TheSpeakerspractice

Positioning Yourself as an Expert using Content Marketing

Published on July 3, 2019 by Adrienne McLean

When you are speaking or writing about your topic of interest, you are displaying your expertise in that niche. The more you do this, the more you display your skills, understanding and knowledge in that area, helping to build trust and credibility. By continually creating content to promote on social media platforms, where your target market will see, you become the category authority and, over time, the “go to” person in your niche.

Building a body of content in a niche helps grow your Intellectual Property which can be used in a number of ways – even monetised. But before you get started, preparatory foundational steps are required to ensure the content you create addresses your target audience’s problems, ensuring it’s valuable and answers market questions.

Being clear on these five points is the preparatory work required, before you get started on your content creation:

Determine your niche
Look at content already created for gaps
Determine your ideal client and target market
Determine the problem you’re addressing and the solutions you offer
Create a list of content topics

Speaking

Presentations & Signature Speeches

Speaking helps to convey your message to large groups of people and efficiently spread the word. However, delivering presentations is a craft – a learnt skill that requires connecting with the audience through the use of stories, examples, statistics and any other device that connects your audience with the topic.

Preparing a signature presentation can be something you can develop and hone. Then promoting your expertise to event planners can help get you in front of the right audiences at the right time. Not only that, talking one to many is a fabulous way to connect and grow your audience and your network of influence.

Video

Using video to promote your business topic is a great way to talk one-on-one, but many times. Developing the skills to prepare great video is invaluable, helping you speak with impact in front of the camera with a script that truly connects with the audience. Naturally, the more comfortable you are in front of a camera, the more you will be able to get your message across in a meaningful way.

However, there are skills to learn and develop – planning, the presentation skills to camera and then the post-production work, including editing the video with your branding. Your video can also be transcribed and repurposed for blogging and eBook/Book creation.

Webinars

Webinars offer a multi-faceted approach, but require some planning/up front considerations, including:

the webinar topic
the webinar platform and how it will run. (Are you running it with a business partner or alone?)
where people will log in?
pre-webinar promotions to get people to sign up
post-webinar promotions (uploading on to YouTube and Vimeo for circulation)
contact detail collection
Webinars can also be used as online training programs or broken up into smaller promotions.

Writing & Blogging
Writing about your expertise is a wonderful way to create your own Intellectual Property and to explore areas of expertise that may even surprise you. The blog creation process helps convey your expertise, with each blog article being able to be amalgamated to form longer articles and eBooks – even chapters of a book.

Audio
Doing interviews with experts in other areas can help highlight your own expertise and, as with video, your audio can be transcribed and repurposed for blogging and eBook/Book creation.

Radio

Speaking on radio not only displays you as an expert, the Mp3 recording can be uploaded to create a podcast.

Podcasting

Finding a suitable podcast platform is useful to share your interviews with the world. Mixcloud and Anchor are my favourites. It’s easy to upload the Mp3 recording and then the platform will make it easier to share.

Opportunities with Content
By creating video content, you can also prepare an Mp3 recording for audio use and have this transcribed using an app called Otto. From the edited transcript you can then go on to prepare a blog article or eBook. Then, you can create an online training program using the video or audio, prepare some slides, pdf questionnaires and so on.

The repurposing opportunities are enormous, so take the time to consider how you can fully utilise your information assets, remembering that everything you create helps position you as the expert in your field.

Seven Tips for Creating Content
Ensure your content adds value to your ideal clients and prospects
Create content on topics that resonate – aim to inform
Upskill as necessary to create good content – blog writing or production of video and audio content
Create a Content Calendar
Amalgamate your content to create eBooks and Books
Develop your own IP by creating online programs
Build a community to help promote and share your content
Summary
Before you proceed, consider the purpose behind what you are creating. Perhaps you’re doing fortnightly blogs, which can be read aloud to create audio files, then slide decks and supportive video can be created. Use your imagination and see what amazing content you can produce.

Most of all, have fun and enjoy the process!

Adrienne McLean of The Speakers Practice helps professionals with Marketing & Communications. This was written by Adrienne McLean and first published for the Spin the Sourcebottle, Source bottle – https://www.sourcebottle.com/blog/POSITIONING-YOURSELF-AS-AN-EXPERT-USING-CONTENT-MARKETING

The Power of Practice!

Published on January 24, 2019 by Adrienne McLean

It’s through Practice, that people who give presentations can work on their presentation to give maximum impact to their audience. It’s one thing to talk about what you want to speak about, its another thing completely, whether your audience understands the points you are delivering.

Even the most experienced presenters practice their speeches, fine tune their messages, understand the timings of their presentations so their audience really gets the most out of attending and ultimately wants to hear more and wants to do business with the presenter.

So , what is the Process of Practicing a Presentation?

PREPARE – this is where you gather your information, write your presentation, look at your objectives for giving the speech and what your message is. Use stories that are yours , this will help you to remember what goes next. This is where most of your time is spent. The SpeakersTrainingCamp® has a wonderful structure that can really help you to look at every aspect of a presentation.

REHEARSE – you have your presentation ready, now to get your delivery smooth and confident, you need to rehearse a number of times so that you really feel that you know it inside out. Then you can present your speech not relying on notes, you can have them there ,however, it really helps your presentation if you are not glued to your notes and you are looking at your audience.

AUDIENCE – you are delivering your presentation to inform, inspire and guide your audience. You can make a difference with your presentation – whether it’s an important presentation to an executive committee , a work group or its a social presentation. Your presentation is for your audience.

CONNECTION – Practicing your presentation will give you the opportunity to maximise your connection with your audience. The more confident your presentation, the more you know your message, the more authentic you are, the more eye contact you have with your audience, the more you know about your audience – the better your connection with your audience and the more you will be successfully able to get your message across.

TIMING – Always ,and I mean , Always respect the timing of your presentation. Know your presentation, and by going through this process you do now, Know how long it takes and suite the timing to what is expected. You may be given 20mins, then , have your presentation going for 20minutes. This point is really important. Speakers that think they can go on for hours instead of minutes loose their audience’s respect as well as credibility. By practicing, you can fine tune the timing and increase your confidence.

IMPROVE – Professional speakers practice and improve their presentations so that they can confidently present their speech and achieve maximum impact. Don’t wing it, practice and Improve then you will get maximum impact from your presentation.

CONSOLIDATE – Now you have Prepared, REhearsed , thought about your Audience, built a Connection wtih your audience, worked at the Timing, Improved – all these tasks have Consolidated your presentation so that you can really achieve what you would like from your presentation – and that is Impress them!

EXCEL – when you follow this process , you will Excel and do your best. Ok, there’s always areas to work on ,however, by continuing along this path of Continuous Improvement and Practice of your Presentations , you will Excel! this is the Power of Practice.

Consider joining The Speakers Practice – Speakers Forum. Attendees are like-minded Business People who are wanting to promote their businesses by speaking to networking groups, associations ,etc. We discuss presentation skills , present current speeches and get audience feedback on delivery, objectives , on how we understood the message, and so on.

Enjoy your Presentations, Practice your Presentations and appreciate the Power of Practice!!

How to build a community on LinkedIn globally -Business Success Strategies interview with Anna McAfee

Published on December 12, 2018 by Adrienne McLean

Building on-line communities is important now. Connecting with people is vital for building trust and connections. Anna McAfee, Co-Founder of LinkedIn Local really discusses the importance of this and how the LinkedIn Local community has grown internationally.

There are some gems of information in this interview. The special part is Anna’s advice on her most recommended business success strategy. Anna has some really valuable advice.

Here’s the full interview – takes just on 30 mins. Enjoy!

Adrienne McLean helps professionals to get more clients, move forward and build confidence to get the sales flowing in with developing presentation skills, building confidence to speak to camera and work on business development ie marketing & sales. Ring Adrienne McLean on 0414 367 960 or email on adrienne@thespeakerspractice.com.au for more details.