Lauren Pibworth

November 30, 2021 by Lauren Pibworth Leave a Comment

Even when you have the desire, expertise, and talents to share your message to the masses, becoming a speaker can be challenging at first. This is why I started this series of blogs exclusively dedicated to helping emerging speakers succeed in their journey to become expert speakers.

This time, I wanted to address a topic that might sound simple: are you really ready to start your journey as a speaker? People often underestimate the importance of this question because they think you only need to have something to say, and that will immediately turn you into a successful speaker. Well, sorry to break it out to you, but that is not true.

Having worked with multiple speakers, I’ve noticed that, even emerging speakers who have all of their business foundations in place, can also fail if the time isn’t right for them. And no, this does not have anything to do with moon cycles and destiny! But rather it is about your mindset and the stage you’re in professionally.

How to know if you are ready to become a successful speaker?

I want to start by saying that success is a result of your effort and your talent. Anyone can be a successful speaker if they set their minds to it, there’s no doubt of that. This checklist would only help you clear out the way, whether you decide to pursue this career path now or maybe wait a bit to make sure you are in the best place to start.

With that being said, let’s get into it! Here’s what you need to become a successful speaker:

Time

Believe it or not, the first thing you need to become a successful speaker is time. Just like any other business, it takes a lot of time and thought to build up and grow a speaking business, and many entrepreneurs forget that because they are too caught up in investing in their other businesses.

If you don’t want it to be just a gig, then make sure you have enough time to dedicate to developing a solid structure and growing your speaking business.

A clear budget

Budgeting is one of the most difficult parts of starting a business. And it can make it difficult for you to become a successful speaker if you don’t have a clear vision of how much you need to invest.

You don’t need to spend a ton of money to cover the essentials of an emerging speaker starting kit, but you do not want to fall short either. My best recommendation here is to compare prices in the market and set a budget that works for you right now.

Realistic expectations

Mindset plays a huge role in the beginnings of every new business. For emerging speakers, it becomes even more important, because you’ll be the face of everything.

Many people feel disappointed when they see only 10 followers on social media or book only one speaking gig in the first month, and that is normal. It doesn’t mean you did anything wrong. In fact, you might be doing everything right.

To become a successful speaker you need to have realistic expectations about the job. Because, yes, it is a job, and luckily, one you’ll enjoy!

The best way to know what to expect when you are starting is to ask other successful speakers about their experiences. There are a few ways to gain access to fellow speakers. You can start to attend meetings (virtual or in-person) of a speaking association. I belong to the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) and I have been a member for almost 9 years. This organization is full of people who ‘get’ what it is that you want to do and are willing to come alongside you and help.

And if you are not ready to join an association, or attend any meetings, then just “Google” the speakers you admire and read their stories. A few of my personal favorites are Shelle Rose Charvet, Stuart Knight, and Scott McKain. They all have very different and unique speaking styles, but each style has really resonated with me over time. Remember though, these speakers have been in the game for YEARS and it took a lot of work and training to get that good.

Tangible and achievable goals

If we don’t have enough motivation to continue doing something, we are more likely to bail on it. It’s natural. We’ve seen it a million times. So, to become a successful speaker, you need to stay focused and motivated even after the momentum has passed.

Along with having realistic expectations, setting up tangible and achievable goals can help you keep yourself motivated and excited to become a successful speaker. And it also allows you to plan ahead on the possibilities of your new speaking business.

Maybe your first goal is to book one paid gig each month, and the next would be putting a live event in a year, and so on.

Confidence in your message

While I was drafting the ideas for this post, I came across a wonderful article by Lisa Evans, which she titles “Take the leap… or small steps”. And I loved it because it is the perfect example of what it is to become a successful speaker.

Of course, I’m not saying you should just take a leap of faith and hope for the best. But you do have to trust that this is the way you want to follow and have confidence that your message will resonate with others.

When people come to me and tell me “Lauren, I want to be a professional speaker”, I can’t tell if they are going to succeed or not, but what I do notice is how passionate they are about sharing this message. This passion is what makes the difference when it comes to becoming successful speakers because it’s what keeps you moving forward no matter what.

So, let me summarize everything for you. To become a successful speaker, you should at least have:

Having clarity in terms of what you want to achieve with your speaking is the first part to become a successful speaker, and it is something I want all emerging speakers to understand. However, if you still have some doubts you can purchase my Clarity Masterclass. There you’ll find useful guides and resources to help you in your journey to become a successful emerging speaker.

November 16, 2021 by Lauren Pibworth Leave a Comment

Welcome back to another post on my emerging speakers series!

During the last couple of years, I’ve seen a growing interest in the speaking industry and, since this is my specialty, I wanted to take the opportunity to share some tips a lot of my clients and myself would have liked to know before embarking on this wonderful journey of becoming speakers. In today’s post, I’ll tell you 6 tips that will save you money when creating a website for emerging speakers.

As a new speaker, one doesn’t always know where to begin. Creating a website is, at least, in the top 5 “must do’s” of any article you find about how to start your speaking business. However, at this moment you might feel overwhelmed by the number of options and website templates there are. And it is likely you don’t know what to ask for from a website designer to get the results you expect.

Now yes – I want you to keep reading because these 6 tips are very useful, but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that yes – of course, we build websites for emerging speakers. In fact, I have created a really budget-friendly website package, especially for emerging speakers.

6 tips to save money when creating your speaking business website

1. Get a clear vision of your business

Understanding what you are selling and the main goal of your website is extremely important to make every dollar count when creating your website. And there’s a simple reason for it: don’t try and market something you don’t yet know or have.

I hear it all the time from emerging speakers. “To be successful I need to get into marketing ASAP”. And that’s true, but to create effective marketing strategies you must have a product to sell, right?

And not just that, with the product you’ll need to also create the brand, identify your target, etc.

There’s a lot to think about before you get into marketing. So make sure your foundations are clear and you know exactly what the goal of your website will be. Whether you are working with a freelance web designer or an agency, telling them what your goals are for this website from the beginning can save you a lot in redesigning and corrections.

If you are struggling to find some clarity on this matter or would simply like to see if you are ready to go out there and create your website, then it is the perfect time to join my Clarity Masterclass, where you can get more tips and tricks just like this one to help you build the best website for emerging speakers. You can register here and get my workbook, with tons of exercises and useful tips to become a successful speaker.

2. Have a well-defined brand

I mentioned this in the first subheading but I couldn’t get past the opportunity to emphasize the importance of building your brand before even thinking about creating a website. Just imagine how frustrating it would be to create a gorgeous website with a branding you are still not sure about, just to change it and have to pay again to redesign it. That’s a nightmare.

Emerging speakers often underestimate this and think a simple picture of themselves is enough. But a brand is much more than your picture. A brand is everything you are as a business and it should be imbued in every piece of communication you create. Yes, that includes your website.

By getting some clarity on what your brand is all about, you can give more specific instructions to a web designer about what you want your website to look and feel like when a potential client is scrolling down on it. Remember, the clearer you are with your designer, the fewer changes you’ll be making along the way.

3. Do your own research

Before jumping into the first person that offers to create a website for free or creating an account in that site you saw once or twice in YouTube ads, open up the Google tab and do your own research.

‘What websites do you find the most attractive?’, ‘Why do you like them?’, ‘What features do you find the most useful?’

At this point, putting yourself in the shoes of your clients can help you determine what your website should look like.

Research also includes looking for agencies or freelance designers to help you create your speaker website. Websites for emerging speakers are in high demand right now. So it shouldn’t be difficult to find web designers or agencies that can offer their services at the right rate. I mean, you just found us! But remember, speaker websites are not like every other website. Choose someone with experience building marketing for speakers.

4. Keep it simple

I know, I know, after seeing those amazing websites, it is tempting to have all sorts of animations and graphics on yours. But websites for emerging speakers can get more expensive the more bells and whistles that you add.

Make sure you are answering, at least, the following questions:

Who are you?
What do you offer and where can your clients find it?
Who is this for?

If possible, keep everything in 3 or 4 pages. Especially when you are starting, it is important to think about your client’s experience on your website. Make it easier for them to find all the information they need to get to know you and contact you.

Think of your website as a gift. The wrapping paper should be attractive enough to catch people’s eyes, but what really matters is the inside. The content you are putting out there, and, as a busy customer, your clients will appreciate your website is easy to read through and find what they are looking for.

This will save you a lot of money on design and also direct people’s attention to what matters the most in your website.

5. List the website features you want AND need

I find it useful to list out all of the features you want and need to have an effective website. In the same spirit of simpleness, it is important to stress the word ‘need’ here. Not everything you see, like flashy animations or videos, is actually necessary to have a great website. And even though it looks pretty, it might cost you a lot more with little to no result in the long run.

This is when all of your time researching other speakers’ websites and creating your digital marketing strategy pays off. You want to include the features that align with your marketing strategy and also the ones that help your client answer basic questions about you and your speaking business.

For example, if your main goal with your website is lead generation, you can add lead magnets in the form of pop-ups or subscription forms on the home page. And even if you don’t know what features are available or work the best for you, telling all of this to a web designer helps them have a realistic view of the amount of work it would take from them to build the website. Thus, you’ll be able to manage your budget better.

Remember setting priorities and focusing on the must-haves is crucial to getting a functional website for less.

6. Do some of the work in-house

Especially if you are an emerging speaker with a limited budget, you should definitely think about doing some of the work in-house instead of leaving everything to an agency. But, what can you do?

Building a website from scratch takes a lot. Depending on your time and skills, you can save up to half of the initial budget by doing some of those things yourself.

Some tasks that you can perform, beyond programming, are:

Copywriting. If writing is one of your skills, you can save the money you’d pay a copywriter to create the copy on your website. But don’t underestimate this task, good copy is key to keeping potential clients interested in your website. That is why with our emerging speaker websites, we include a workbook that has been created to guide you step by step with the copy creation process.
Content creation. Whether you are writing blogs or filming videos, you can provide the designer with content they can repurpose into useful pieces of information.
Finding graphics and pictures. Graphics are the first thing people see on your website and designers tend to take a bit more time to find the right ones. You can speed up that process by finding those images yourself.
Design. If you have some background in design, you can provide a web developer with a rough sketch of what you want. This can save you a lot of work from a website designer.

..

Those are just some tips you can apply to save some money when creating a website for your speaking business. Most websites for emerging speakers tend to follow a simple template at the beginning, mainly due to a limited budget. But don’t be afraid of that!

Focus on your content and the business goals you’ve set right now. Later on, when you add more and more content and products to your brand, you can start personalizing and adding more features to make your website stand out from other websites for emerging speakers.

If you have more questions about how to become a successful emerging speaker, check out my resources for emerging speakers here and keep a look at the next posts on these emerging speakers series.

November 2, 2021 by Lauren Pibworth Leave a Comment

Most articles you’ll find on marketing for speakers on the internet will focus primarily on marketing strategies and tactics. ‘How to grow a community on social media?’, ‘How to get more speaking gigs?’, those are very important topics you should know about, of course. But one I don’t see being talked about enough is how to build a truly targeted marketing list.

See, the message you want to share as a speaker is important, there’s no doubt about that. And equally as important is figuring out who needs to hear that message. The first step to getting your speaking to the proper audience is creating your client avatar and building your list.

But first, what is a targeted marketing list?

A targeted marketing list is, as the name states, a list of the existing and ideal current and prospective clients you have. And it is made to help you achieve your marketing objectives, whether it is brand awareness or increasing revenue.

Do you remember the main marketing objectives for speakers? Don’t worry if you don’t, you can always check my blog on content marketing for speakers.

This marketing list should include, at least, the basic contact information of your clients. That is to say full name, phone number, and email address.

However, depending on what you’ll use this list for, you can always ask for more details. You could consider asking adding demographics, income level, habits, and more. But often, the simpler, the better.

Being mindful about the purpose you intend to give this list is extremely important when you are preparing your marketing strategy.

Pro tip: the profile of people you’ll have in your marketing list should be more or less the same because you are targeting people who are aligned with your client avatar description. In fact, if all of the contacts in your marketing list don’t have two or three things in common, you might want to check why are they on your marketing list in the first place.

‘I want everyone to hear my message, why would I need a targeted marketing list?’

Believe it or not, you can’t speak to everyone. Or at least you shouldn’t.

Even if your goal is to have many different audiences, building a marketing list allows you to segment and channel your message more efficiently to them.

For example, if you speak to mental health and safety in schools and you want to talk to teachers and students. What you want to do is separate them and craft specific strategies and messages for each audience so they can relate. You can do this more easily with a marketing list.

On the other hand, marketing lists are extremely useful when improving results in email marketing strategies. They can save you tons of time and money because you already know who and how to reach them. After all, marketing lists are just another source of information about your clients. The more you know about them, the better you can relate to them.

How to build your list

The first thing you need to know is that building a marketing list takes time. Even after you have a good list, you should always think of new ways to improve upon it, even if it’s passively.

With that being said, here are some practical practices and strategies you can try to build your marketing list.

1. Create your own podcast

Creating a podcast is one of the easiest ways to get yourself known as a speaker. It is especially effective for emerging speakers because it allows them to practice speaking to an audience on a much smaller scale. A podcast can also help you get recognition amongst other audiences and, of course, it comes in handy when you want to build your marketing list.

With your podcast, you can create lead magnets to offer to potential clients in exchange for their information. The secret here is that, if someone already purchased something from you — even if it’s a simple transaction like the one I just described— they are more likely to buy from you again. I’ll talk a little bit more about this in the next subheading.

2. Use lead magnets

I have a whole series on lead magnets on my blog, but I think it’s important to talk about it here too. Lead magnets are one of the most effective ways to build up your marketing list. They are supposed to be simple so your audience feels drawn to them immediately.

Lead magnets can be any type of content. You need to choose wisely and think about a problem your client has and you can solve it in three minutes. Find that problem, and offer a solution in the form of a workbook, a masterclass, a template, etc.

Even if you have a large audience, you can create different lead magnets for specific segments. If anything, that’s even better because you’ll aim to solve specific issues other people might not address.

Another great tip here is to focus on solving only one issue at a time. Choose the one that’s more common or important to your audience, so they have even more reasons to give you their information.

Let’s say, then, that you, an amazing mental health speaker, have a wide audience of college students and middle-aged workers who struggle to find a balance with hybrid working models in the post-pandemic era.

Maybe for college students, it’s more important to know how to balance part-time jobs and school. For them, you can create a planner with recommended activities for them. If you’d want to target middle-aged workers, you could offer them a meditation guide or create a combo package for them to share with other coworkers.

3. Promote freebies and downloadable materials

If you already use lead magnets, then make sure you are promoting them properly. It might seem obvious, but more often than not, clients don’t get to click the “Yes, I want it” button because they simply don’t know we are offering a free product, or it is way too difficult for them to find it.

You can also apply this tip to any form of content you produce. People don’t pay that much attention to their screens and there are tons of distractions between the online and offline world. Having a little reminder or call-to-action at the end of every post, video, or audio that you share, can make a huge difference when you are trying to build your marketing list.

Make sure you are promoting your lead magnets on social media at times when people are active, and add pop-ups on the first page of your website. This way no one will miss it.

4. Keep your lead-capturing forms nice and short.

As I’ve mentioned, people’s attention span on the internet is low. Most of us don’t want to spend 10 to 20 minutes filling a form, we want immediate results, right?

You can use this in your favor by creating short and simple forms that require only the information you need from your client. Besides the basics – name and contact information – think if there’s any more information that might be useful to you. If there isn’t, leave the form as it is.

Pro tip: if you do need to ask more questions in your form, don’t use the long-answer format. Limit your questions to yes, no, or a simple selection answer. This will make it easier for your client and help you organize your list better.

Gosh! There’s so much cover when talking about lead generation and list building. Building your marketing list provides you with valuable information that will definitely come in handy when you plan your next marketing strategy.

I know collecting data and creating lists isn’t the sexiest part of marketing – content creation tends to be more attractive to everyone. But, my years of experience have taught me that it is highly important. How else would you know what kind of content to create if you don’t have all of this information? This is the reason why I dedicate so much of my content to it.

I think this is enough for this blog, but don’t hesitate to ask anything if you want to know more. I want to create blogs that are useful and easy to understand for all speakers who are trying to grow in the industry.

Oh, and finally, while I was getting the idea for this blog, I came across a very useful article from Mailchimp. It shares some ideas on how to use the platform to build your email list as well. I recommend you give it a read if you use Mailchimp for your email campaigns!

October 18, 2021 by Lauren Pibworth Leave a Comment

Hello, there!

In my many years of experience helping speakers and coaches grow and build their businesses, I’ve gathered a lot of resources to help emerging speakers ease their way to the spotlight, literally and figuratively, of course. And there’s a lot of this content on the internet already. But something I don’t see many people talk about enough is the one big issue that stops emerging speakers from becoming successful, so I decided to write a series in my blog to tackle the basics.

I want you to understand and get practical tips, taken directly from my Clarity Masterclass and my resources for emerging speakers, so you can prepare yourself and turn those one-time speaking gigs, and ‘speak for free opportunities’ into an actual business that pays the bills.

Conference room full of people, the gaol of every emerging speaker

Let’s get right into the first one: the #1 roadblock that stops emerging speakers from becoming successful

Most emerging speakers start their journey full of ideas. They have a message they just need to get out there for the world to hear, and more times than not, they are right. But, when we go and ask them why would someone hire them to speak? What problem are they solving for the audience? That’s when most beginner speakers freeze.

The reality is that we all have some good stories to tell, and many of us could be great speakers, but we simply can’t get the right people to listen. If we don’t have a clear understanding of what it is we are going to say and who are we going to say it to, and why they need to hear it then achieving our goal of creating a sustainable speaking business is going to be very challenging.

To make the road a little less difficult for you, let me give you a few of the most practical tips I could gather from my experience and masterclasses.

Tips to become a successful emerging speaker

1. Get your message straight

To become a successful speaker you need to have a message that goes beyond personal stories. People love to hear other people’s experiences, but that will only get you so far when it comes to making a business of speaking and it might not be enough if your stories don’t convey a deeper meaning or relate to a broader topic you can explore in different ways.

Find whatever it is you are an expert on and break down that topic into smaller pieces for starters. If you can talk about this topic for more than ten minutes and hold someone’s attention without going over the same arguments, you’ll know you have something to say.

Then, you can add your personal and unique experiences to give your speech more meaning and also make it unique.

2. Marketing is one of the most important parts of your business

Know this, if you wish to become a paid professional speaker: marketing is your best friend to achieve success.

And why is that? Simple. To get you consistent, paid speaking opportunities, you have to build your brand and get known as an expert in your topic by those who hire speakers, and one of the best ways to do so is to have a good marketing strategy.

I’ve already covered a lot in the topic of marketing for speakers, so I encourage you to check my articles on content marketing for speakers and creating a social media marketing strategy to improve your presence in the digital world.

Empty conference room. Emerging speakers roadblocks.

3. Speak to one audience at a time

I’ve found that, when I ask emerging speakers about who they are going to talk to, they provide me with a short, almost single sentence, description of their ideal listener. Some say ‘Well, I talk to entrepreneurs like me’ or ‘women in their 40s’. Or even worse “everyone needs to hear my message”.

These descriptions are too broad and general that you might end up talking to a lot of ‘entrepreneurs’ or ‘women in their 40’s’ that don’t really connect with what you have to say.

When you market to everyone, you resonate with no one because the message you are sending ends up being way too generic.

Take your time to create a more detailed profile of your ideal listener, that person who needs to hear your message and will likely hire you multiple times.

4. Think of speaking as a business, not a gig

If you are an emerging speaker who wants to succeed in the industry, you have to start thinking about it as a business and not as a one-time gig.

In order to make a business of your speaking, you have to put a lot of effort into creating a solid vision of what you want to make of it. Why do you want to be a speaker? What do you want to contribute? How can you scale it?

A lack of clarity regarding your business is the #1 roadblock emerging speakers find when they are just starting their journey, and it can cause you to lose tons of money and time.

I have created the Clarity Masterclass specifically to help emerging speakers craft a clear message and align their strategies with their business goals to ensure success.

This is a comprehensive masterclass that consists of three modules where we’ll define ideal clients, pain points, and competitors to create a message that stands out and positions your name in the industry.

Find more about the Clarity Masterclass here and get started on your speaking business. I’m excited to see you become a successful speaker and, hopefully, count us in on your journey.

Don’t forget this series will be ongoing in my blog, and you can always comment or ask us what we should talk about next.

September 29, 2021 by Lauren Pibworth Leave a Comment

In a recent post, I talked about the importance of social media marketing for speakers, and I gave you the basics to understand it better. Today, it’s time to implement! Let me guide you in the process of creating a GREAT social media content strategy ideal for speakers.

Once you know why content marketing is an excellent opportunity to make yourself known in the industry, you need to start working towards getting the results, and it all starts with a plan.

Let’s go step by step.

First, what is a social media content strategy?

A social media strategy is a document where you outline and plan the tactics to reach your goals on social media. Here it is helpful to remember the purpose of social media itself, which is to make connections with others. Therefore, a social media content strategy for speakers should be aimed to build trust and strengthen your brand’s name by reaching and engaging with a larger audience.

To do this, your social media content strategy must have, at least, the following items perfectly detailed:

The tactics you’ll use. Let’s say posts, giveaways, lives, etc.
The metric to look up to when doing follow-up.
The platforms you’ll use and their specific goals.
Roles and responsibilities of whoever is doing each task.

A step-by-step guide to creating a social media content strategy for speakers

1. Setting the goal

As you might know from our previous article, social media is all about goals.

If there isn’t a specific goal to achieve, what makes your strategy different from just posting random pictures whenever you feel in the mood?

Setting up goals also helps us keep track of our efforts and align everything in our social media content strategy. Thus, it prevents us from spending more money and time on tasks that are not giving us positive results.

Depending on your brand, there are diverse goals you can pursue. Maybe you want to reach a different audience, or you want to make yourself known in a specific industry. Line them out and assign them a priority score, so you know which ones are the most important when you start drafting your content ideas later on.

Something to remember is that whatever goals you decide to focus on have to be realistic and achievable in a specific period.

For example, instead of just saying “I want to get more speaking gigs”, go for “I want to get 10 speaking gigs booked in these places by the end of the month”

Here’s a pro-tip to define your goals efficiently: go for SMART goals.

SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant to you and your audience, and Time-based.

Once your goals have checked all of those, you can move forward with your social media content strategy.

2. Researching and selecting the right kind of content.

The core of a social media content strategy is, yes, content. So, we need to think carefully about what kind of content can help us achieve our goals and if it is something we want or can do.

First, you want to do some research. Based on your goal and your audience, what kind of content is working on social media right now? What platforms are your audience most active on? Take note of everything you find useful and think about how you can adapt it for your own social media.

Then, think about the kind of content you can actually create because you have to be able to produce it consistently if you want your social media content strategy to succeed.

Maybe podcasts are really buzzing lately but you don’t have the time to plan and record new episodes that often, or you prefer to make videos instead. In that case, it might be better to focus your strategy on what you do best and enjoy – and what fits in your calendar.

Try and find a balance between the content you like and can do regularly, and the content that does better amongst your audience.

Some ideas to consider are:

Blog posts
Basic Graphics
Videos
Infographics
Webinars
Podcasts

3. Research the best platforms for you

Don’t buy in. Many gurus say that to be on social media you have to be on all the mainstream platforms available — that is to say Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and, sometimes, YouTube and Pinterest— But that is NOT the truth. And it’s not true for two reasons.

First and foremost, NOT all social media platforms are good for you.

Depending on your audience and your industry, some platforms will leverage better results than others for multiple reasons. It might be because they are more popular within your audience, or they prioritize the type of content you want to focus on.

On the other hand, most speakers underestimate the amount of work that involves creating content and managing many social media accounts, and it’s easy to abandon them after a couple of weeks, even if you have a perfectly crafted social media content strategy.

This is why hiring a professional marketing agency can help a lot, but, even if it’s only you, start with a reasonable number of platforms you know you can handle.

If I had to choose something for you to take from this article it would be this: consistency and quality are the keys here. Think of each platform as a presentation card. They should all be updated regularly to build up trust. So, remember it is always better to have one or two active accounts than a lot of them but with inconsistent posting and old content.

4. Create your branding and client avatar

I can’t stress the importance of branding enough when it comes to marketing. And since we are talking about social media content strategies, this is a good opportunity to bring this topic to the spotlight once again.

Before you create any type of content, you need to create your branding and client avatar. And even if you already have them, I find it useful to go over this information every once in a while, to make sure the goals I’ve set correspond with my audience and branding.

Branding includes everything from the voice, tone, and visuals to messages and characteristics of your ‘brand persona’.

Your client avatar, on the other hand, is a detailed description of the people you are trying to reach out to. As with everything I’ve told you in this post, the more specific, the better.

A great tip here is to do a bit of roleplay. Imagine you’ll have a nice and engaging conversation with someone. How do they talk? How do you interact with them in this environment? What do you two talk about? Take notes of this and start building your brand persona.

All of this will allow you to create guidelines you and everyone in your team can follow to keep the conversations personal and your messages coherent, making up for a consistent brand image.

5. Create content categories or pillars

Congrats! You’ve done all the heavy-duty work and now it’s time to start planning.

With all the information you collected, you can create multiple contents that serve your goals. But one type of content can’t cover that many goals at once, so it’s better to create content pillars or categories for each of them.

For example, if your goal is booking more speaking gigs, you could create a category aimed toward credibility and testimonies, in which you can integrate booking as a call-to-action.

You can also create categories related to different audiences if you speak on different topics. You could talk about mental health for young people but also senior citizens.

Remember each pillar should have a clear purpose in your feed and you should be able to recognize it in each post.

6. Plan your calendar

Once you’ve defined your content pillars, take a calendar and plan out what and when are you going to post. The recipe here differs from speaker to speaker depending on all the research you’ve done about your audience.

But don’t worry. You’ll quickly find a balance between all of your pillars when the weeks pass and your start getting results.

Here you can see an example of the content calendar we have created for a client of ours:

As you can see, it only details the categories, we are not talking about creating any content yet. In this stage, you could also define posting time and frequency for each content.

Look at your research and find the best hours to post — those are the hours your users are most active and willing to interact on the platform of your choice.

7. Create your content

You are almost there! All of this planning has finally led us to create some content. As you might notice, a social media content strategy is only as good as the research behind it, and the actual content is a small, yet important, part of it all.

At this stage, you can choose between hiring someone else to create all the content you’ve laid out or do it yourself.

If the latter is the case, then I recommend you try Canva or Visme. They are both drag-and-drop editors that can help you create almost anything. From infographics to dynamic posts and GIFs.

Pro tip about content creation apps: NEVER use the templates as they are.

Most graphic design tools have templates and predesigned images, and, I know, they are very easy to use, but that only makes it more likely for everyone else to use them as well. And you don’t want to look like everyone else, right?

Instead, use these templates as guidelines and modify them to match your brand as much as possible. Give them your unique touch, so to speak.

8. Settle metrics to measure success

Now that you have planned and created your social media content strategy, how do you know if it’s working? This is when metrics come along.

Metrics are like a thermometer for your performance. They tell you if you are hot or cold in the social media game, and they also provide insight on what you should improve if your results are lacking.

Since almost anything on the internet can be tracked, there are thousands of metrics you can use. Some of the most common are:

Audience size: This refers to the number of followers, Facebook page likes, etc.
Engagement: Retweets, likes, shares, link clicks, comments, etc.
Post reach: This will show how many people can see your posts.
Leads/Sales: Subscribers, ROI, etc.

Take a look back at your goals and your platforms to find the right metrics for you. If your goal is to increase brand awareness, focus on the audience size and reach, and so on.

You can even use these metrics to break down your goals into specific objectives for each platform, creating a more detailed plan.

9. Implementing and following up

By now you should have a complete social media content strategy to start implementing. And there are tons of apps that can make your life easier in this matter.

Hootsuite is one of the most common apps to use for social media scheduling on any platform. Personally, I prefer SocialBee and use it for the majority of my clients. You can also use Later or even Creator Studio for Instagram and Facebook.

Pro Tip – while schedulers make life easier, many platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook will not give as much visibility to posts that are shared using schedulers. If you really want it to be seen, posting natively (by hand) is the best way.

Also, know that it is not necessary for you to have a whole month planned and scheduled. You can start small with just one or two weeks scheduled in advance and move forward from there.

After that, you want to monitor your efforts and do some follow-up regarding your goals. Compare them with the results you are getting and, by the end of the month (or the period you’ve settled in your plan) see if you need to do some adjustments in your strategy.

Remember social media is about trial and error and pivoting when necessary is a good thing. Your first plan will never be perfect, it is a gem that should be polished over time and can always improve as you get to know your audience more and you grow as a speaker.

Whoa! There’s so much to cover when it comes to social media, but hopefully, this guide serves you as a blueprint to create your own social media content strategy. Now, it’s your turn to rock the game!

September 15, 2021 by Lauren Pibworth Leave a Comment

Here’s a fact: we are all on social media and even the few people that aren’t, know about it. The world has changed, and so has the way we communicate and interact with others. That inevitably means that to sell, business owners and entrepreneurs need to adapt quickly if they don’t want to get lost in the vast cyberspace.

But social media marketing for speakers can be a tough nut to crack, especially if you don’t have much experience. Even though most people use social media daily, not everyone knows how to take advantage of it as a business tool.

We all know how to create a profile and post a picture on Facebook, tweet a couple of words, and maybe share some news on LinkedIn. It seems easy, but doing it properly to get more clients and market yourself outside of your close circle, that’s another thing.

So to understand how to use social media marketing for speakers effectively, here are a couple of things you should know:

Social Media is a doorway

For speakers, as for any other business owner, social media can turn into a communication channel to reach the right audience and market yourself as an expert in your field.

But social media is rarely an end goal. Rather, think of it as a doorway — or multiple doorways— through which people can find you. And, if they like what they see in your feed, feel identified, and want more, you can redirect them to your website and, ultimately, lead them to book you for more speaking opportunities, or encourage them to share your contact information with someone interested.

The first thing you need to do is to create a social media presence. And, no, that doesn’t just mean creating a profile and start blasting people with content. It means creating a proper social media marketing strategy to reach your target audience.

This will help you build up credibility and will serve as a doorway for people who don’t know you yet to have a first impression of you and what you do.

Social media is not advertising

We talked about what social media is, but maybe it makes it more clear to state what it isn’t. Social media is not advertising, and I cannot stress this enough.

The reality is that people don’t go on social media expecting to be sold anything. If they wanted old-fashioned commercials, they would go and watch TV or listen to the radio. Most people go on social media to connect to like-minded peers, learn and have fun. Therefore, social media marketing for speakers shouldn’t be only focused on booking your next gig.

The purpose of social media is to create meaningful and engaging interactions between you and your audience. Just like you would call or text a friend, get to know them, interact with them, joke around if that is your style, and build trust. And then you can convince them to listen to what you have to say.

Before ‘what’ you must think ‘why? Define your goal

Social media marketing strategies are all about goals, and the more concrete and specific they are, the better. This is the only way you can measure whether your social media efforts are successful or not and what you can do to improve them.

So, before getting your mind wrapped up with what kind of content you need, take a moment to think about the why. Why is this message important for you? Why is it important for your audience? Why should they listen to you specifically?

There are millions of reasons, as many as there are speakers in this world, so define the why and determine your goal based on it before anything else.

If you are yet not sure about your goals, here are some social media marketing for speakers that work:

Get partnerships, sponsors, or speaking opportunities

Maybe the most obvious goal out of all social media marketing strategies for speakers is getting noticed by other authorities in your field or sponsors who might want to offer you different speaking opportunities. Having a large community and quality content increases your chances of that happening.

Share what’s new

Social media marketing for speakers, as for any other business, is still a way to get your work out there for people to see, so use it as an opportunity to share information about new events and conferences you’ll be attending, maybe even some sneak peek about what you’ll talk about or behind the scenes from the conference.

Explore new topics and attract new audiences

Because social media is a more informal environment— although that doesn’t mean less professional—, you can also explore other topics that fall out of your comfort zone or a recently discovered passion you think might be of interest to others.

Increase brand awareness

As a speaker, you can build your brand and take it to a broader audience to get noticed and start networking. Increasing brand awareness is the kind of goal you’ll go for when you are starting to seek speaking gigs and people don’t know you yet.

Strengthen your brand identity

If you are already a well-known speaker, take social media as an opportunity to strengthen your identity, sharing content that supports your values and beliefs.

Increase the value of existing clients

This goal goes hand-by-hand with building a community because it involves giving more value to those people who have already seen your conferences, that have been following you for a while, or that hired you one time and loved you.

You can always strengthen that bond by providing them with exclusive content, programs, webinars, etc.

Get feedback and interact with your audience

A great advantage of social media is that you can get immediate feedback from your audience and interact with them, promoting debates and interesting conversations that can give you a lot of material for your next conference.

But, remember, this is a double-edged sword because, as you’ll see in the next subtitle, users are the ones that hold power in social media.

When it comes to content, quality is better than quantity

Yes, I know, it’s the same old story, quality over quantity. But this time, it’s crucial.

Social media gave users the power to choose what they want to see and what they don’t. And there’s a lot to choose from with millions of creators, entertainers, and, yes, speakers, who are also competing for their attention.

This is why to make social media marketing for speakers effective, you should be thinking in terms of what makes this message valuable rather than how many messages can we send. Try to find a balance between the two, prioritizing quality.

An important note here I find useful when thinking about social media strategies for speakers is the nature of social media itself. We mentioned before that people don’t like to be advertised on social media. But that doesn’t mean you can’t ever promote your speaking gigs. Saying “Hey, I’ve got this event on Friday, and I’d love you to come” is good, just make sure that’s not the entirety of your content, otherwise it will feel boring and pushy.

Another great tool you can use to flip the script so it doesn’t feel like blatant promotion is storytelling. People love a good story, and it keeps them engaged and entertained while also serving your purpose of informing them about what’s coming next with you.

Plan your content according to your brand, objectives, and resources

Once you’ve determined your goal, it’s time to create some content.

Start with the basics, what kind of content leads you to achieve this particular goal? Who should I express my message to so it reaches people, and it also makes it engaging and enjoyable for them to interact with?

At this point, things like your client avatar, your brand voice, your image, and everything you’ve built for your personal brand serves as a source of inspiration to create content. You can even look up holidays and special dates to plan relevant content accordingly.

Remember that, in social media marketing for speakers, the main purpose is to have conversations, but that doesn’t mean you should post whatever is in your mind. Find some topics that are interesting to you and your audience and explore them on your social media platforms.

You can even repurpose some of your speeches to create infographics, videos, and blogs to share. Use all of the resources you have available and have fun. If you are the one creating content on your own, find whatever format that works for you. If not, provide your team with some guidelines and the objectives to meet, and let them do the magic.

Social media marketing is a trial and error

As someone who has made a business out of this, I’ll tell you the real secret of social media marketing for speakers: nothing, not even the most perfectly structured plan, is carved in stone.

Think of your first social media marketing strategy as a pilot and be ready to make changes if necessary to progressively improve your results. Remember social media is always changing and pivoting sometimes is part of the process.

After the first couple of months, compare your results and strategies using success metrics such as:

Performance-based on platforms. Should you focus on one or the other?
Performance-based on content. What kind of content is getting more attention?
Engagement. What topics are more attractive?
Time. What time of the day is your audience more active? What days?

Now that you know all of this, it’s time to create your content strategy. And yes, I know social media marketing for speakers isn’t something you learn by reading just one blog post, so I’ll be posting a step-by-step guide on how to create your own social media content strategy next. I can’t wait for you to see it!