland, but this was a new one for me.

“You probably haven’t heard my name,” Iarlaithe said to me. “It’s unusual.”

Yes, it is. It even says so when you Google it.

“An unusual Irish name that means ‘earl’ or ‘tributary lord,’” reads the citation.  The name is also Irish for the St. Jarlarth, who, research shows, was noted for his piety and his teaching ability as he founded a school in County Galway.

The current Iarlaithe I met last week is known to me for his ability with numbers and that he likes his curry very hot!

I find the more I focus taking a genuine interest in people and their personalities and stories that surround them, the more I will remember the names that go with them.

I’m not perfect, mind you. Last summer, when I spoke at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Conference, I tried to show-off and go around the large ballroom and name everyone to whom I had been introduced. I got 99 percent – notoriously missing one gentleman I had been having a wonderful talk with before I came up on stage!

Thankfully, he forgave me. And I’ll keep trying to focus more!

Tune in for my next blog post, a copy of an article that I have written for my column “The Communicator” in the ‘Your Work’ business section of the Sunday Independent where I will share some simple tips that will help you to remember better.

If there’s a career communications topic you would like to me to cover in an upcoming column, or if you would like me to help you or your organization – please drop me a line at gina@Fuzion.ie

Great communications equal great relationships!

Gina

Gina London is a former CNN anchor and international campaign strategist who is now a director with Fuzion Communications. She serves as a media commentator, emcee, and corporate consultant.

No make-up selfies and the science behind getting your charity’s voice heard.

Last year Facebook fans were subjected to a strange bra colour status update craze that took the social networking world by storm. The campaign saw Facebook users inundated by intimate details of their friends’ bra colour, which, it transpired, was all about raising awareness for breast cancer.

Then there was the hugely popular #nomakeup selfie in aid of the Irish Cancer Society, which saw thousands of women, including a number of well-known Irish celebrities, posting bare faced pictures of themselves on social networking sites, although often masked by very flattering filters! The clever campaign, which piggybacked on the burgeoning obsession among young women with the self-portrait, raised a staggering €500,000 for the charity.

It didn’t take long before these trends went viral, particularly when it was taken up by our small pool of Irish celebrities, and the stories started to appear in the media.

That’s one way to hit the headlines when you are looking to fund raise and raise awareness of your existence, but what can you do when you want the Government to sit up and listen to your charity’s most hard hitting issues?

Recently, here at Fuzion, we took on a very worthwhile campaign on behalf of a charity client whereby we facilitated a mass media and lobbying campaign for the return of Discretionary Medical Cards to children with Down syndrome.

The outcome of this was in the region of 15,300 people with an acute or life-long medical condition-among them hundreds of children with Down syndrome- who lost their Discretionary Medical Card, or GP visit card, after an eligibility review between 1 July 2011 and 31 May 2014, had them returned.

Communications Planning and Execution

Employing the services of a skilled Communications Expert is essential for any such lobbying campaign to prove a success. A communications expert is the manager, the gatekeeper between you and the media, the person who adeptly deals with the manifold complexities of any charity, such as members’ individual needs, stakeholders, ethics and rivalry for resources among branches.

Any skilled communications person knows, particularly since the advent of social media, that it is the court of public opinion which wins out on the day, so if you have a communications expert who can get the media on board with your cause and can consistently provide case studies, interviews, sound bites and hard hitting statements while running a concurrent digital and social media campaign you increase your chances of success exponentially.

Parents whose children were affected by such a cruel and senseless measure as having this vital lifeline snatched away from them, with allegedly little attempt at sensitivity from officials, were justifiably insensate with rage. In these crisis scenarios it can be difficult for parents to remain focussed on the global issue and to shout from the same script as they desperately fight for their individual child’s needs.

A communications expert is the cool head in the eye of the storm facilitating media coverage, updating social media sites, lobbying government officials and often most importantly regularly updating members and stakeholders on exactly how hard the charity is working to effect change to avoid dissension within the campaign ranks.

Another critical element that a communications expert can provide is solid media training for nominated spokespersons. If you have been granted a five minute slot on a prime time radio or television show to communicate the key messages of your lobbying campaign then you need to be more than prepared for any kind of curve-ball the presenter might throw your way, and they do so regularly.

A charity’s hard fought campaign against a piece of government legislation can be crushed by one sloppy and incoherent interview.

A typical response from well-intentioned Charity CEOs provides succinctly the reason why your spokespersons should receive professional training in how to speak to the media: “I talked to that reporter for over an hour and he didn’t mention anything about what the campaign is all about!”

A knowledge and communications expert can bring awareness, greater understanding, cohesion and focus to charities which are member focussed and disparate in nature. A knowledge and communications expert can also help such an organisation to win the trust of stakeholders.

Organisations who win are those who communicate openly and often both internally and externally, have a clear and committed communications policy and regularly assess their own performance.

Following a series of recent high-profile scandals in the charity sector now, more than ever, it is essential that each and every charity has their communications strategy in order and that is overseen by a skilled professional.

Edel O’Connell is a Senior Account Manager with Fuzion PR working from the Dublin office.

Fuzion are a PR firm in Ireland with offices in Dublin and Cork

Is anyone a born natural when it comes to the media?

People who contact the Fuzion Media Training team frequently feel  embarrassed at  having to do so and our answer to them is always the same, “why do you think you should automatically know how to do this? It’s a skill just like any other that has to be learned and mastered.”

I have seen the most experienced spokespeople and politicians fluff lines, panic under pressure and crumble in the face of harsh interrogation. I’ve seen guests come in to do an interview that could have gone out to one million people – but the piece (and worse the opportunity) was canned because they weren’t prepared.  Fascinated by what just happened, I have also, where possible, asked them what they think just went wrong?

Without exception the answer has always been –”I didn’t think through or practice what I wanted to say before going on!”

There are no naturals in this business; very experienced TV presenters rehearse a script 50 if not a 100 times before mastering it.  Most broadcasters are not better at communicating than the rest of us; they’ve just made a career out of practising their content and by extension perfecting their performance.  They also receive constant and, let’s be honest, not always welcome constructive criticism from their production team.

You can work with a media trainer to adopt a similar approach and you don’t have to be facing an imminent broadcast interview to do it.   Media now means much more than it used to, it’s not just newspapers, TV and radio it’s YouTube, Facebook, Twitter. You need the same media skills to succeed, no matter what the platform, and it’s our job and privilege to show you how.

Our media training includes:

Realising it’s all part of PR

If you have your own business, if you have something to sell, you need to be someone clients will like, know and trust.  We encourage people to identify who their real clients are and how they can connect with them and knowing your clients means knowing which media to use to connect with them too.

You are your own best PR, and any opportunity to promote yourself will be an opportunity to promote your business.  And if you don’t have any desire to be an entrepreneur, you may wish to highlight an essential cause or create a buzz about a charity project.

Whatever the reason, there are always times in life where you need to make the right impression.  As a result, Fuzion offers media training both in isolation and as part of integrated PR packages.

Being clear on your USP and becoming visible

The very first thing to get people to be really clear on is their USP [unique selling point] and a surprising number of people struggle with this. We help you work out this essential information which we then use to build your core message.

We work with a lot of business professionals and when I ask them about their own qualities, they often say “It’s not about me; it’s the product that’s important.” I ask them to think about why they choose one shop over another and the answer is always they go where the person gives the best service.  Of course personality matters. People do business with people they trust and they do so when they get to know the face behind the brand.

Showing you how not to be defensive

This is the make or break of most media interviews. It’s the journalist’s job to ask the questions you want to be asked but equally the ones you don’t.

99% of these questions are easily predicted but we hide behind the pretence that we didn’t know what we were going to be asked. As part of our service we’ll tell you everything you’re going to be asked and we’ll get you to complete a media grid which includes everything you hope to be asked, what you don’t want to be asked and the stories and examples you will use to back up what you are saying!

We’ll then put you through your paces in an intensive mock interview which leaves no stone unturned and which just like the broadcasters will be analysed in minute but always constructive detail! This coupled with some assertive responses will completely eliminate the temptation to get defensive.

Above all else media training will make sure you’re relaxed, memorable and quotable. It’s an investment in both your brand and yourself that will completely transform those opportunities when they come along. 

Amanda Dunleavy

Amanda Dunleavy is part of the Fuzion Media Training team operating from our offices in both Cork and Dublin.