Monthly Archives: October 2015

Promote your upcoming events

by Gail Z. Martin excerpted from 30 Days to Social Media Success

Event planners also love speakers who help them put the word out about their events. When you contact groups to speak, be sure to mention if you’ve accumulated a large number of Facebook fans or Twitter followers, and if your opt-in newsletter list is in the thousands, that’s also a terrific plus. Talk up the event and encourage your followers to attend for the chance to meet you in real life.

If you will be traveling, contact Meetup groups in the area and invite them to join you at your next event if the program is open to the public. If you can’t invite them to the main event, see if they would like to do a coffee get-together or fireside chat with you during time in your travel schedule that would otherwise be wasted. You can also connect with the local chapters of national organizations of which you are a member or which pertain to your topic (groups such as eWomenNetwork, National Speakers Association, NAWBO, etc.) and issue the same invitations.

Don’t forget to connect via the online groups on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for all of the same groups to invite them to attend and share tips related to your speech content. Talk about your upcoming programs on your own Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages, not from a hard sell, but in terms of the valuable content you’re looking forward to sharing. You may find that some of your existing contacts will be in the area to attend, or have friends they can send your way.

Promote by Tweeting live from the event. Don’t just Tweet about your part—let everyone know how much fun you’re having, how valuable the speakers are, and what a great event it is. Tweet about the people you meet and the workshops you’re attending. Take photos from your cell phone and upload them right away.

Promote after the event (great for being asked back again) by blogging, Tweeting and uploading after you get home. (Make sure you’ve copied the organizer who invited you so he/she can see how much free publicity you’ve provided.) Write an article for your newsletter and then share it on your blog and in sound bites on your Twitter feed. Carry your digital video camera to the event and create a videoblog scrapbook, then post it on YouTube. Tweet the link, add it to your other social media sites and be sure to use Social Bookmarking to share it. When you send follow-up emails to the other attendees and speakers you met at the conference, include the links to your video and other promotion so they can also bask in the afterglow. Link to the organizers, speakers and attendees you’ve met on Facebook, Twitter and other sites, and choose the very best connections to add on LinkedIn.

Send a note to the speakers you met at the event extending that contact and offer to have them as a guest on your blog or podcast. Now you have another reason to talk. This can be a great way to share referrals to other possible speaking engagements or opportunities for collaboration for both of you. Of course, if you’re hosting a guest on your site, that’s yet another reason for social media promotion!

If you’ve got names for key contacts in the city to which you’re traveling, whether those are reporters, radio hosts or business contacts, look for them on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and LinkedIn and make a connection. Let them know you’ll be in the area and would like to talk or meet for coffee. You can also marshal your LinkedIn contacts near your event city and ask them for referrals to local media or connections to the kinds of people you’d like to meet. Make your travel dollars stretch further by piggybacking extra mini-events or meetings onto your events.

Now through December 31, 2015 the Kindle edition of 30 Days to Social Media Success is specially priced at just $5.99!

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Filed under Business Planning, Coaching, Gail Z. Martin, Uncategorized

Social Media and the Speaker

by Gail Z. Martin excerpted from 30 Days to Social Media Success

Speakers today face tough competition. Economic uncertainty has led many companies and organizations to scale back on events and to renegotiate speaker fees and reimbursement. Despite those hardships, speaking to groups is still an important income stream for many experts, and a way to gain recognition for coaches, consultants and authors.

Much of the advice for authors in the previous chapter can also be applied for speakers. Many speakers also have books or info products they’ve written, so they can benefit from promoting both their books and their availability as a speaker. Social media can lend a hand.

Provide a free sample

Event organizers are understandably reluctant to book a speaker they’ve never seen. You can use web video to help overcome that reluctance by providing planners with a free sample of your speaking technique. Planners may check out your web site before contacting you for a full demo DVD, so a couple of short clips that show your strengths as a presenter may be enough to encourage them to move further with the process of booking you for their event.

Don’t stop with posting clips to your main web site. Utilize video on your Facebook and LinkedIn sites, and Tweet about new YouTube videos when you post them. You can also include your new videos on your blog, with the opportunity to add extra commentary or insights.

Event planners like to see evidence that you’re in demand as a speaker. Blog and Tweet about your upcoming events, and update your Facebook and LinkedIn status when you’re heading out for events and when you post photos, video or a recap after the event. When you speak, invite listeners to become your social media friends, fans and followers, and encourage them to post comments on what has been most helpful about your presentation.

Work with event promoters before and after the events where you speak. Offer to provide guest blogs or articles related to your topic, and be sure to send them your YouTube video. Always ask for recommendations, and post these on your sites.

Audio samples are also great previews of what you offer as a speaker. When you do a teleclass or a radio interview, include a link to the audio on your web site. Choose a snappy segment of a teleseminar to keep it short, but be sure to showcase both your knowledge and your delivery style.

Now through December 31, 2015 the Kindle edition of 30 Days to Social Media Success is specially priced at just $5.99!

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Filed under Business Planning, Coaching, Gail Z. Martin, Marketing, Uncategorized

Are You for Real? (Excerpt #23 from Mass Influence by Teresa de Grosbois)

You can go kicking and screaming, or you can just go.”

—Jennifer Hough

Confession time. I sometimes do business meetings in my garden while I randomly pull weeds. It’s a grounding act that helps me stay tuned into the person I’m with and connected to who I am.

Pulling weeds is a symbolic act for me. It’s a reflection of all those inauthentic parts of myself that don’t serve me. Anything that pulls me out of the conversation or moment I’m focused on can create a conversation in my head that is different than the one I’m having out loud.

When I’m nervous, when I’m worrying about my schedule, when I’m stuck on being right, when I’m coming from a place of looking good, when I scold myself and stay in my own shame—all of those are weeds to pull.

They choke out the growth of who I really am in the world: someone committed to being deeply of service to others, someone who stands for others stepping into their own leadership.

Weed daily—moment by moment.

Anything that stops you from powerfully walking your path in life is inauthentic to who you are. They are random weeds to pull. Like gardening, it is an ongoing commitment, an ongoing noticing. It is not a task to check off your to-do list. The garden is not weeded once and then you are done. It is a moment-by-moment noticing of what has arisen that might need pulling to leave room for the flowers and fruits to flourish. I work on it daily.

Habit #2: – Influential people are authentic. Their inner voice agrees with what their outer voice is saying.

They do something they deeply care about, and work with others they deeply respect.

The second habit that influential people consistently have is authenticity. People can spot a phony a mile away and they aren’t going to like and trust you if they think you’re a fake. You can become famous without authenticity, but it’s very difficult to become influential.

Get your copy of Mass Influence – www.MassInfluencetheBook.com

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