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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When building your employer brand, understanding the perception of your employer brand with key stakeholders is critical to nurturing your employer brand.

With easier access to on-line tools to distribute and manage employer branding surveys, how can you ensure that you get the most robust results possible?

Here are seven actions you can take to support your employer brand strategy:

1. Ensure ownership by the leadership team – consider how you can get your leadership team to support you in the roll out and completion of the surveys. One strategy I have used very effectively has been to establish key performance indicators for the percentage number of responses you want to receive. It is not unusual to have returns to employee surveys as low as just forty percent, but this can be significantly increased if you engage your colleagues in the survey roll-out.

2. Ask the right questions – if your organisation is one that often uses surveys and 360 feedback tools, take care that you do not have survey overload. By ensuring that you are asking the essential questions you need responses to, ideally with 12 questions or less, will make it less onerous for respondents to reply to the survey. If the questions are able to be understood, jargon free and have good face validity in being understood, you will make it easier for participants to reply.

3. Engage your participants – implementing a communication and engagement plan around your survey, you will help participants understand the reasons for the survey and why their input is needed and valued. Connect the reasons for doing the survey to the context of your market place, your business performance and your people and organisation strategy.

4. Take care on the timing – if you plan to implement an employee survey each year, make sure that you implement it at the same time each year. If you find that there are certain circumstances that make you hesitant about implementing the survey such as a period of organisation change, I recommend you still implement the survey. The results will be influenced by the current circumstances and what your people are facing at the time but it will give you great insights.

5. Take action on the results – one of the reasons that many employee surveys lose impact is that the organisation does not take action on the results. Engage your leadership team and senior managers by providing them with survey results for the whole organisation and for their own department. I suggest you accompany the results with a support plan to assist your line managers in facilitating a meeting with their team to review the results and then create an action plan for them to both embed the areas that are working well and prioritise the actions that they will take moving forward. Embedding these action plans into a teams day to day work and reporting on how they move forward will help employees realise that their input is valued and acted upon.

6. Communicate and celebrate success – when you have analysed the results and determined the resultant action plan you will be working on, make sure that you share this with all employees, ensuring that you put into context why you are working on specific areas as a priority. Then as the year progresses, connect the decisions you are making in the business to support the development of your employer brand to the feedback you received from your employees in the survey. Share success stories from different teams where they are moving forward in building a business where your employees are proud to work.

7. Conduct regular pulse checks – your employee survey does not need to be a once a year programme. I recommend that you take regular pulse checks with a short 1-3 question survey which you can target to a specific demographic segment or team in your business which will provide you with a temperature check on the areas you are working on.

THIS WEEK’S EMPLOYER BRAND INSIGHTS

If you currently implement an employee survey to support building your employer brand, review your survey implantation plan against these seven steps. Are there actions you can take to enhance the effectiveness and ownership of the survey in your business?

If you would like to implement and employee survey to support you in diagnosing the strength of your employer brand, you can use these seven steps to support you. If you are not confident you have the capability or capacity to implement the survey, consider asking an Employer Branding consultant to support you.

But remember, do not implement a survey unless you do plan to take action on the results. The most damaging thing for your employer brand would be to engage people and ask them for their input in a survey and then do nothing with the results.

If you are looking for assistance in developing a compelling employer brand, you can  hear me speak on this subject at the forthcoming HR Ireland Conference taking place in Cork on 25 and 26 September 2008 – and if you can not attend the conference, you can contact me at connect(at)oneoceangroup.comif you have a question about how to bring your employer brand to life.

© Krishna De, 2007. All rights reserved. This article is extracted from Krishna’s publication “Bringing Your Employer Brand To Life – A guide to attracting, inspiring and retaining great talent”.
 

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If you are growing your professional services practice, one of the top three strategies for building your personal brand and attracting more of your ideal clients is through public speaking.

If you have a business blog, there are a number of ways that you can integrate your on-line presence with your professional speaking that will not only build your credibility and reputation but also ensure that you get approached as a speaker by event organisers.

Here are three actions you can take today to power up your professional speaking though your business blog:

1. Provide valuable resources – Event organisers want to hire people who are considered experts in their field. Make sure that you have content rich articles on your business blog that provide not just that “what to do” but also “how to do it” in your field of expertise. If you provide such great information at no cost, you can be sure that event organisers will be curious as to just what you will share for a paid speaking gig and will be more likely to call you.

Adding new articles on a regular basis will help you come up in the search engines for key words that event organisers are searching on. My business blog articles act as my unpaid sales force 27/7 and 365 days a year.

2. Create your speaker showcase – Make it easy for event organisers to get a sense of you and your ability as a speaker. Hiring you sight unseen is a high risk for them even if you were referred to them.

I recommend that you have a section of your website specifically dedicated to event organisers which includes elements such as the details of key note addresses you have given, access to testimonials from event organisers you have worked with, access to audio files and video files so that event organisers can see and hear you in action and a calendar of your forthcoming events so that event organisers get a sense of the kind of organisations you are already working with.

3. Provide bespoke resources – So you have delivered your presentation but how do you ensure that you can provide additional information and valuable resources to people who attend your event? This is something that event organisers will really thank you for as this is perceived as added value.

When I speak to large groups I create a special page on my business blog which I include in the handouts I give attendees to my events. This page is created specifically for them and lists additional resources and tools that they can implement and is highly specific and relevant for the community I am speaking with and is considered to be a valuable resource by event attendees and event organisers alike.

YOUR ’BIZ GROWTH’ ACTION STEPS

If you are looking to build your brand and want to explore the marketing strategy of professional speaking, or you want to take your professional speaking up to the next level, I recommend that you review your on-line marketing and communications plan to support your professional speaking career against these three action points.

What other ways do you integrate your business blog into your role as a professional speaker?

© Krishna De, 2007. All rights reserved. This article is extracted from Krishna’s home study programme “Marketing On A Shoestring Budget”.

Update 27 August 2007 - this article was included in a compilation of ”72 More Blog Tips From The Blogging Community” by Darren Rowse of Problogger in his “31 Days to Building a Better Blog” series which you can access here.

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One of the most important skills that we can develop to enhance our business success and our personal success is that of being able to speak and present in from of others.

However, few of us ever get assistance and guidance in presenting and speaking in public.

Being able to connect with an audience, no matter if there are 3 people or 3000 people in a room or at a virtual event such as a webinar or teleconference and being able to deliver a clear and inspiring message is a sure fire way to build your reputation and personal brand.

Whether we speak for a fee or for a free, speaking and presenting can support our goal of positioning ourselves as an expert in our field and can lead to new clients and potential joint ventures.

So here are ten steps for building your personal brand as an inspiring and confident speaker:

1. Understand Your Audience - Make sure that you research who will be listening to you speaking or presenting. What is their previous experience of your subject matter? What are the areas that they are going to be most interested to hear about? Being able to address their key areas of concern and offer a clear and compelling answer to their problem will ensure that you get remembered after the live event.
2. Develop Relevant Content - Very often as experts in our subject matter, it can be easy to be over zealous and wanting to deliver too much content that we leave our audience confused and ourselves under time pressure. If you are speaking for only 30 minutes, then identify the three key messages you want to deliver.
3. Become a Great Storyteller - Take the time to research stories and content that reflect your audience and use the language that they are familiar with. Your efforts in customising content will enhance your standing and reputation in the eyes of your audience. Using stories to bring to life your presentation will help your audience connect to the content.
4. Create an On-line Resource Centre - Ideally you will provide a handout or materials to support your presentation. This is often required by an event organiser or circulated as pre-read well before the event. I recommend that you create a unique page on your website or business blog with references to key materials and additional resources specifically for the presentation. This will certainly be perceived as value adding by event organisers and attendees at your presentation.
5. Keep the Technology Simple - I recently attended an event where a speaker used 116 slides for a speech of 60 minutes - yes they were flicking through one slide every 30 seconds. Your ultimate goal is to be able to speak without the aid of PowerPoint slides. You can be sure that too many slides and speaking directly from them will not present you as a confident and capable speaker and presenter. If you do need slides or plan to include other audio or video materials to support your presentation, make sure that these do add value to the presentation.
6. Practise Before You Speak - Make sure that you feel confident and comfortable with your content. Ideally practice in front of others and record yourself on audio so that you can listen to how you sound and where you need to enhance the delivery of your presentation. Ask for feedback from your colleagues on how compelling and clear your message is.
7. Get There Early - On the day of the presentation, make sure that you arrive in plenty of time to reduce the stress of the event. It’s healthy to be a little nervous before you present as that keeps you on your toes. Arriving early enables you to check the layout of the land, ensure that the room is set up as you want it to be and that the organiser of the event is ready with the information they need to introduce you to the audience.
8. Linger Afterwards - Unless you are presenting to a board meeting and you are asked to come into the meeting just to deliver your content, wherever possible, make sure that you clear your diary to be available to stay at the event after you have spoken. This provides you with an opportunity to further connect with your audience and other speakers and access feedback about your presentation.
9. Follow Up - If you make a promise to send the attendees information after the event, make sure that you do so within 48 hours. Don’t forget to follow up with the event organiser thanking them for the opportunity to collaborate. Be sure to also ask for a testimonial that you can then add to your marketing materials and website.
10. Take Time to Reflect - after the event, do evaluate what you learned. What worked well with the audience? What can you learn from other speakers that you saw present at the same event? How can you enhance your presentation in the future? Keep notes on file or on index cards of your key learnings so that you can refer to them for your next presentation or speech.

YOUR ’BIZ GROWTH’ ACTION STEPS

1. Plan an Event - If you have not already got a speaking event or presentation planned in the next 90 days take time this week to reflect on who you would like to present to, on what subject and who can help you make such an event happen.
2. Review Your Performance - If you have recently spoken or presented to an audience, review that event against the 10 steps to building your personal brand as an inspiring and confident speaker. Are there areas that you could enhance your performance as a speaker or presenter and who could support you in taking action.
3. Invest In Your Development - If you are looking for additional guidance on enhancing your reputation and personal brand through speaking, make sure that you note in your diary to join the ‘Biz Growth Live’ seminar on Monday 20 August 2007, ‘Speak Your Way To Success’. I will be taking you through 5 biggest mistakes to avoid if you want to build your reputation as a compelling and magnetic speaker. I’ll also be sharing strategies you can employ so that you attract more clients and more business opportunities whether you speak for free or for a fee - guaranteed. This is a no-cost telecinference and you can join us from anywhere in the world so make sure that you register today.

Building your reputation as a compelling and inspiring speaker will build your reputation and lead to greater professional and personal success. But remember great speakers were not born; they nurtured and developed that skill and you can too.

TERMS OF REPRINT: You are welcome to publish this article in your own online ezine or news letter, providing the article is printed in its entirety and is left unedited and you include the copyright notice and the following statement:

©Krishna De, Oneocean Ltd 2007. All rights reserved. Reprinted from ‘Biz Growth Express’, a Oneocean Ltd publication for leaders in professional services practices, featuring inspiration, strategies and tips to build your brand, attract your ideal clients and enjoy greater success with less stress.  Subscribe today at http://www.bizgrowthlive.com and access no-cost teleconferences where we interview experts from across the globe on how to build your corporate brand, your employer brand and your personal brand and expand your professional and personal success.

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Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the first ever networking training day supported by BNI in Ireland.

Yes I know that I train business leaders in networking and referral skills, but I just could not let the opportunity pass to meet other networking experts speak as it is always a great opportunity to refresh your skills and access new insights, along side meeting new people.

The speakers were from outside Ireland which was a bit of a shame as they were all part of the Referral Institute, an international referral training company.

Perhaps next time Pat Guiden who is actively involved in BNI and the Referral Institute in Ireland might be persuaded to be one of the speakers.

The day kicked off with Mike Macedonio, co-author of “Truth or Delusion, busting networking myths” (a very accessible and quick read). The other key speaker was Sarah Owens who leads the Referral Institute in the UK.

I was fortunate to be able to speak to them both at the end of the event and record a podcast about networing and referral strategies to grow your business that I will be publishing soon on our new “Biz Growth Podcast”.

Here are three key learnings I’d like to share for the next time you attend a live event: Continue reading

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