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Monthly Archives: March 2010

37 ways to Value Speaking as Branding

Posted on March 31, 2010

If you enjoy speaking, then giving presentations to a targeted audience is a great marketing and branding tool. But, writing a good speech takes time and giving a presentation also takes time. A 30 minute speech can easily turn into four or more hours of communications, planning, travel and follow up. So, when is it worth it to give a free speech?

In 2009, I spoke 29 times to over 1,000 people. Most of the time, those speeches were free. In 2010, I’m expecting to at least double, maybe triple those numbers. To help me gauge whether or not to accept an offer, I came up with 37 ways to measure the value of a free speaking engagement.

What do think? Do you speak for free – when and why?

25 Ways a Free Speech is Worth It
The speaker gets . . .
1. promoted to their target audience
2. compensated for travel and hotel or no overnight stay is required
3. a list of members or attendees
4. free membership
5. ad or exhibit space
6. opportunities to promote or sell in the presentation
7. letters of recommendation from the meeting planner or attendees
8. introductions to other meeting planners
9. assistance with back of room sales of products
10. book orders
11. free admission to the event and meals provided
12. special recognition in press and advertising
13. approval to offer paid consulting or workshops around the engagement
14. free videos, audios or photography
15. links from the event site
16. mentions in social networks
17. complimentary passes
18. thank you note from the organizers
19. compensation from an employer and does not require additional income
20. positioning: the speaker as an expert in a place they want to be
21. a donation for a charity or non-profit
22. paid speaking engagement referrals
23. contacts for their list
24. contracts with new clients
25. non-monetary compensation: fun, new friends, etc.

12 Ways a Free Speech is not worth it
The speaker is asked to . . .
1. continually leverage their personal brand and network to promote the event
2. cover their own travel expenses
3. cut their presentation because time runs short
4. understand how a profit-making event can’t afford to compensate the talent that makes it a profit-making event
5. pay for registration
6. not promote their products or services
7. produce their own handouts
8. not contact attendees after the event
9. create a new program that takes time and creative energy
10. let the event planner record and sell their presentation with no compensation
11. pump up attendance
12. come up with ways to justify, to themselves, why they are giving a free speech

Are there more? Do you have a policy about what you will do for free versus paid speeches? As always, thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.

1 Comment - Posted in Speaking Tagged with:

Twitter Talk Tune Up Tips

Posted on March 30, 2010

Last week, Brett Flickinger, JD Gershbein, Brian Tomkins and I presented at The Business Ledger’s Newsmakers Forum. Brett started out with strategy. JD covered LinkedIn. Brian presented Facebook for business and I talked about twitter.

Thanks to my intern for sitting through a business buffet lunch, filming my presentation, taking pictures and most importantly, critiquing my “Twitter flight school: not for birds, but for business” presentation.

Getting a college student’s perspective was surprisingly helpful in tuning up my twitter talk for next time.

What worked . . .

The Five Ws is an outline people understand and works well here:
Who uses twitter?
What is twitter?
When would I use twitter for my business?
Where does twitter go?
Why do people use twitter to promote businesses?
Bonus: How do I get started?

Acronyms stay, in this case CoryWest Media, LLC’s W-I-R-E-D approach grabs attention and sticks.

Photography: people like my images, but not necessarily the ones of me.

Stats hold, which surprised me. I didn’t think college students cared that much, but stats are facts. Like these tweets per day numbers, stats give perspective.
2007 = 5,000
2008 = 300,000
2009 = 2,500,000
2010 = 50,000,000

When would I use _______________ ? is a good question to answer for any social media tool, as I did for twitter with these options.
Listen
Search
Respond
Question
Connect
Cover
Spy

Where does twitter go? Is a question someone asked me once at a conference. Here’s my answer. What would you add?
Twitter
Google
Bing
Followers
Facebook
Retweets
LinkedIn
Anywhere you send links

Social Media Action Plan steps wrap up every presentation I do – I’ll add a few more to these for the next one.
Set up a social email address
Grab your brand names
Sign up for twitter
Ask your clients if they’re on twitter
Listen to talk
Respond
Search
RSS feed
Add twitter everywhere

To change . . .
Slim down the number of screenshots to a few that tell the story and stay with them rather than fast-forwarding through too many.
Take out pictures of me with “famous” people that people in the audience don’t recognize. It takes too long to set up the story and not everyone will make the connection.
Get out from behind the podium and engage more with the audience, which is more my presentation style.
Cut the slides in half – 44 is too many for a 30 minute presentation. Ten might be just right.

Social Meida Panel Participation
Got an A on this one.


Left to right: Jonathon Twitty of The Business Ledger, Barbara Rozgonyi [me!], JD Gershbein and Brian Tomkins

Watching the video will give me another perspective.

Another reviewer, this one an audience member, came up and told me, “I finally get twitter. Thanks! Now I know exactly how I’m going to use twitter in my business.”

But, someone else still seemed confused and not quite convinced that twitter would work for their business. If this sounds like you, think of twitter as a search and research center. Start out by watching what’s happening in businesses around you and then decide whether or not you need to go to twitter flight school.

If you do, let me know. I love teaching people how to fly into twitter and attract loyal flocks of followers and customers in social media workshops and keynote presentations.

How do you critique your presentations?

1 Comment - Posted in PR Tagged with:

Trends: Brand Butlers Deliver Exquisite Customer Service

Posted on March 29, 2010

I love watching and reporting on trends. Trendwatching’s April brief reports on the Brand Butler, “why serving is the new selling” trend.

Interested in trends, too? Here’s the Source: www.trendwatching.com. One of the world’s leading trend firms, trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefings to more than 160,000 subscribers worldwide.

Being a Brand Butler means becoming a servant to your customers.

For me and my company, that means being there whenever they need us. We might construct marketing plans, potish blog posts, tidy social media profiesl, write letters, drive traffic, put out fires, retell their stories or speak for them when they need a voice.

What is a Butler?
Maybe you’ll recognize some characters on this list of fictional butlers.. Butler is also a utility for automating repetitive tasks in Mac OS X by Peter Maurer. Download Butler for Mac. Butler is also a university in Indianapolis that won the NCCA western division last Saturday.

There’s so much great information in the Brand Butler brief, including dozens of real life examples, that I know you’ll want to read it in detail after you take in these highlights I selected to share with you.

Build a Brand Butler omnipresence online and offline.

Online: To get ideas, scan the iPhone App Store, Google’s Android Market, and Blackberry’s App World.

Offline: One popular offline Brand Butler tactic is to open permanent or temporary branded public spaces tied to events or locations. At these Brand Butler stations, brands interact and assist visitors and customers with brand-relevant services.

Brand Butler relationships allow for built-in feedback and co-creation in eight categories
1. Transparency & ‘In the know’
2. Saving money
3. Finding
4. Connectivity
5. Health, nutrition & exercise
6. Skills & advice
7. Eco
8. Tools & amenities

Brand Butlers in Action from Trendwatching’s Report

Van Cleef & Arpels offers a day in Paris iPhone app with a gudie through ‘a poetic ballad in Paris,’ discovering romantic venues around the city.

Beck’s Gig Finder app map and GPS finds local music gigs.

Chevrolet teamed up with the 2010 SXSW festival to offer the Chevy Volt Recharge Lounge with where visitors could enjoy refreshments and recharge their electronic devices. The brand also offered a ‘Catch a Chevy’ service, which offered festival-goers lifts around Austin.

In 2007, Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and Nutricia opened the free Schiphol Babycare Lounge, featuring seven circular “cabins”. Facilities include a changing area, baby baths and a microwave for heating food.

A hands-on start would be to establish the themes your brand is about, and dream up an integrated ‘suite’ of Brand Butler services, both online and offline.

Source: www.trendwatching.com. One of the world’s leading trend firms, trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefings to more than 160,000 subscribers worldwide.

Sometimes butlers rescue their masters from fires as Alfred did in Batman Begins.
“Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFfozZTjItQ

Quite often, we serve as storytellers who solve mysteries as Wadsworth, who plays a butler, in the movie Clue. How do you serve as a brand butler for your customers?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vjJRWQQXA8

So, what we can get you today?

Image source: Thanks to shutterstock.com for granting usage rights in exchange for credit, which I am happy to give.

3 Comments - Posted in Branding Tagged with: ,

March and April Social Media Speaking Engagements

Posted on March 19, 2010

At a networking lunch today, someone asked about my upcoming presentations. Here’s a quick list of where to see me in the next few weeks. Let me know if you’ll be the audience. I’d love to meet you!

Wow! Lots of workshops and social media speaking presentations coming up. I love helping people craft and share their stories via social media! Thanks so much to the meeting planners who asked me to speak to their audience.

Do you need a speaker for your next event? Call me now at 630.207.7530.

March 20
Career Management Workshop ISACA
Career Advancement Management Strategies

March 25
The Business Ledger, Social Media Panel
Code guest takes 45% off

March 30
BNC After Hours

April 17
NextGen Marketing Symposium

April 22
International Association of Marketing Consultants

April 24
New Media Market
Presented and produced by 5 Fab Social Media Women

April 27
Leveraging LinkedIn
TBA

Do you have a better idea on how to display speaking engagements?

5 Comments - Posted in PR

State of the Media via CNN Journchat @SXSW

Posted on March 17, 2010

“Portable, personable and participatory” – Sarah Evans, creator of Journchat, on what people want in their news, quoting an unassigned reference

Kudos to Sarah for rounding up the CNN crew to join the Journchat conversation on twitter live via ustream on Monday night. I was there!

Here’s CNN’s press release

Special edition of #journchat to feature CNN panel live from SXSW Interactive

Collective #journchat conversation transcript

Tweets via @wiredprworks

Links to CNN
CNN.com main site
CNNMoney.com
iReport to submit and report
CNN Pressroom send feedback and ideas to @jenncnnpr

My Top #journchat and @cnn Tweets

ireport team is 8 ppl, ireporters are part of them, @lilicina knows their names, met some at #sxsw #journchat

pitch @AlexWellen w story, he will point you in right direction, interested in ways to tell stories across many diff platforms #journchat

real opp is the people who will never engage in social media, can help them understand social media signal @AlexWellen #journchat

RT @ allanschoenberg: All (forms of) media all the time RT @acnatta: Its not traditional media vs. new media. Its all media #journchat

RT @ImpactMktPR Make media social around content and spread our products around web. @dermotwater #SXSW #journchat

starting to do more social stuff @cnn made media more social, create the conversation around stories #journchat

have to fail alot to succeed [true] @dermotwaters have to weed stuff out #journchat

can pitch new app ideas to @dermotwaters communicate value in under 100 words #journchat

RT @wiredprworks: @cnn team of 4 people scans all Facebook comments, can get up to 1,000 – wow! #journchat

Facebook page monitored mostly during working hours, but breaking news goes up right away on @cnn #journchat

@peacockc – thanks for your emphasis on stories! very encouraging and helpful #journchat | exteremely helpful!

real people reporting works, person who starts a community organization, story can have legs @peacockc #journchat

the story is not my ceo is in town – the story is my ceo can tell a story to you ex-pandora.com [love it!] #journchat

visualization is a way to tell incredibly complicated stories in an eye blink #peacockc #journchat

things that catch #peacockc eye/ear is story w narrative that knows cnnmoney.com audience #journchat

bring personal story to the bigger story [yes!] via @peacockc #journchat

one of the goals of @cnn money was “decomplicating stimulation visualization” ppl spent avg 9 mins engaging #journchat

constructing own twitter news network most valuable for @peacockc -puts you ahead of mainstream news #journchat

@cnn added facebook connect 1 yr ago, just relaunched new suite of market tools today @ cnnmoney.com #journchat

looking for ways to collaborate at conferences & collaborate on conversations @cnn #journchat

cnnfutures@cnn.com email to submit news releases to @cnn via @jennprcnn #journchat

@hksully: Did anyone catch the URL for the CNN media site @jennCNNpr mentioned? #journchat http://cnnpressroom.com

how to pitch @douggrosscnn-have your own identity & be on their radar #journchat

Looking for an iReport intern, must be an iReporter

http://ustre.am/:mZH4

3 Comments - Posted in PR