Being a huge lover and user of Hootsuite, this article from Mashable shows you exactly how to set up your dashboard so you only spend 10 minutes per day on Twitter!
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Artists: Start Small in Your Social Media Marketing
Even a Little Social Media Marketing Can Make a Big Difference
Alyson Stanfield from Art Biz Blog says it all right here in her recent blog post:
5-Minute Social Media Tasks for the Week
She details out 12 tasks that can be done on a weekly basis that could make a big impact in your art business (works for other industries as well!)
Posted in Artists, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter
Tagged artists, Facebook, Social media marketing, Twitter
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Artists: Social Media Won’t Bite
As an artist, it’s sometimes troublesome to think of yourself as anything BUT an artist. However, as you may well know, in order to be a successful artist…and by successful I mean a money making artist, not just a talented artist, you have to look at your “passion to create” as an actual business endeavor. And this means embracing the world of marketing! The article mentioned below will help to demystify social media marketing for some of you. Others may need additional help so that’s why I’m creating this blog post. Lori McNee made the following wonderful points found in the article below:
- Talk to your audience, not at them.
- Spend your time wisely on social media.
- Give people a reason to come back to your social media sites.
- Be consistent
Sometimes you have to live it, breathe it and do it in order to “get it”! So…if you need more information, leave a comment and I’ll help you out as best as I can!
Demystifying Social Media for Artists
Related articles
- New Facebook Tool Lets Artists Market Themselves (mashable.com)
- American Writers & Artists Inc. Publishes Definitive Program on How Freelancers Can Make a Living Using Social Media Expertise (prweb.com)
- Artistic Social Media Profiles – Onesheet Creates Customized Profiles for Artists (TrendHunter.com) (trendhunter.com)
Posted in Artists, Social Media
Tagged artists, Internet marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Social media, Social media marketing
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Speakers: Get Found Online
Where are you???
If you haven’t figured it out by now, the days of submitting your speaker packet to meeting or event planners are over. No longer are they thumbing through a pile of one-sheets, dvd’s and promo materials. According to Hubspot, consumers today start their shopping experience by looking on the Internet, in the search engines, the blogosphere, and social media sites.
****In order to remain competitive, businesses’ websites need to be found online by the consumers already searching for the products and services that you sell.*****
In other words….
- Shopping experience = search for a speaker
- Products = your books, presentations, expert topic
- Services = your speaking ability
- Business = YOU!
How do YOU as a speaker get found?
1. Through Blogging
- Helps with SEO – gives you links back to your website when making valuable comments
- Every blog post is indexed putting more of YOUR pages out their in search results
- Its inbound marketing and permission centric
- Gets you noticed and involved in your industry’s conversation showing you as an expert in your field
2. Through Social Media
- Helps with SEO
- Promotes your blog
- Allows you to ask questions and receive feedback
- Monitor the conversation about you and your topic
- Networking
3. Through Search Engines
- Organic search is best because research shows that people click on the organic results 75% of the time and paid results only 25% of the time.
- Use keywords
- Invest in SEO
- Measure and analyze
By implementing these new rules of marketing into your traditional marketing plan and start being found online, you’ll be seen as the expert speaker in your industry and start receiving more inquiries. Can’t do it all yourself? Try a social media virtual assistant!
If you’re a speaker having social media success, I’d love to hear about your strategies!
Related Articles
- SMM – Art of Social-Media Marketing in Google (myseosoftware.com)
- HubSpot Internet Marketing Blog
- Website Grader – Useful tool for measuring the marketing effectiveness of your
website, get a free custom report in seconds with advice for your website - Marketing Sherpa – A great resource for case studies and insights into marketing tactics
Social Media for Speakers via Deming Hill
As you may or may not know Your Virtual Footprint’s blog is focused on how speakers can leverage social media to gain more bookings, sell more products and increase their exposure overall. When I run across great content I like to share it and today is no exception. Nathan Kievman, CEO of DemingHill, gave the presentation below just this past weekend at NSA‘s UnConference in Atlanta. In this slide deck, http://bit.ly/fPLuD0, Nathan talks about:
- creating an integrated social media foundation
- specific steps on how to integrate on the top social sites
- understanding social media ROI
This is great advice for speakers at any level. Enjoy!
Road Warrior Speakers Using Social Media
Here is an excellent blog post about how business travelers are using social media to 
increase the value of being on the road. Social media sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter can allow you to make new contacts in your traveling city and keep past connections up-to-date on where you are. As a professional speaker, this information can be very beneficial to you. Please take a read!
Social media take wing with travellers – The Globe and Mail.
Posted in LinkedIn, Social Media, Speakers, Twitter
Tagged business traveler, LinkedIn, road warrior, speaker, traveling, Twitter
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Two Audiences, One Speaker…a Social Media Marketing Opportunity
I just read the latest issue of NSA Speaker Magazine and wanted to share and comment on what the 2010-2011 President of the National Speakers Association, Kristin Arnold, MBA, CPF, CMC, CSP, had to say about key trends in the marketplace as it relates to social media.
Ms. Arnold states that, “social media connects you with your audience. It can also be your primary source for recommendations from within your social network or from a Google-ish search on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Social media will become much more sophisticated as decision makers learn how to use these online tools.”
What this means for you, a professional speaker, is that you have two audiences you can connect with and, more importantly, market to, in a realistic yet virtual way:
- The live audience members that will be arriving as participants at your engagement then (hopefully) talking about you and recommending you to a colleague in the future and,
- The online audience of meeting planners and decision makers that will be searching for your content and booking you for your next engagement.
In today’s marketing world, you have a real opportunity to connect with both audiences. Think about where each audience “hangs out”.
- Is it LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook?
- Do you have a social media presence in these places?
- Are you being virtually represented in an accurately appealing way?
- Are you monitoring the conversation about your topic, industry or brand??
Ms. Arnold goes on to say, “As speakers, it’s important to be aware of market trends and remain flexible so we can provide clients with outstanding value and service.”
So if decision makers are learning how to use social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to find and choose their speakers; and participants are using social media to talk about your session, shouldn’t you have a solid, marketable presence on them?
Hmmm…..
Posted in Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, Speakers, Twitter
Tagged Facebook, LinkedIn, meeting planners, Social media, Social network, speaker, speaker marketing
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A Social Media Trend for Speakers – Rocky Horror Style
Audience participation
Audience participation
If you’ve ever been to the midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture show, you’ve seen the audience members dress up, shout out and participate in the movie while watching it. They are engaged and having a great time.
Much like these movie-goers, “the number one thing an audience wants, is to feel involved in the actual creation and development of the session. When they are involved, they are much more connected, they feel it is much more personal to them, and they get more out of it.” This is according to Bruce MacMillian, CA, president and CEO of Meeting Professionals International.
While your session isn’t going to be as dramatic as Rocky Horror (or maybe it is), how do you get your audience members involved?
- Blogging is a great way to connect with audience members. Ask the meeting planner to post your blog’s URL and invite attendees to ask questions before the event then build their comments into your presentation.
- You can also leverage Twitter in the same way. Ask the meeting planner for the hashtag of the event or ask them to create one and post it on their meeting site.
- Provide your Twitter handle so you can be contacted and followed directly. Start asking questions on Twitter then addressing any comments or questions you receive.
- Follow the hashtag of the conference so you can understand why the audience is attending and what they are hoping to get out of it.
By taking one or all of these steps, you also create the opportunity to continue the conversation with the participants after you finish the presentation. This could lead to referrals and future business!
And maybe even someone to go see Rocky Horror with!
For more information about leveraging social media in your speaking business, contact me for a free consultation.
Posted in Blogging, Social Media, Speakers, Twitter
Tagged audience participation, Social media, speaker, Twitter
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5 Tips for Speakers using LinkedIn
As a speaker, many of you are already on LinkedIn and know that it is a network of more than 40 million professionals from around the world representing 170 industries. It’s also one of the best tools you can use to gain new business and exposure. Start with these 5 easy time-saving tips to see what LinkedIn can do for you.
1. Improve your Google PageRank with LinkedIn.
Instead of using the default URL for your “full view” LinkedIn profile, customize the URL to be your actual name – www.linkedin.com/in/awesomespeaker. Use this link on your website and in your email signature to strengthen the visibility of this page in search engines. Search engines rank LinkedIn profiles with a fairly high page rank. This is a good way to influence what people see when they search for you.
2. Increase your visibility by adding connections.
This allows you to appear at the top of search results. Sometime during your presentation, invite your audience members to connect with you on LinkedIn. Provide them with your customized URL as noted above www.linkedin.com/in/awesomespeaker. People are more likely to recommend or book a speaker that one of their friends has already seen and enjoyed.
3. Improve your connec
tability.
Just because you are a professional speaker, you shouldn’t limit your profile to only your current company – President of www.Awesomespeaker.com. By doing so, you are not providing the full picture of who you have spoken for. If you have a presentation at the same organization every month, bi-monthly or annually, include them in your profile and treat it like it’s an executive bio. Include repeat clients, educational institutions, affiliations, and activities.
4. Enhance your search engine results.
In addition to your name (see tip 1), you can also promote your blog or website to search engines like Google and Yahoo! Your LinkedIn profile allows you to publicize websites. If you select ‘Other’, you can modify the name of the link. If you’re linking to your personal blog or website, use descriptive terms in the link like “health law speaker”.
5. Connect with the contact person of a current booking
Before going to a presentation, look up your contact person on LinkedIn and review their connections. See if there is anyone that you would personally like to meet while you are at the presentation and ask for the introduction. This can save you valuable time once you are on on-site.
These 5 tips were modified from Guy Kawaski’s blog article entitled ’10 Ways to use LinkedIn’ and geared towards the speaking industry. Utilizing these 5 simple tips can increase your LinkedIn and Google exposure tremendously.
And best of all – it’s not time-consuming.
Posted in LinkedIn, Social Media, Speakers
Tagged bookings, Google, LinkedIn, PageRank, professional speaker, search, social media for speakers, speaker marketing, Web search engine, Website
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Social Media for Speakers – Blog Ideas
Being a speaker, you already know that great content keeps an audience interested and engaged. You develop new presentations and customize old ones using examples specific to your audience’s industry or the current economy to add more value and meaning to the session. Why not apply some of these same strategies to blogging?
Here are 5 ideas for blogging:
- You’ve delivered a well received presentation so why not blog about the session? Take a look at your slide deck or notes. Can you create a top 10 tips out of that content? Visitors always love reading useful tips they can quickly review. Keep them to 1-2 sentences and ask yourself “why are these tips useful, interesting or of value.”
- Create an article brief consisting of 3-5 short paragraphs with a 1-2 paragraph introduction. An article brief would elaborate on a top tips or certain subject you might have only touched on during the session.
- Did an audience member demonstrate a perfect example of your concept, idea or coaching message while in your session? Share the conversation on your blog.
- Did you read an article that relates to your session or industry topic? Share it on your blog and add your opinion.
- Did any audience members approach you after the session and thank you for shedding light on a particular concept for them? Did anyone ask additional questions after the session that others might like to know the answer to? Can you create a blog post out of those conversations aka content?
If your blog is not syndicated on you website, now may be the time to do it. Be sure to give your blog URL to your audience members so they can continue to benefit from the content you share.
Have any blogging tips for speakers? Feel free to comment below. Thanks!
Related Articles
- How to Position your Blog in the Market the ‘Right Way’ (saadkamal.com)
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