Category Archives: Social Media Marketing

Hubspot’s Laura Fitton Shows How Inbound Marketing Can Help Your Small Business

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Laura-Fitton-PinterestA lot of small businesses haven’t used social media as a tool for inbound marketing. Do you know the steps and tools to use to deliver specific relevant content to your customers?

Do you know how to best use Twitter to help your business grow?

If you don’t, you’re not alone. Many small businesses don’t know how to hone their social media platforms to focus on what matters to their business. That’s why we asked Laura Fitton, inbound marketing evangelist at HubSpot to show us how, in this week’s episode of The Marketing Agents Podcast.

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Big Ideas:

  • How does one become a “marketing evangelist?”
    • It involves a lot of public speaking and tons of communication.
    • Make sure that you’re listening to marketing influencers and giving their work attention and telling them work we’ve done (when appropriate).
    • I’m paid to be nice to people I already like!
  • How did you end up at HubSpot and how did social media play a part?
    • I used to be a speaker coach and was blogging about it.
    • It led me to Twitter and to create Pistachio Consulting and then the idea for One Forty came along.
    • It made sense for my company to look for a bigger entity to support us.
    • I reached out to Brian and next thing we know it was a beautiful marriage.
  • Do you think it was a good or bad move for Twitter to limit its tool and app ecosystem?
    • I think it was a bad move because there’s great potential for revenue from the Twitter data stream.
    • They are getting 15% of their revenue from the few licensed third-party companies.
    • An app store would help market incentives and monetize that data stream.
    • A platform is a tough business strategy to execute because you have to try to keep everyone happy and protected .
  • What are some of the biggest reasons people are telling you why they’re not embracing social media?
    • The resistance to inbound marketing is usually – “I haven’t heard about it yet, I don’t quite understand it, I wonder if it’s like content marketing, what is it?”
    • Social media offers the chance for a company to throw a lot of material out there for a prospective audience.
    • How do I attract the right group of people that are likely to convert?
    • Building community is key – attracting the right people to take action.
    • The inbound marketing philosophy is to earn your audience by generally being of value.
    • The company that’s using inbound (marketing, recruiting, training, or whatever) – the inboundy way is to say –  “what can I do that is of use, of service, that is helpful to the people I want to attract.”
    • These people can be your buyers or the people close to them.
    • All our marketing is focused on “what can we do to be useful to the marketer?” and how to add value by using blogs, emails, lists, etc.
    • What can you offer without being pushy. Make it about your reader or buyer.

    If you want to earn your right to be in someone’s inbox, you’d better be delivering something valuable to them.

  • Do you have different definitions for inbound marketing, content marketing and social media marketing?
    • Inbound marketing is the car and the content is the fuel.
    • Inbound marketing is a set of practices and attitude that help your marketing. It can involve emails, landing pages, content in that offer or blog – without it it’s useless.
    • Inbound is all the steps and practices that you use to attract, convert, and delight once they become customers.
    • Social media marketing is an important tool for content marketing and inbound marketing.
  • Is Twitter still your favorite platform?
    • Oooh…no! I answer that question differently now though.
    • It’s my favorite platform for doing x, y, and z…
    • I love using Path for being brutally honest with a core group of friends.
    • Twitter is still my favorite platform for seeing if I have a contact, or for seeing someone I know who knows a prospect to get leads from.
    • I use LinkedIn and Facebook for a specific set of things.
    • When people say “I don’t get Twitter” then it may mean they just don’t get it, or don’t have a specific use for it yet.
  • Although businesses “get” Facebook, a lot don’t “get” Twitter. How do you explain it to them?
    • I try to ask them questions about their business and what their needs and we look at some examples of people in their industry.
    • Maybe we talk about the types of people they want to build relationships with them.
    • Maybe they’ve already been doing some inbound marketing and want somewhere where they can get their content found.
    • In August 2007, I had emailed my blog post to Guy Kawasaki about Twitter and he replied back. I told him he could do efficient rumor hunting on Twitter much quicker than RSS. He was blown away.
    • It’s stupid to be insulting to someone and say “you’re just dumb, and you don’t get Twitter.”
    • If you just jump onto Twitter without knowing who you need to find or what you need, then you won’t get it.
    • It’s like changing the channel on the radio. Keeping tuning until you find what you like.

    It’s important to interact with people on a low-key business basis way because it builds trust.

  • Using our social media software from HubSpot I was able to watch tweets from a talk and could tell who were leads, which were customers attending, I could selectively retweet customers that gives me a chance to see when leads are tweeting and helps us follow up with them.
  • Using those tools is pretty darn practical. We can see specific segments of new customers or revenue that come in from Twitter.
  • Is the future of social media for small businesses going to be the “pay-to-play” strategy using ad platforms?
    • Yes, definitely. People will tag other things and we aggregate those as well.
    • Yes, it can be a part of the mix, but the inbound philosophy is to offer high quality content to your niche of users.
    • Using a search strategy, or a social media strategy, it can be about liking, sharing, and interactive content.
    • You can do social media marketing in a really annoying outboundy way or a likable, shareable inboundy way.
    • It’s like a soap opera. I’m paying to put on this show to sell my product. But I need to make it a good show or I won’t sell my product.
    • There are certain brands that I love so much that I love sharing their product.
    • Brands can respond to your customer tweets or feedback quickly via Twitter or social media.

    A lot of times we forget that the client relationship is very important to ongoing and future business. When you can’t cement your bonds in real life, then what are you doing for your clients on social media?

    It’s much better to be that guy who tells you “you have spinach in your teeth.” You want your customers to be comfortable with coming to you. You really should be doing everything you can to delight your customers. The delighted customers are the long-term insurance for your business growth.

    Relationships do have ROI.

Juicy Links:

Rich Brooks
Pickle Back Evangelist

How Ski Resorts Use Social Media Marketing – Ethan Austin

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Ethan-Austin-PinterestA lot of marketers haven’t fully utilized social media to increase their engagement. Do you know the steps to take to get your social media shares booming?

Do you know how to manage user-generated content related to your brand?

If you don’t, you’re not alone. Many small businesses don’t know how to fully leverage social media for marketing and how to manage it. That’s why we asked Ethan Austin, director of marketing at Sugarloaf Ski & Golf Resort, to show us how, in this week’s episode of The Marketing Agents Podcast.

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Big Ideas:

  • How did you end up at Sugarloaf and what do you do there?
    • I was a consultant helping small biz owners with their marketing and realized I was limited with my reach.
    • I used to ski here as a kid.
    • I was an English major in college and the ski bum style appealed to me, so I spent a winter in Colorado, then hiked appalachian trail.
    • When I ran out of money, I saw a job opening for marketing at Sugarloaf and applied for the job and got it. That was ten years ago.
  • What are some of the social media platforms you’re using at Sugarloaf and how are you using them?
    • Facebook and Twitter, and Instagram.
    • Our Facebook following is one of the largest in New England ski resorts.
    • We dabble in some smaller platforms – Tumblr, Google+, and Pinterest (focus on wedding offerings).
    • We try to make them work together. We aggregate content from all of them.
    • We have a tool called the Sugarloaf Blue Room.
  • What are you doing on Facebook to engage your audience?
    • We provide daily captivating content.
    • Our snow reporter comes in and talks about weather conditions, takes photos on the mountain, activity shots, scenic shots of valley and mountain.
    • We do a lot with video. We have a full time videographer on staff.
    • On Facebook we’re focused on creating content our fans will enjoy.
  • Have you done anything to overcome the advertising dip recently?
    • We have done some promoted posts around our college snow fest week.
    • We’ve done promotions around our lodging offerings.
    • If you put money behind your posts you see your reach skyrocket.
    • If we have a really great photo or video it takes off organically.

     

    The bulk of what we share is lifestyle posts and content that enhances the connection to Sugarloaf.

  • Do you promote your posts with money and put money towards promotions for packages?
    • We focus on adding money to topics that have more ROI like a kids ski free lodging promotion, college week, discounted lift tickets, concerts, etc.
    • We put money behind these conversion events.
    • If we see things take off organically, we usually just let it go on its own.
  • When you’re putting money behind something, what tools are you using for advertising?
    • We promote in the news feed and right hand column.
    • We use audience targeting. It’s very easy to target demographics on Facebook.
    • The college week videos we promoted, was very easy to identify that demographic and it has worked well.
  • How do you manage dealing with user-generated content related to your brand?
    • We use the Blue Room which is a social media aggregator.
    • We try to organize things around hashtags for Instagram.
    • We put hashtags (i.e., #theloaf) and we’ll put it on our advertising or printed media.
    • We’ll highlight certain user photos and encourage people to share their experiences.
  • You mention promoting #theloaf. Do you search on other hashtags?
    • Yes, definitely. People will tag other things and we aggregate those as well.
    • We can actually highlight specific hashtags to encourage people to use that hashtag and share their experiences.
    • Throughout college week we’d pick our favorite photo and offer a reward for the day or week.
  • You’ve got thousands of visitors every week. How do you handle negative social media comments? What’s your response or action?
    • Yes, it happens. Maybe the weather’s bad, or their experience didn’t live up to expectations.
    • Our goal is to immediately address negative comments and acknowledge they’re upset and offer ways to alleviate concerns or make it right in their eyes.
    • The biggest thing is that their experience wasn’t great.
    • We can turn those situations into our favor.
    • We saw YOUR comment last year on Twitter about someone stealing your hitch cover in our parking lot and replaced your hitch cover and replied to you. You retweeted our tweet.
  • When those negative situations occur, are you paying attention to who’s got the loudest megaphone or a lot of followers?
    • Yeah, absolutely we are. We knew you had influence on social media.
    • We can’t do this every single time, but when it’s something simple, we can make things right.
    • We’ve done that for lots of people – tshirts, hats – things that are very easy for us and can make a difference.
  • You guys have a great relationship with Seth Wescott. Do you guys work together and how (on social media)?
    • Seth is awesome. He’s a tremendous ambassador for Sugarloaf, for Maine, and for snowboarding.
    • He’s humble and great to work with.
    • He’s very active on Instagram and Facebook.
    • Currently we have a video documentary called from Surgery to Sochi about his journey out of surgery last summer to the Winter olympics this year.
    • It’s awesome to share his story on social media and it helps foster the connection to Sugarloaf.
  • What are the biggest changes in social media you’ve seen with Sugarloaf?
    • The ability and amount to aggregate has skyrocketed. The amount of stuff people are creating is huge. Instagram is big with image creation.
    • The amount of content is staggering.
    • We launched the Blue Room last year and it gave us focus on hashtag conversations with greater depth.
    • User content has quadrupled in the last year.
  • How do you measure success when it comes to social media? What metrics do you follow?
    • In terms of reporting, we’re very lucky there’s not a corporate overhead.
    • We have a lot of freedom to try new things and be experimental.
    • The biggest numbers we focus on in Facebook is shares. How many people have shared a piece of content we put up. We watch number of shares and total reach.
    • We watch what works best to figure out what works and why so we can replicate that in future posts.
  • When are we gonna have a Maine tweetup at Sugarloaf?
    • We should definitely make that happen.

Juicy Links:

Rich Brooks
I’d Never Tweet About Losing a Hitch Cover

Creating a Membership Site for Fun and Profit – Stu McLaren

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Stu-McLaren-PinterestA lot of businesses haven’t utilized an online community for their websites. Do you know the steps to take to get your own member site up and running?

Do you know when and what to charge your customers for their membership?

If you don’t, you’re not alone. Many small businesses don’t know the benefits of member sites or what to charge their community and how to manage it. That’s why we asked Stu McLaren, business owner, entrepreneur, and founder of WishList Member, to show us how, in this week’s episode of The Marketing Agents Podcast.

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Big Ideas:

  • What led you to create Wish List?
    • I was a consultant helping small biz owners with their marketing and realized I was limited with my reach.
    • One thing I learned about was membership sites.
    • In 2008 it was very frustrating to get a membership site going.
    • It was too technical, and I got stuck. I was frustrated.
    • My friend told me to come up with a mock-up for what I’d like to see.
    • I had a beta version of WishList Member a month later and two months later we were selling it to the public.
  • Sounds like you were trading time for dollars and tried to get out of that mindset. You found a way to leverage and grow that to become more profitable.
    • There’s a huge opportunity there.
    • Now is the greatest time for doing business.
    • I’m in a tiny town south of Toronto and can do this just because I have an internet connection.
    • Small biz owners have a real opportunity to connect all around the world.
  • A lot of businesses haven’t considered creating an online community. Is it worth doing?
    • You’re already talking with your community. Wouldn’t you rather invite them over to your place for those discussions?
    • You have an opportunity to gain insights on your process, customer challenges, ideas for new products, and ability to serve them on a deeper level.
    • It’s beneficial for us to own the platform.
    • It’s a controlled environment that you can shape however you want.
    • When you own your own platform or community, you can do whatever you want.
    • You can start mobilizing people in different ways and can separate you in a good way.
  • I’m ready to start a member-based site. How do I get started?
    • First, identify a problem. When you have a deep understanding of a frustration in your market.
    • Second, create a solution. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. We forget how much we know.
    • Just start. Work on one thing at a time.
    • We see so many areas of opportunities but we need to show our community one thing to focus on.
    • If you know that next step for someone, it provides us tremendous clarity and a direction for your customer to head in.
    • Put yourself in the beginner’s shoes.
    • Don’t worry about the end goal yet – just help them start and move.
    • Three, think about the structure of the site you’d like to create. There are three types of member site:
      • Protected download area – great to easily get products all in one area, and centralized.
      • Modular course
      • Publisher model – monthly payment – magazine style – this is the most popular structure.
    • Deciding which structure determines next steps in process.
  • Are there types of businesses that benefit from certain types of member sites?
    • So many different types of business using membership models.
    • Manpacks.com – company that sells mens underwear. Guys don’t like to purchase underwear. So, they take a commodity product and turn it into a recurring membership.
    • Businesses can change from one-time transaction models to recurring membership models.
    • Regular delivery of information is the most effective approach.
    • Information-related memberships are a lot easier to deliver.
    • HerbMentor.com – has 3,500+ members to learn more about herbs and healthy living. A natural extension of their focus – information delivery – helps build a community around it.
    • Wanted to improve eating habits, so joined a membership site – got recipes for week – saved time and thought, provided shopping list – don’t have to think about shopping, showed how to cook in 20 mins or less – saved time. A very valuable membership, made it fast and easy.
  • When you’re building these sites out, how do you determine your charging structure?
    • Factors that determine this are the market, content, and format.
    • If your market has to do with making/saving money you can charge higher rates because benefits are quickly validated. You can demonstrate value by showing revenue increases.
    • Health memberships are more difficult to measure.
    • Always start lower than you think.
    • Offer an early bird special, then raise prices afterwards. You reward early adopters and is a great retention strategy since people don’t want to let go of a good deal.
    • Later you can look at raising price again – join before this date and you’ll be locked in otherwise it’ll cost more later.
    • You don’t want to upset people with high to low pricing – they feel cheated or devalued.
    • You always want to be mindful with community members – be a champion for your members. Help them feel like they’re getting a good deal..
  • Is a community necessary and and if so, how much time does it take??
    • Interviews, tutorials, recordings of coaching sessions, written material.
    • It’s not necessary but certainly an asset to have.
    • People come for the content and stay for the community. It’s like glue and they want to come back by building relationships and stay connected.
    • Information only sites have a higher drop-off than one with a built in community.
    • I like to break things down into four main components a month – primary pieces of content – the reasons why people sign up – 1 primary piece of content per week. Then you can structure it and batch create your content.
    • Michael Hyatt, author of “Platform,” launched site with the 4 primary pieces:
      • 1. Master class – taught by him or guest lecturer.
      • 2. Back stage pass – audience wants to know how he runs business – behind the scenes video (shows biz numbers, engagements.
      • 3. Member makeover – full critique of customer’s platform.
      • 4. Live FAQ – on a live call and answers members questions.
      • The first two can be batch created. Set aside six days a year to record/create content for this batch content. Deliver in membership site over several months.
    • Provide yourself structure and create it once a week and batch create for economical use of time.
    • Recommend never taking finger off the pulse of your community. It’s an opportunity to provide them relevant content. Keep conversations going.
    • 3 main things on regular basis:
      • Manage community – discussions, comments, questions.
      • Create content using the 4 primary pillars.
      • Marketing the content to attract new members and keep current ones.

They come for the content, they stay for the community.

As entrepreneurs we have a great opportunity to make an impact on the world. Take nothing and make something out of it.

Juicy Links:

Rich Brooks
I’d Never Join an Online Community That Would Have Me as a Member

The Two Biggest Hurdles in Online Marketing – Robert Middleton

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Robert-Middleton-PinterestDeveloping quality content for the online world isn’t always easy even if you’re a good communicator. Do you know when to delegate tasks to others and when to focus on your own strengths?

Do you know how to get over your fears of communication?

If you don’t, you’re not alone. Many independent professionals try to tackle everything on their own and fall short of getting experts to help them. That’s why we asked Robert Middleton, author, marketing guru, and internet early adopter, to show us how, in this week’s episode of The Marketing Agents Podcast.

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Big Ideas:

  • How did you get into online marketing?
    • When I started I didn’t even have a computer, I rented a typewriter!
    • I did a lot of design work before the web.
    • I learned basic web design by reading “How to Design a Web Page in a Week With HTML.”
    • I slowly got clients from my website.
    • I did a tape set of my workshop and started selling it online.
    • It was easier building his email list back in the 90’s.
    • I’ve been doing a weekly newsletter for 15 years.
    • I wrote a book on marketing in 1999 and sold it online and was a success. I’ve sold about $500,000 worth of manuals over the years.
    • I did consulting by phone, email and web interfaces.
    • I created a marketing club in 2008 just after market crash.
    • My marketing club has grown fast and works well.
    • Persistence, determination, and experimenting have been the key to my success.
    • I was lucky to be an early adopter.
  • What is the biggest challenge people have with digital marketing?
    • One issue is the technical stuff. Most people don’t know how to do this. It’s complex. Even using WordPress is not easy for most people.
    • People try to do it all themselves and that’s a big mistake.
    • There are so many people out there to help you with your website.
    • Independent professionals like to be independent, so they try to do it all themselves.
    • Successful people learn to delegate.
    • Another issue is developing content.
    • Marketing is 100% communication – speaking, writing, blogging, newsletters, posts, etc.
    • Everyone thinks they can communicate well, but most people don’t know how to communicate in the marketing world.
  • What is the fear of communication?
    • Nobody likes to be rejected and we fear this.
    • What are you avoiding?
    • People are afraid they won’t say the right thing, won’t be good enough. People are too worried and second guess themselves and then get stuck in a loop.
    • People that just put content out there are fearless – they don’t let their fears get in their way. Tell yourself, “why can’t I make this content?”
    • A lot of us suffer fear of rejection.
    • People probably aren’t listening to you anyway, so start making content until they do!
  • What are some of the things we can get over this fear of communication?
    • Action or inquiry.
    • When I coach people, I give them really specific guidelines. It’s nice to have a template or good examples and emulate, that really helps.
    • Write a draft first. Don’t worry about perfection at first. Do something small first.
    • You can market yourself well without a book – don’t make excuses.
    • Start out step by step – read blogs about getting past fear of writing.
    • What is observable? What are you avoiding and what feelings are driving this?
    • What are the reasons for your avoidance? i.e., people won’t like me, I’ll make a fool of myself, people will reject me, etc.
    • There’s a generalized fear of marketing. – i.e., I have to manipulate, embellish, hype, etc. and hurtful beliefs like “I’m not a great marketer,” or “I’m not the marketing type,” etc.
    • I use the Byron Katie process. When we identify a belief, can you know that this belief is true? People can realize they don’t know the answer, and this false truth isn’t valid and how do we support this false truth? You become more aware of how your beliefs are affecting your behavior.
    • People realize that it’s their belief that’s controlling them and then the possibilities open up for them.
    • People have gone from hating marketing to loving it after they throw away their beliefs.
    • Once you see that your beliefs are flimsy or unfounded, then take action and be aware of your feelings. Then your confidence builds and grows.
    • Creating content or messages put pressure on us – just take action.
    • Stop worrying about perfection, and look at why you’re hesitant and attack your fears – they are most likely unfounded. You’re probably better than you’re think. Find a medium that’s right for you.
  • Have you worked with people that need to change mediums?
    • Sure. People have different strengths and abilities.
    • Some people have atrocious writing, but are good at talking or other things.
    • I was inspired by a client that shifted from writing to talking. Once they transcribed an interview to get the written piece, the power of words crossed mediums.
  • How do we determine what we should delegate to outside people?
    • Based on your skills, you can do an email list, but setting it up could be something to delegate.
    • Outsource your website so you can find someone with skills to make your site unique.
    • Search for websites you like and find out who designed them.
    • The purpose of a website is compel your audience to take an action. Does it do this?
    • Google how to create an opt-in page. Find good examples to copy.
    • Learning from others’ success and emulate it.
    • There’s no excuse for not finding a way to find what to delegate.
  • If we’re businesses, can we create additional streams of revenue by creating blueprints for our own client base?
    • Yes, absolutely.
  • What should you do if you want to create a knowledge-based product?
    • Interviews, tutorials, recordings of coaching sessions, written material.
    • Use multimedia. Use video even if it’s hard.
    • People like to be talked through things. YouTube is great for this. How-to videos are way better than step-by-step instructions.
    • If you don’t like the way you look on camera, you can do screen captures with narration, or record a PowerPoint presentation.
    • Learn how to use software on Lynda.com – they do screen captures with voice rather than video demonstrations.
    • Focus on what you’re delivering and who you’re trying to help, then it takes the pressure off you. Are you helping the person you’re intending to help?
    • We’re too focused on ourselves. Put your attention on your audience and helping them out. Most of us can do this well.
    • If you know a few more things than your client, then you’re an expert to them!
    • Creating something to simplify a process or something of value for someone later is worth your client’s money.
  • Do you teach your clients how to promote giveaways to your email list?
    • Yes, how to name giveaways and promote them. The easy is the bonus and the opt-in is the giveaway. People want info on the giveaway.
    • The greatest commodity is a name and an email address. They won’t give it to you unless you have a worthy offer.

    I like to work one-on-one with clients. Human contact is more fulfilling and working directly with people is satisfying. I give them homework or assignments and they learn faster that way.

  • How much do you focus on SEO of their content? Do you consider social media?
    • No, it’s not my specialty. If you want SEO, find an SEO person.
    • If SEO or social media is your goal, find an expert and spend the money.
    • Everybody wants a magic marketing machine that’s plug-and-play. It doesn’t work like that. You need an email list.
    • Look at your online stuff as supplemental marketing and still do traditional marketing things.
    • Be more hands-on. Engage with people. Get conversations going. Use all mediums to do this.
    • Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
    • Give talks and network.
    • Other traditional means of marketing can get clients faster, but online marketing can supplement this.
    • A bullet point list of your services is not effective. There’s no call to action. What does your audience do next once they know what you do?
    • Hire a copywriter to help you with your content.
    • Don’t be afraid to hire someone to do what you can’t do.
    • Allocate your time to your strengths.

Juicy Links:

Rich Brooks
Always Be Measuring

The Importance of Public Speaking for Small Business – Pat Flynn

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Pat-Flynn-PinterestWhether or not you like talking in public, obtaining speaking skills and getting presentation gigs is almost mandatory these days. Do you know why public speaking is so important for your small business growth?

Do you know what elements make a good speaker and a great presentation?

If you don’t, you’re not alone. Many small businesses aren’t aware of how to get a speaking gig and what it takes to engage your audience. That’s why we asked Pat Flynn, podcaster, blogger, author, owner of Smart Passive Income, and self-proclaimed “crash test dummy of online business,” to show us how, in this week’s episode of The Marketing Agents Podcast.

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Big Ideas:

  • How did you get started?
    • I went to school for architecture, worked for a firm until 2008 when I got laid off.
    • I began writing a blog and discovered online marketing. I turned it into a business, wrote an e-book, made over $7000 that month and then it all changed.
    • My income started growing so I started smartpassiveincome.com.
    • I created the site to show people how I did it and how they could do it.
    • I show everything – my wins, failures, and trials. I try new things out, new technologies, and new ways to make income.
    • I wanted to help people start off on the right foot and for people to learn from me.
  • How did you become a better public speaker?
    • Just sitting and waiting for traffic to come in works, but not very well. I made the conscious decision to work on my speaking skills.
    • I read as much as he could about speaking – Stand And Deliver by Dale Carnegie, Resonate by Nancy Duarte, Slideology, Zen Presentation, etc.
    • I watched a lot of presentations and Ted talks.
    • I looked at presentation styles I like and make notes of good and bad things, what is or isn’t working.
    • I speak a lot to get practice!
    • I hired a professional speaking coach.
    • I ask myself, “what transformation do I want the audience to have after my presentation? What’s the take away item? How do I stand out among other speakers at a conference?”
    • I try to be memorable and use tactics to get audience engaged.
    • I really focus on improving, getting others’ help, and getting help from pro coaches.
    • I find experts to learn from.
  • Why is public speaking so important?
    • Not everyone will do it so it’s a great way to stand out in your niche.
    • It increases your authority level. It gives you more credibility.
    • It opens up new opportunities.
    • If you can deliver on stage, then you get word of mouth.
    • People look up to you. People will listen to you when you’re on stage.
    • It’s a way to present your message and to share an important idea with your audience, it can help other people
    • You can deliver a business-changing message.

      If you are good at your job and have a message to share, you have an obligation to market your business to help out other people.

  • How do you land a speaking gig and how do you get started?
    • Get to know people at conferences, organizers, speakers, develop relationships with them to build a network.
    • Set up talks on things like meetup.com, and other small forums like local biz groups.
    • Practice on webinars.
  • What elements make a good presentation?
    • If you land a gig, figure out who your audience is and what they’re looking for at your talk. Deliver a message to bring them to that transformation point.
    • You want people to be different when they leave your presentation.
    • You want to open with a memorable story or something different.
    • Teach them through stories – something they can relate to.
    • Try to hook them with something compelling from the start.
    • Start with an tension breaker to loose up yourself and the audience.
    • Get people to move or do something – raise hands, audience participation, etc. “How many of you are first timers?” etc., make everyone look around.

      Tell them what you’re gonna tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.

  • How do you find out about your audience and what they’re looking for?
    • Talk to conference organizers:
      • Ask about who the attendees are and what they do.
      • Who else is speaking at the same event?
      • What was talked about last year at the event?
      • What is it people want out of this presentation?
    • Talk to past presenters.
    • Ask audience beforehand about what they want – set up site to poll audience.
    • Answer the questions they ask you.

      Most professional speakers have 5 or 6 presentations they repurpose for audiences. I have done about 12 separate presentations, but I definitely use some of the same stories or analogies.

  • What are your speaking tactics?
    • Spend time crafting the presentation, what would be relevant data.
    • Focus on something new to improve on with each talk.
    • A lot of the best speakers use motion in their presentations: body motions and hand motions.
  • Tell us more about the motion in your presentations.
    • If you’re moving and address people all over the audience, you make a great impression.
    • I used to walk back and forth in a small radius. I was nervous…and it showed.
    • Movements are great for transition and comparing or contrasting. Left/right gestures to compare/contrast and emphasize talking points.
    • When you have impactful moments in your talk, stay still and let the words make the impact.
    • Break your talk into parts and use movement to emphasize these parts.
    • It’s like chapters of a book – end of chapter, pause or take a sip of water, etc.
  • How do you mentally prepare or psych yourself up for a presentation?
    • Go to venue and stage to see where you’re speaking and try to get on stage to get used to room. It helps you know what to expect.
    • Go to conference early or spend time before talk to get to know people, meet people to get comfortable with audience.
    • Focus on the people that resonate with you, it’ll help motivate you.
    • Rehearse a lot – practice your intro and outro several times.
    • The more you practice, the more you get in a groove.
    • Whatever makes you feel more comfortable, do more of that.
    • When traveling or with down time, practice intro to make it sound as natural and comfortable as possible.
  • What do you do for your visuals when you’re doing a presentations?
    • Slides are there to emphasize a point made or making.
    • Use an image and a few words.
    • I don’t rely on visuals, but they do help trigger certain points during stories.
    • I don’t use bullet points.
    • I go to slideshare.net to see what slide styles inspire me.
    • I try different styles or motifs.
    • I keep slides the same color scheme and will even dress the same colors during talks.
    • Images or visual cues might help audience subconsciously connect with your presentation.
    • Include relevant studies or data to back up your talking points.
    • Use visuals to compliment talk, not drive it.
  • Where do you get the images for your slides?
    • istockphoto.com.
    • You can include photo costs into presentation fee.
    • I spend time finding good images that go with your theme – it helps make the audience connect.
    • The image should support your story or talking point.
  • What do you do to try to get your audience to take action after your talk?
    • Sometimes, it’s not all on you, it’s on them.
    • Hand out a form that people can give contact info so you can connect with them.
    • Hold your audience accountable.
    • Remind audience to connect afterwards to get feedback, connect as a client, etc.
    • Always repost your presentation to your email list so it includes your audience or reminds them, and it lets people view it that have missed it.
    • Offer an incentive to audience members afterwards to keep engagement going.
    • Do something to keep momentum and excitement going. It could lead to new business or networking.
    • Automate post-presentation communication or networking steps.
    • Create a Facebook group or Twitter list to keep people engaged and accountable.
    • Figure out a way to find if your advice has helped your audience later on.
    • Have audience text a special number to communicate via text afterwards with a service like MoGreet.
    • I created a clicked tweet with ClickToTweet to send audience to a page to a pre-populated tweet to send or tweet and patislive.com to share tweets.
    • Get people to commit to something and then let them decide how to keep themselves accountable.
    • Telling people what your goal is at the start can be very powerful.

      Commitment is a weapon of influence.

Juicy Links:

Rich Brooks
Always Be Measuring