Creating a deliberately contentious video and posting it online can be a successful way of grabbing loads of attention.
But…
Be be warned that not all online publicity is necessarily good publicity.
If you’re not careful, a social media video can potentially cause you more harm than good.
And this can put you on the back foot in mainstream media interview encounters that can be generated by your post.
Take the YouTube video made by the United Kingdom’s ambitious “Shadow Lord Chancellor”, Robert Jenrick.
As the Conservative Party spokesperson on crime and justice, Robert Jenrick appears to aspire to become the next Opposition Leader and – presumably – the next British Prime Minister.
His YouTube video – where he confronts people who appeared to be avoiding paying their fares on the London Underground rail system – has scored many thousands of hits.
But judge for yourself whether you think Mr Jenrick comes across as a thoughtful, responsible potential future British Prime Minister!!!
Alas the Robert Jenrick YouTube smash-hit is not the most well-thought-through of videos.
On the plus side, the video does have that all-important positive message which a good social media post needs.
The message is spelt out in the final sentence where Robert Jenrick declares: “The state needs to reassert itself and go after lawbreakers.”
But – as Mr Jenrick was to find out – his inconsistent approach to lawbreaking within the video has left him wide open to criticism.
While Robert Jenrick is campaigning vigorously against fare avoidance, his video shows that he’s not so outspoken on the far more serious crime of carrying concealed weapons in public places.
During the video, Mr Jenrick interacts with an alleged fare dodger who appears to be threatening him with a knife he claims he’s carrying.
So while least one alleged fare-dodger is seen being shepherded into the hands of the authorities, Mr Jenrick later admitted he did nothing to report the far more serious public danger of a potentially lethal knife-carrying fare-dodger roaming the London Underground.
Does a potential future Minister for Crime and Justice and a potential future Opposition Leader and potential future Prime Minister – who doesn’t seem to care that much about the growing problem of knife crime – seem like a great prospect for high office???
Another controversial aspect of Robert Jenrick’s video is where he suddenly veers off the pathway of condemning fare-dodging, and moves into his bizarrely vague concerns about what he calls “weird Turkish barber shops”.
You can be the judge of whether any particular barber shop – such as this one below in Yorkshire – is “weird”.
Mr Jenrick claims “weird Turkish barber shops” are something that’s “chipping away at British society”.
Do you know anyone who wakes up each morning with this concern on their mind?
So without identifying any specific crime allegedly caused by those running such shops, Mr Jenrick leaves himself wide open to claims of overt racism.
You can check out the Jenrick YouTube video here:
So by making and posting the video in the way he has, Robert Jenrick sets himself up for legitimately tough questions on a number of fronts.
Some of these have been explored in a live national TV interview he’s done with the “Good Morning Britan” show where the shadow minister was exposed by interviewers as being unable to effectively answer to some of the most obvious questions which arise from his YouTube video.
These included questions about his failure to do anything to alert police about the alleged knife-carrying fare dodger.
And they also pursued his criticism of Turkish barber shops that don’t seem to be to his liking.
You can assess how Robert Jenrick stands up – or doesn’t in fact stand up – to questions from ITV comperes, Susanna Reid and Ed Balls, by clicking here:
Meanwhile on the opposite British parliamentary front bench to Robert Jenrick, a minister in the Labour Government of Sir Keir Starmer has given an even more damaging live broadcast interview.
This pathetic interview performance demonstrates how silly you can look if you go into a live interview without the most basic facts in your head.
Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds, appeared on LBC, supposedly to talk about the building of what is planned to be the UK’s largest road tunnel.
However, Emma Reynolds was so unprepared for the interview she couldn’t even state where was the starting point and where was the ending point of this major new tunnel.
She also failed to answer the most basic question of how much the tunnel will cost.
Interviewer Nick Ferarri was less than impressed!
To see what an underwater tunnel car crash of an interview looks like, check it out here:
Be reassured that to do a competent media interview, you don’t have to turn yourself into an encyclopedia of tiny details.
But you do have to know the basics of the topic about which you’re talking.
Embarrassingly looking at a piece of paper for the answers to the most obvious questions never looks good on TV.
For more information about Michael Dodd Communications media training sessions, please go to:
https://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/media-master-classes/
Media interview response training sessions test participants out so thoroughly – for their own good, and for the benefit of the team – that everyone taking part learns to be ready for both the toughest of surprise questions as well as for the easiest most obvious questions.
Media training can also show you how to make thoughtful videos for the internet to raise your company profile in a good way.
And if your post is enticing enough to attract mainstream news media attention, it can show you how to be fully prepared for any interviews that may follow!