Where to catch me, & a workshop waitlist

Spring has me working on both coasts this year, with a nice mix of workshops, lectures and private training sessions for individual clients. Here are some of the places you can catch me in the coming weeks:

• New York: This week, I'm in New York to facilitate two media interview skills workshops for researchers at the Rockefeller University, and giving a general seminar titled "Can you explain it to your grandmother? The impact of clear communication skills on your research." I'm coaching an individual client, too.
• Eugene, Oregon: In April, I'll be conducting a workshop in communicating with non-technical audiences for the University of Oregon Women in Graduate Science and delivering a lecture on women and public speaking to the same group.
• Portland, Oregon: In May, I'll be speaking on "The Care and Feeding of Your Blog" to the annual meeting of the National Cancer Institute Public Affairs and Marketing Network, an audience of communicators from cancer centers and institutes.

I'm setting up lots of group and individual trainings for the spring and summer in public speaking skills, communicating science to public audiences, media interview skills and more. If you're looking for a speaker or a training session, check out my pages on speaking engagements and on training for communicators and training for experts, executives and scientists for more information.

Waitlist for next "Be an Expert on Working with Experts" workshop

I'm working on scheduling another "Be an Expert on Working with Experts" workshop in May or June this year in Washington, DC. While I work out the logistics, I've formed a waitlist to keep track of interested participants. You don't need to register now, but please do go to this link to sign up. After you enter your email, you can sign up for the waitlist, as well as other choices for information on workshops, ebooks, and my free monthly newsletter, Speakers & Communicators.


Signing up for the waitlist doesn't involve registering at this point, but it will help me with scheduling and planning--so please put your name on the list if you're interested. I'd be delighted if you shared this information with your colleagues, too.

Weekend read: My weekly share on Twitter

Safety vests on, people: It's the weekend, and you want to float there, not have to swim all the way. I've had lots of good ideas, reads and resources wash up in my Twitterstream this week, and these are the ones I'm taking to that desert island with me:

• Putting store contents on the map: The great Google Maps Mania blog looks at a mashup of map and store photos from Uniqlo--you don't just get a store location, you get fashion looks and more. It's nearly a website on a map. How could you use this?
• I keep telling you: And now here's more data: Pinterest drives more traffic to blogs than Twitter.
• Move over, AP: Alternative weeklies are working on a content exchange of their own. Think about how and where that belongs in your press list.
• Inside the stream: A smart piece about Twitter's approach to advertisers, and, as my tipster says, its users as well.
• Talk to me: The Guardian has a discussion going on between scientists and journos, and the latest is Nine ways scientists can help improve science journalism. Pass this on to a geek you love--it's a good start.
• Pintastic:  Pin a Quote lets you do just that, converting text into a pinnable image you can share on Pinterest via its bookmarklet. I love this. 
• How to make a great blog: I stumbled on Parla Food, Katie Parla's amazing blog about eating and living in Rome (and a few other places), just after it began three years ago. Now she's written a post about how she put that blog together. It's a good read. Fair warning: It doesn't pay to read her blog when you're hungry, but I now know I'll be eating supremely well in Rome from now on.
• How to end a great blog: Restauranteur Bruce Buschel has been writing the "start-up chronicle" part of the New York Times's great "You're the Boss" small business blog (a team effort you could learn from). We readers have lived through the opening of one of his restaurants, the fire that devoured it just as its big season got underway, and all that followed. But now that it's not a start-up, the blog is done. Another good reminder that you can and should end blogs from time to time. I'll miss this in my feeds.
• This week's most useful read: The new timeline format also lets you tier access by admins, and now a Facebook product manager weighs in on the 5 kinds of admins every Facebook page should have. This is one time technology will click with how your office functions. And even if you are all 5 admins, yourself, it's a smart discussion of the different tasks. (Yes, I see you out there, you one-armed paper hangers.)

I've set up some new lists where you can sign up to get information on things like upcoming workshops, ebooks I'm rolling out this year, individual speaker training, or customized workshops on-site at your location, along with my list for subscribers to the free monthly Speakers & Communicators newsletter. Among them is a waitlist for the next "Be an Expert on Working with Experts" workshop for communicators, which I'm working on for May or June. No obligation to sign up on the waitlist, but it will help me plan ahead. Go here to check out the new lists and get more information.

And as always, I'm so glad you're reading. Thanks for sticking with me, and enjoy your weekend.

From Pinterest to FB timelines: 8 ways to rethink your visual strategies

The visual has long been a strong--if not the strongest--trend in social media, but until recently, video was the visual medium that took precedence. And then came the new Facebook timeline "cover shots" for profiles and brands, and Pinterest, which puts images front and center. If all that has you rethinking your visuals in social media, here are 8 resources to consult as you do so:

1. Rethink your profile images: Your profile images might be the most important ones you put online. Here's a photo-cropping tool that will help you extend a photo over several thumbnails in your Google+ profile banner. 
2. Cover yourself:  For Facebook's new timeline "cover photos," here's a precise set of measurements for the images. Facebook also offers advice for choosing a photo for your FB timeline cover, and here's advice on how to rock a cool cover image even if you can't afford a designer.
3. Is it you, rather than your cover? If it's a photo of you we're talking about, here are tips for achieving a better business photo of yourself.
4. Make your images move: Tumblr is a popular home for animated GIFs (just search the tag GIF to see), and recently upgraded capacity to allow 1MB per photo post, which leaves lots of room for creative animated images. In a different way, you can animate your Google+ profile images, which appear in a line across the top of your profile. 
5. Want to pin? Look to your blog images: If you want to pin posts from your blog to a Pinterest board, they'll get more attention if you have a smashing image already in the post. Here are some tools and ideas from Problogger about creating sensational blog images.
6. Tweeting when you're a visual brand: If your work is built around images, Twitter can still be a useful tool for highlighting your visuals. Here are 4 tips and tricks. Don't forget that Twitter's redesign means users can see your images and videos in-line, making it a stronger visual site than ever before.
7. Improving your images? Just don't overdo it. Lifehacker looks at how to enhance your images without making them look all Photoshopped.
8. Are you a source for others' images? It's always smart to think not just of the images you're pushing out, but the ones your fans are taking. Make it easy for users to take and share photos of your products, location, buildings or other visual treats. Here's a great blog post from a Washington, DC, museum with tips for how to take photographs of its art collection.

8 things to do in a media interview so you'll get called again

Sometimes, when I do a training in handling media interviews, I see trainees who are totally focused on one interview only--when they really should be thinking longer-term. If you're willing to do media interviews, then you should be looking at each one as a way to start a relationship with a reporter. Problem is, many interviewees don't handle interviews in ways that suggest they're worth a second try. You can improve your odds of another call from a reporter in a positive way by making sure you hit these 8 marks in the interview you're doing right now:

1. Return the phone call or show up for the interview. If that sounds obvious to you, let me share that the single biggest barrier I've seen to experts getting mentioned in news coverage is their own failure to show up. That might mean failing to show up for interviews to which they've agreed, or their failure to merely return a phone call inquiring about an interview. Instead of blowing off that phone message, call back--even if it's to say you are not available, but would be willing to talk another time. 
2. Ask about the deadline, right away: This is the easiest way to let the reporter know you take her inquiry seriously. It's how her world is organized. Besides, asking about the deadline first helps you prioritize how much time you have to prepare.
3. Let the reporter get a word in edgewise: The entire point of a media interview is to get information from you--but that doesn't mean you have to take a deep breath and dump all your information at once, in the first answer. (Scientists and engineers, I'm looking at you--and that goes twice for starting at the beginning of time to explain the entire field to the reporter when all he asked was a question from today's world.) Work on a short answer that summarizes a few aspects of your field or topic, then stop. If the reporter wants to know more, trust me, he'll ask (if you let him.). This goes double for live interviews, folks. A deep breath in between each of your statements also helps provide the reporter with a shoehorn to wedge in another question, so pause plenty.
4. Show up prepared: Reporters' time is limited, and they move fast. Take the time to anticipate what the reporter might ask, how you might answer, how it sounds, what needs a clearer explanation, what's too long or too short, and what the news context is around your topic this week.  Have the reports, data, visuals or other materials you might want to share at your fingertips. I'd rather see you spend even just 10 minutes gathering your thoughts than spend those 10 minutes in the interview fumbling around for an answer--that's a waste of your time and the reporter's time.
5. Answer, or at least address, the questions: Despite what you've been coached elsewhere, you need to answer the reporter's questions--otherwise, what are you doing the interview for? If you can't answer right now, address that issue forthrightly. That might be as simple as saying, "We're not ready to answer that definitively, and here are the things that will have to happen before we can..."  It's the reporter's job to press the question; it's your job to answer or explain why you can't answer. I see far too many interviews in which the reporter feels compelled to mention that the interviewee blithely ignored, roared past, or never got around to answering the question. They notice, and they get to mention that they notice that you're dodging. Seeing that in a news story where you're the source doesn't help establish you as a source worth calling back.
6. Ask for the reporter's understanding of what you said before you hang up: Rather than ask to see the story before it airs or hits the web, or complain later, why not end the interview by asking for a recap of what you said to make sure you're both on the same page? Reporters appreciate getting the facts right....before the story is done. The interview is your opportunity to make sure the facts are straight.
7. Be available for follow-up questions: Your willingness to answer follow-up questions, along with your availability to do so after hours if need be, are an "extra mile" that will set you apart from many sources. But don't count on a follow-up call. Make sure you get the main facts into the interview, then stand by for anything else that may come after the reporter has talked to others.
8. Offer other sources unconnected to you: That might mean sources of data, like reports the journalist hasn't seen, or other experts in your field who can offer another perspective.  Be generous with information in this way, and you'll reap the dividends. 

Do you or your team need training in media interview smarts? Email me at info[at]dontgetcaught[dot]biz.

Get my free notebook on Facebook timeline changes

You've got a month to get your new Facebook page timeline together, but if you're like me, you want to start reading now about the tips, tricks, shortcuts, recommended tactics and frequently asked questions involved in putting a good timeline together.

The changes are worth studying, since they obliterate some current features of Facebook brand pages--like landing pages--but add distinct advantages, like filling out your organization's history on the timeline or making better visual use of the page with a strong "cover photo" (an example from Manchester United is shown here). Facebook will turn on the timeline format on March 30, 2012, so it pays to start now on this project.

To help you, I'm going to share the string I've been collecting on Facebook timelines via a published Evernote notebook full of articles, tips, resources and examples about how companies, universities, nonprofits and government entities are using Facebook timelines so far. Click here and select "I want the Facebook timelines notebook" list to sign up for this free resource. It's a dynamic notebook, which means you'll get new resources and articles as I add them. If you select only this list, you'll only get one email with the notebook link, but please do feel free to sign up for my free monthly newsletter, Speakers & Communicators, as well as other lists to stay informed about training options, workshops, and more.

Want to share your own Facebook timeline? Leave us a link to it in the comments.