Last week we discussed the opportunities available for authors who get on the speaking circuit along with a number of different strategies for book sales. They’re still listed on my blog, so I won’t repeat myself here. However, I do have a few ways for you to repurpose your speeches so that they continue to benefit you and your book, such as:
Podcasts: Podcasts can be your best friend. You can take snippets from your speeches and create audio recordings that can be shared on your site or via social media. This will keep fans and customers updated on your latest work, they will help spread the word about your speaking abilities, and depending on the content you choose to highlight, you can seed listeners about bringing you in to speak to their organization.
Link everything together: Failure to do this is a mistake I see made over and over and over again by authors and speakers. Add your website link, blog link, and upload some videos, photos, and audio recordings onto each of your social media profiles. Make yourself as accessible as possible so it’s easy for people to not only understand what you do, but to check out all the other elements of your platform with just a simple click. It may seem like a lot of work initially, but once you do it, it will pay off in ways you can’t yet imagine. Plus, you’ll just feel better knowing it’s done.
Send media links to the media: When pitching a podcast, radio show, television show or anything with a microphone and/or a camera, include a link to some of your best work in that pitch email. It could be to one of your talks, if it’s your best work. Otherwise, a link to another interview makes it easy for media to hear you and see you so they can decide if they, too, want to book an interview with you. Make it easy for them so they don’t have to hunt around searching for you, because often they won’t.
LinkedIn Is Best For Corporate Speakers: LinkedIn has long been known to attract professionals in just about every field. For business speakers, it’s a smart move to put your biggest social media efforts into LinkedIn. It may well be worth your while to pay for the premium package so that you have access to the other features the free version doesn’t give you. After connecting on LinkedIn, it may be time to take those relationships offline and begin networking with local managers in your area to get you some steady gigs as their favorite professional speaker. Networking both online and offline is essential.
Be succinct. Always: No matter what social media tool you are using, make sure to be direct and impactful in your communications. No one is going to read a page and a half of rambling. Does it take longer to create a short post? It was Mark Twain who said, ” “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Yes, it often does, but you are helping others and you are also helping yourself. Keep it short.
Use Each Form Of Social Media To Strengthen the Others: For instance, when on Twitter, invite people to “like” your Facebook page. When you’re on Facebook, ask people to connect with you on LinkedIn too. I do this about every six months or so.
There are lots more tips for speakers and authors, and I will be sharing many more of them here. If you have people in your network who would benefit from learning more about the 7 different channels of media and how to work with them, then feel free to share this by either forwarding this link or the email you received. Or, tell them to take the How Media Savvy are You Assessment.
To your success!