If you want more speaking gigs, make yourself accessible, relevant, and engaging online.
By Talent Bureau
While charm and talent may be marks of a great speaker, many miss out on potential opportunities when they have a lack of presence and relevance online.
With the wide variety of keynote speakers available to event and meeting planners, you’re going to want to have an online presence that will draw people’s attention and keep it. Here are a few tips to keep yourself relevant and accessible.
- Make yourself easy to locate.
You’d be surprised to know how many great speakers don’t make their contact information accessible on their website, let alone the many who don’t even have a site. If you don’t have a website, get on that! And on every social channel, be sure to have a point of contact. It shouldn’t take more than 10 seconds to figure out how to get in touch.
- Have a truly great video.
A visual sample of your keynote is an easy way for potential event planners to understand your niche and see how well you present it. The ideal clip is well filmed and well edited, perhaps with some nice (but not distracting) background music. It should be just long enough to give clients a taste of your work without giving everything away. This is your chance to display that charm and talent we already talked about.
- Use LinkedIn.
Event planners aren’t often finding speakers on Facebook. It’s really important to leverage LinkedIn, which has made major strides in recent years and is becoming a trusted source of information and connection for professionals. Linkedin will help you grow your professional network and following.
- Update your content!
There are so many speakers out there telling the same stories from five and ten years ago. The world is rapidly changing, and it doesn’t look good if it seems your most recent achievement was that one television show appearance you made in 2009. As you take on new speaking opportunities and continue to grow your following, make the appropriate changes to your topics and be conscious of how you represent yourself in the present year.
- Have a good agent.
(wink)