Last Monday, on New Years Day, I introduced you to the post entitled ‘Branding Yourself as a Public Speaker’ as one of my opening posts for BookMattic. I’m very excited to create this series containing useful tips for those of you interested in public speaking. So don’t worry, I’ve got several other posts planned including the one you’re about to read, marketing yourself as a public speaker.

 

 

In this post I’ll cover over:

 

1. Owning your expertise
2. Write a killer blog
3. Write your own book/e-book
4. Using social media as a tool

 

 

1. Own Your Expertise For Marketing Yourself as a Public Speaker

This whole idea of being an expert at something might actually sound somewhat scary to you, but you shouldn’t be afraid of it. Owning your expertise doesn’t mean being an expert. In fact, experts don’t know everything there is to know anyway. Experts are usually only good at a few things.

 

What I really mean by own your expertise is that you should at least know enough about your topic that you feel confident enough to speak in front of an audience of people that might even know more than you.

 

But why would you even want to show your expertise to other people? Well, your end goal is to help people and also get more opportunities right? As one of my favorite books said ‘Everyone’s WHY is good in nature.’ To grow your brand so it stands out from the rest.

 

What you really want by showing your know how is to establish yourself as the go-to person. You want to increase your visibility and reputation.

 

There are 4 of many generous and genuine ways of establishing yourself as a credible leader in your specialty that I’ll go over.

 

• Proactively answer questions and engage in conversations to build new connections with people in your field.

 

Today we’ve got this great tool called social media which is a quickly changing thing. You may think you have nailed a marketing technique when all the sudden a month later a new video feature is added for example. Nonetheless, it’s a tool you can consistently use to communicate and show your followers that you are knowledgeable by sharing useful information that you know will help people.

 

Be sure that when people post comments or send a meaningful message that you promptly reply to their comment or message with a thoughtful answer. The more you communicate with your audience on social media the more word of mouth and online credibility you’ll get. And if you’ve got a website or blog, comments help out with SEO and backlinks which are very important for showing up higher on Google searches.

 

You might think, “How does this relate to public speaking?”

 

Think of it like this, how do you expect to become well known as a public speaker if you don’t promote yourself as such?

 

Powerful Lesson #1: You must communicate with your existing and new followers to build new leads by engaging with people that matter in your field.

 

Make connections as much as you can. Go around the web searching for new leads by sending emails or commenting on a post that you thought was useful. You never know what kind of bright people you might meet out there until you reach out to them.

 

Eventually, once you’ve already gained traction and everyone in your niche knows you’re an expert, people will start coming to you with opportunities. The goal here is to engage and be engaged with like-minded people. Build a community that has exponential growth.

 

2. Write Killer Content on a Blog For Marketing Yourself as a Public Speaker 

I’m a huge fan of blogging! Why? Because it’s a way for me to connect with thousands of other people. It’s a way for me to spread knowledge to you. When you write content on your own blog or even someone else’s blog in the same field as you (guest post), you show others you are a credible and knowledgeable leader. Blog content is considered to be the third most reliable source of information according to Afilinet.

 

Affilinet Trust Index: Whose opinion do you trust the most?

1. Family
2. Friends
3. Bloggers
4. Social media contacts
5. Colleagues
6. Journalists
7. Religious leaders
8. Celebrities
9. Brands
10. Politicians

 

When you are the content curator of your own blog you get to be yourself in front of thousands of other people. You can shape your content how you really want it to be fitting in with your personal branding statement. Blogging is a personalized form of communicating with all the people out there interested in what you have to say.

 

So when you’re curating your content you must shape it and mold it in a way that your readers can benefit from your own personal thoughts and stories. You have to be the teacher for them and guide them on the path you provide for them.

 

People read blogs to get help or to learn something new they didn’t know before. So you must plan out your posts accordingly to highly impact your audience and build your following as well as credibility.

 

But be very careful, often many beginning bloggers make the mistake of just thinking they can write anything. No. You must have a goal with the content you give and it must fit with your overall goal. It’s okay to write what you want as long as it’s not just random.

 

Another thing you can do to take full advantage of the power of blogging is to vary up your post lengths and types as well. For example, you could write a list post like ‘Top Ten Books of 2017’ which might be about 1,000 words or a How to guide for example ‘The Art of Making a Brilliant Presentation’ which might be around 1,500-2,500 words.

 

Powerful Lesson #2: Point is to write valuable content in several different ways all fitting with your own personality.

 

My suggestion from my experience and study of blogging is to never write a post that is under 600 words. You might think that less is more when it comes to blogging about business, public speaking or anything to do with entrepreneurs, but the reality is that people want details and specifics about the field you’re writing and speaking about.

 

By writing posts consistently above 1,000 words with helpful content, your readers will begin to realize that you are an authority in your field. You have to earn people’s trust by showing them that you are knowledgeable.

 

So when writing your next post you should plan it out to cover a specific topic precisely to reach your goal to inform and help your readers to grow. They will appreciate it. And it’ll show in your traffic statistics.

 

People like to see confidence in knowledge of their leaders. A public speaker is a type of leader, therefore, you should show that you are confident in what you are talking about.

 

Being an expert at something takes time and a lot of study. No one person is ever perfect, or knows everything there is to know. We all make mistakes, even the brightest people make mistakes. People will not fault you as long as you emphasize the fact that you’re not perfect but you’ll look into finding the answer.

 

Through writing stylized content on your blog you can reach a wide variety of people that will see you as an authority in your own right as long as you provide them with specific and detailed content catered toward a specific audience.

 

3. Write your own book or ebook

Most people think you do public speaking to promote a book or ebook, which all in all is true, but in this case, writing a book or ebook after you’ve cemented yourself as a public speaker will majorly impact your authority positively, therefore, promoting yourself for many more public speaking opportunities down the line for your brand. Authority is a huge factor in successfully marketing yourself as a public speaker.

 

Writing a book or ebook also goes along the line with knowledge equals trust. Same as content blogging, if you want to show people that you know something well, then you must present it in a widely accessible format such as a book, ebook, or blog.

 

One other major benefit of writing a book or ebook is the content you write in your book can also be used in blog posts you post on your blog. One ebook might equal up to 30 posts!

 

We’ve talked about engaging with your audience in a productive way to make new connections, how content blogging can raise awareness of your brand and authority in your niche, and writing a book or ebook to promote yourself as the go-to person, but now how do you make your content and books go viral?

 

4. Social Media Marketing For Marketing Yourself as a Public Speaker

According to Entrepreneur, there are Nearly 2.5 billion people using at least one social media platform each month which is continually growing every day. So imagine the potential your own marketing has.

Infographic courtesy of We Are Social/Hootsuite

 

The world has already taken a shift from only huge companies being able to market themselves to success to individual people skyrocketing to success overnight, literally in some cases.

 

How can you do it?

 

You can share your works through the different social media platforms, to your friends, family, and colleagues. You can’t just share any type of content, your content has to have an emotional impact or useful aspect which then will get shared again by your friends, family, and colleagues.

 

So what you really need to do is take the Branding that I discussed in the previous post in this series and make sure you have a Blog/Website where you might be selling products or a service and also promoting your book/ebook as well as any Public Speaking Events you’ve done in the past, pictures work, and start formatting all of those things to the different social media platforms out there.

 

As you all probably know and have personal experience with at least some of these social media platforms, if not all, each of is a bit different and has different uses that you, marketing yourself, can take advantage of.

Infographic courtesy of Leverage New Age Media

 

A tip I have for you is that you don’t want to spread yourself too thin when marketing on social media. For me personally, I have two main accounts that I update almost daily, Facebook and Instagram. Then I periodically update LinkedIn, and Twitter.

 

Social media is a MUST if you want to promote the brand that you have created including your blog, books, and upcoming speech. You must use social media while marketing yourself as a public speaker.

 

Continue Marketing Yourself as a Public Speaker

I cannot emphasize how important being consistent with your marketing is. That means you MUST market yourself at LEAST a few times a week depending on what you’re promoting. A fair warning though. Be conscientious about how often you market yourself on one particular social media platform. Try making your content relatable.

 

Connect how you present your content to your audience, meaning use stories and pictures to create conversations around your marketing. Some people may not even see it as marketing if you do it in the right way. That’s your goal. Make your marketing seem like it’s not actually marketing.

 

Make your marketing real.

 

Your journey doesn’t just stop there. Marketing yourself is not an easy job. It takes a lot of time and effort to continue marketing yourself as a public speaker. But in my personal opinion, it’s fun and you can make it fun too!

 

In fact, if it’s not fun for you, then why are you even doing it? Loving what you do is part of being the best public speaker you can be. And showing that you love what you do is also part of building trust and honesty with your audience.

 

Be smart and efficient and make sure that whatever it is that you’re sharing with your followers has an impact and meaning for them. Your brand shouldn’t be about you, it should be about the people you’re trying to reach while still achieving authenticity.

 

Word of Mouth is the Age Old Marketing Tool For Anything Including Marketing Yourself as a Public Speaker

Also, don’t forget the power of word of mouth. Sometimes we get so absorbed in the technology we have available to us that we forget that there are human beings around us too, and humans are very sociable creatures. Word of mouth has been around since humans came into existence and is still the most effective way to market your brand. Word of mouth was the first social media!

 

So anytime you get the chance to talk about your business in an unobtrusive way, talk with your heart. If your business is empowering to other people then you may have a word of mouth epidemic starting to brew.

 

Imagine if the person you just finished talking with then told his/her spouse about it, then the spouse told two friends and so forth, you can imagine how far word of mouth can bring your brand.

 

The overall point here is that your job never stops. The only way you’ll build up from where you are now is if you strive above and beyond your current position.

 

Why Word of Mouth Increases Your Public Speaking Credibility

Final Thoughts On Marketing Yourself as a Public Speaker Before we move onto the Next Edition in this Series

My last and fairly simple suggestion for you today is to get up off your butt and get out there. Even if you have to start small, just start anywhere with a directed focus. The most important thing is that you START.

 

No one will know about you if you don’t already have some tangible work you’ve done, and if you don’t have any experience whatsoever, then start by studying and writing about it in a blog. People will notice you after you make the effort and make the right connections. Talk with people and build your network. Let people know about you and in turn get to know other people as well.

 

Build your brand from the ground up. Have a reason for everything you do, especially the brand you create and the speeches you give. The more experience and exposure you get, the more opportunities will come your way.

 

Be the one who knows all there is to know about your specialty. Create quality content that engages your readers in a meaningful way. Write books or ebooks which can help make you the go-to person everyone wants at their event.

 

Consistently push your ideas through social media and word of mouth to get your brand out there. Get up and start moving. Most importantly, share the love and passion you have for your brand, love it so much that other people join in on your cause. Empower people so they can empower others. 

 

Be sure to share this valuable information with your fellow public speakers or other people interested in this topic. Also, check out my portfolio of events here.

 

Related Public Speaking Posts:

Branding Yourself as a Public Speaker 

Why Word of Mouth Increases Your Public Speaking Credibility

Storytelling: The Key to Public Speaking Success

 

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