3 Tips To Leverage Your Speaking Opportunities… Before You Even Speak, Or As An Attendee!
Speaking opportunities are bubbling up left and right now that we are 100% virtual. It’s so easy when we don’t have to put on real pants, jump in a car and go somewhere!
But what are you getting out of them?
Clients?
Leads?
Bigger network?
How do you leverage that opportunity, whether you were invited or you are attending, to continue those conversations, gain potential clients and grow your audience?
You’ll have to do some pre-event work, but it’s all worth it if you walk away (or turn off the webcam) with a new client or a potential lead.
1.GOALS
As you head into that virtual box, be clear on what you want the outcome to be, whether you're a speaker or an attendee.
On the attendee side, here are a few goals you can set for yourself before the event. Try to write these down AND have them in front of you during the virtual event.
Learn and gain knowledge. This is a great goal! Log on and be present. Be sure to take notes so you can process what you learned later on and then potentially implement something.
Contact or meet with the speaker. Maybe your ultimate goal is to get into the speaker’s calendar and/or have a meeting. Do you need a mentor? Are you looking to learn from them? Or maybe there’s an opportunity to swap knowledge and help each other? Having this as a goal is awesome, so interact and engage when you're participating.
Make connections. This is an outstanding goal -- more on this later!
If you’re the speaker, your goals are going to be a little different and can often be more tangible.
Attendees. Set the level of attendance you’d like to reach.
Redemptions. If you have an offer at the end of your event, set a number of how many you want to be redeemed. For example, you could strive for a 30% redemption rate before EOB.
Meetings. If you just want people to get into your calendar, set a goal of how many meetings you’d ideally like to see booked by a certain deadline. For example, you could strive for five booked calls this week and an additional eight next week.
Email list. This one, like attendees, is pretty straightforward. An example goal for this would be to increase your email list by 220 by the end of the event.
2.RESEARCH
Cool, goals are written! Now let’s talk about RESEARCH.
After you’ve registered or have been invited to speak, here’s what you do:
Look up the host and other speakers. Check out their Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social networks. Start following them, too!
You are trying to find some common ground with them (oh! They went to UT too!) or see what they’ve been up to lately (whoa, they just launched a 5-month writing course!). What this does for you is prep you with questions you could potentially ask and give you the tools you need to stand out with the speakers and attendees alike.
If you don’t get a chance to ask these questions, don’t worry. This is a great excuse to reach out after the event is over and ask then.
This also means you need to be present when you attend. Bring a positive, open attitude and come curious. Don’t multi-task, and make sure to keep your camera on to keep you focused.
I love this quote by Brene Brown: “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen”.
I’ve gotten the joy of interacting with the same attendee over the course of several of my webinars. She always asks excellent questions and acts engaged and interested. Because of these interactions, I now follow her on IG and engage with her posts because I can see the value in her content and expertise, too.
3.Be ready
I see this fail all the time and it’s such an easy fix. BE READY with your info.
Have your info ready to go when the host suggests people put their information into the chat. Have it typed in notes or in a handy document.
Be sure your links actually work! It’s so embarrassing when someone messages in the chat alerting that your link didn’t work.
Is your website running? I’ve had clients who haven’t been on their website in a while and didn’t realize it was down or that links were broken.
Your website and social media should represent you, so be active! Don’t send someone to your Twitter account when you actually haven’t sent out a tweet in 3 months. That just looks bad and gives people a sense of disconnect from you and your brand.
Have a link to your calendar ready. When someone says, “Oh, I think I need what you’ve got,” drop them a quick private message and send your calendar link. It’s so easy for someone to book an appointment with you when the link is right there in the chatbox.
Check out this free Event Prep Checklist for Attendees I created! I use this before events I attend, too, and it always helps me to stay focused, goal-oriented, and ready to participate. Click here: https://www.sproutcreativela.com/resources/p/event-prep-checklist
This topic was originally presented at District Biss Jump Into 2021 Summit. District Bliss is a business networking group full of supportive, smart people who lift each other up and share knowledge. If you aren’t a part of a networking group during these times, I would suggest jumping into this one or another one. Having resources, a network to tap into, and community knowledge has been such a sales driver for my business. More info here: https://districtbliss.com/
Practice Zoom self-care and check out an early blog I wrote about Zoom Fatigue - Why We Have It and How To Fix It!
This blog was written by Kristina Kury, Founder & CEO of Sprout Creative. We work with small business owners and entrepreneurs who are busy running their business, overwhelmed with marketing and whose growth has plateaued to turn their marketing into a more manageable, automated marketing machine.
You can follow her at @SproutCreativeLA on Facebook and Instagram.