The Power of Public Speaking in Promoting your Website
Karl Kasca
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Public speaking is one of the most powerful offline (and now online) ways to promote your website.  Spending some time acquiring or improving public speaking skills will have the multiple positive effects of helping: Your website (blog, or podcast), your business, your public exposure, your personal and professional brand, your book if you have one, and word of mouth about all of these.

This is more of an "Action Steps" article, so scroll down to the steps and/or see the Video below.

Skip to Video
 - Note: Since there may be more info of interest/use on the page below, you should at least skim it quickly in addition to viewing the Video below.


Action Steps - Offline


  1. Join Toastmasters and also speak to as many outside groups as you can (Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions, etc.). 


  2. Give valuable information during your speeches. 


  3. On your short evaluation form (see Resources below for link to mine as an example), elicit comments and email addresses from the attendees in exchange for a PDF copy of your presentation as well as their permission to opt-in to your e-Newsletter mailing list. 


    1. Note: If you're using a double-opt-in email list like aWeber (which we recommend), you'll need to ask them via email to opt-in to your email list themselves (since you can't double-opt-in for them).  For more information on double-opt-in see our article:  E-Newsletters - The Basics.


  4. This builds your mailing list.  


  5. Ask for referrals to other groups, assuring more people to speak to in the future.  
    --> What's great about this is: Speaking generates more speaking (and website/business exposure) opportunities!

  6. "Rinse and Repeat" - Just keep doing this...


Optional:
  1. Later you may make the leap from "Public Speaking" to "Professional Speaking".


  2. Many Authors who are promoting their books go the Professional speaking route and sell their books "at the back of the room".


  3. Later, after Pro speakers have audios and videos recorded, they can "bundle" the products together to make more attractive deals for back of the room sales.


  4. This has the effect of both promoting and selling their books (and other products).



Action Steps - Online


Once you've finished your speech, consider posting your PowerPoint presentation to an online slidesharing community like Slideshare.net.  The cool part of this is that you don't even need to post the audio part of the speech (you can if you want to, but you don't have to).  For more on this see my blog posts:
How to Use a Slideshare Presentation to get Top Ranking in Google search - Case Study and The Importance of Ethics in Social Media in Marketing and Advertising.

The strategy of this is to leverage the power of the presentation you've already given by posting it on the web where it can be found and take on a life of it's own.  For instance my presentation mentioned above was only given to a class of about 30 students as a Guest Lecture at UCLA Extension, but since then it's been viewed more than 950 times and downloaded almost 40 times.  Clearly this generates a lot more exposure than just to the 30 live students who first saw the presentation live.  And that's only the slideshow itself - it doesn't even include the audio for the presentation (which malfunctioned during the recording).

Slideshare.net


Video on The Power of Public Speaking in Promoting Your Website




Raw Transcript of Video - MS-WORD file


Resources


Toastmasters: 10 Tips for Public Speaking

Toastmasters: Tips & Techniques
- Note: See links to other Toastmasters resources as well.

~~~

Alan Weiss: "The Million Dollar Consultant"
- Website: http://www.summitconsulting.com/ > Free Resources Tab > Hot Tips > Scroll down to: Speaking Professionally:

Speaking Professionally:
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And if you really decide to go "Professional", the flagship organization is:

National Speakers Association (NSA) - If you'd like to go Professional or acquire the skills of Professional Speakers.
- NSA Educational Products

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Resources: Forms

Karl Kasca's Brief Bio (editable Microfsoft Word document)

Karl Kasca's Speaker Evaluation Form (editable Microsoft Word document)
- Note: This full sheet is meant to be reproduced and then cut in half before speaking.


ARTICLE DATE: 05/05/09
REVISED DATE:






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