Are you authoring your business book or novel or perhaps you are writing your book at this time and are wondering how you can reach more potential readers through low cost strategies?

Then you won’t want to miss the live event being hosted by  Font Literary Agency who are based in Dublin.

Here are the event details - make sure that you read on to find details of how you can access a discount as a member of the Biz Growth Community as I am one of the speakers.

EVENT: Reaching Readers: Online Publicity And Promotion for Writers And Books

LOCATION: Dublin

DATE: Saturday, June 7th 2008

TIME:  9.30am to 5pm

INVESTMENT: €140 per person for members of the Biz Growth Community (Regular Price €165 per person) - just let them know you read Biz Growth News.

AGENDA 

09.15:  Registration

09.30:  Reaching Readers: Why Writers Need Publicity 

11.00:  Becoming A Household Name: The Author as Brand

13.30:  Writing for the Web

16.00: The Virtual Book Tour

17.00:  Finish

Book your place at the Online Marketing, Publicity And Promotion Workshop for authors today.

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Do you have to present at meetings at work?

Or perhaps you are building your personal brand and platform as a professional speaker?

Maybe you have a desire to get in front of the media on TV or radio?

One of the great ways that I’ve developed my skills in presenting and in speaking to the media is not through attending courses but by two other approaches:

• watching other presenters
• speaking and presenting often - not always to groups of 200 or more people, but often to small groups of less than 40 people.

Yes I have attended programmes in presentation skills and media skills and they have been invaluable, but in relation to continued professional development as a speaker and presenter, then I can not recommend too highly watching others and speaking and presenting yourself.

And even though I speak at events 3-4 times a month for live in person events, and speak at virtual events, training programmes and recording podcasts no less than 20 times a month, I still practice my presentation skills.

Social media is a great tool to help you practice your effectiveness as an engaging presenter. Here are five ways you can put social media to work to enhance your presentation skills:

1. Be a guest on a podcast - by being an invited guest or even hosting your own podcast such as with platforms like Utterz, where you can create a podcast with just your phone, and then being disciplined in listening to yourself, you will find out all the words and phrases that you use too frequently. You can also hear how effective you are in answering the questions you are asked in an engaging and succinct way
2. Deliver a webinar - webinar services are very inexpensive in fact there are some platforms such as Powownow that allow you to screen share your presentation, deliver the presentation by phone. You could then record and distribute the presentation through some of the video and presentation sharing sites such as YouTube or Slideshare. By preparing to deliver a webinar, you’ll be able to hone your ability in creating presentation materials that are simple but connect your verbal presentation to your slides
3. Host a webcast - social media platforms such as Oovoo allow you to present using your webcam to up to 5 other attendees and you can record the presentation. By presenting in front of camera you can watch out for any speacifc mannerisms that you are using that get in the way of your message
4. Listen to podcasts - I’ve found that listening to podcasts hosted by experts and leaders in their field have been a great way for me not only to become more informed and are a great source of research
5. Watch online video’s - with the accessibility of online video’s they are a great source of content and research - again you can watch others present and get ideas for your presentations - and from time to time you’ll also get ideas of what does not work!

Remember that social media platforms are inexpensive, usually free to access and often free to deploy - with the most intensive resource being your time. And they have the two further added benefits:

1. You can reach people outside of your local vicinity and expand your reach nationally and even globally
2. By hosting the presentations on a site which allow others to comment (be that on your own business blog or one of the sites I’ve mentioned), you’ve the opportunity to access  the invaluable feedback from others. I’ve found the feedback I’ve received after my presentations invaluable in both implacting what I say and how I present.

Social media offers us an opportunity to develop our communication skills that we use every day - speaking, writing, watching and listening. It’s not an end in itself - social media is a platform or tool we can use to enhance our effectiveness in communications.

And if you are looking for some expert guidance on presentation skills, then I’d encourage you to watch the following video which provides a great opportunity to see the master of presentations in action - Garr Reynolds, author of Presentation Zen. Get ready to take notes on how you can enhance your presentation skills.

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Today I met with a new client who consulted with me about how to build their new ecommerce business online.

Interestingly due to the fact that he has a website representing his personal brand online, he is number one in the search engines here in Ireland for key words relating to his expertise.

You see although he is currently in employment i.e. he is on the payroll of an organisation, he realised the value in promoting his experience and his portfolio of skills online - he is using his own name as the domain name for his current website.

One of the tips I always cover in my personal branding workshops and consultations is to ensure that you purchase your own domain name - even if you have no plan to use it at this time to host your own business blog, website or career portfolio.

Even if you are employed in a company, the chances are that you won’t be in their employ in 10 years or 20 years time - but the one thing that will be constant is the need to ensure that you continue to nurture your personal brand and reputation online as many people search for us prior to or after meeting us.

An example of when not purchasing your domain name is the recent case of Shel Israel, author and social media consultant.

Shel is one of the contributors at FastCompany.tv. He would not position himself as being an expert in video or film production, however the expectations of his interviews with guests seem not to have been met by his audience as you can see from the video here and the accompanying comments where there is concern being expressed over the production values of the video.

You can read more about the story here at the Blog Herald and at Shel Israel’s blog.

What resulted is that someone create a website as a parody of his interviews - and yes you guessed it - the domain name for the site is ShelIsrael.com. You see, Shel had not purchased his own domain name so it was freely available for someone else to purchase.

You could conside it a form of online identity theft.

I am sure that Shel is kicking himself now - though it does mean that he is getting many people talking about him online - perhaps not for reasons he anticipated or would like.

But let his case be a lesson for us all - if you don’t own your domain name - please buy it even if you have no plans to use it at this time. And if you love your children - buy their names as domain names too. They’ll thank you for it in a few years time.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Here’s an article  about making sure that you have your own name as a domain name, published in the Wall Street Journal that I was quoted in called “You’re A Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well”.

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This weekend I’ve been having lots of fun researching online video. It’s one of the strategies in social media communications that I have yet to fully embrace and while I use platforms such as Camtasia, Articulate and have tried out Oovoo, I’ve not recorded my own video from situations where I have been “on location”. You can listen to a podcast I recorded recently about getting started with online video.

How to create video that is compelling and engaging and which will support your brand essence be that your corporate brand, employer brand or personal brand is the place many of us start.

But how do you then ensure that your online video is “onbrand”; how do you actually embed your brand identity and call to action into your video; where should you host your video; and how can you achieve this without costing you a small fortune?

Then are a vast array of platforms from hosting your video to live streaming - it’s enough to make your head fuzzy like eating too many chocolate Easter eggs!

We’ve been doing some test runs over the weekend which has been interesting - so get ready for some video’s here in the not too distant future.

This next Monday on Biz Growth Live, my guest was to be Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book, but unfortunately Debbie can not join me as she is just finishing her house move and on Friday we had to postpone the session to a later date. Debbie sends her apologies to everyone.

So I got to thinking, if I am wondering about all these questions about online video, perhaps some of my Biz Growth Community are too. So I contacted my Facebook friend and someone who is an expert in video podcasting, Sherman Hu to see if he would join me as our guest expert this week.

Sherman is in the middle of a huge project so I was thrilled when he said he would join me this week.

If you’d like to join me and find out about online video, where to start and how it can support you in expressing your brand online, then you can register for the free Biz Growth Live call which will be taking place on Monday 24 March 2008 at 6pm in Ireland and the UK (2pm ET).

And if you have questions for Sherman or myself about how to master online video to bring your brand to life you can either post a question in the comments section or on our live questions page.

I also want to share with you a video clip from Stephen Fry a great British actor, comedian and author which I found on the terrific video sharing site VideoJug (their tag line is “life explained on film”). In this clip he covers:

- His defintition of Web 2.0

- His thoughts on the quality of user generated content

- How will Web 2.0 change traditional television

- What excites him about the way technology is evolving.

Stephen has a blog and podcast too if you want to connect with him through social media.


VideoJug: Stephen Fry: Web 2.0

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Did you realise that today is International Women’s Day?

I’ll be celebrating by hosting a panel on the subject of “Women in Technology” and a session about using social media to create, publish and market your book at Creative Camp, taking place in Kilkenny.

I’ve also been invited by Frank Fullard, CEO of the Mayo County Enterprise Board to facilitate a workshop for female business leaders in celebration of International Women’s Day 2008.

The event will take place at Knockranny House Hotel, Westport on Tuesday 11 March 2008 starting at 7pm with refreshments and networking at the end of the workshop at 10pm.

WORKSHOP OUTLINE

Personal branding is a revolution in the way we manage our careers or businesses.  It’s a way of clarifying and communicating what makes you different and special and using those qualities to separate from yourself from your peers so that you can greatly expand your success. 

At the end of the workshop the will have developed a personal action plan for further nurturing your personal brand so that in 2008 you’ll be able to enjoy even greater professional success.

In this interactive workshop, we will be covering:

• An Introduction To Personal Branding – the origins of personal branding and why it is relevant for our success in the 21st century
• Defining The Essence of Your Personal Brand – the steps we must take to define out personal brand
• Expressing Our Personal Brand – how do we make sure that everything we do is on-brand and consistent with our vision
• Getting Known Now – how do we create our personal marketing plan based around the 3 keys to building connections - we will look at these three strategies both through traditional and new media
• Action planning - developing your personal branding action plan.

HOW TO BOOK YOUR PLACE

You can book your place to attend the “Personal Branding Masterclass” here. I do hope you can join me the other female entrepreneurs. And if you are planning to atten, don’t hesitate to email me or post your questions here about how to nurture your personal brand - just add your questions to th comments section.

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