Market Your Speaking Career With Video

speaking careerThere’s one advantage you have in marketing your speaking career that legendary communication guru, Dale Carnegie, didn’t. Internet video. Think about it. Mr. Carnegie never had the chance to post snippets of himself in action to his web page and on YouTube. Nope, poor Mr. Carnegie, who died in 1955, never even had a website to call his own. Or the chance to waste an entire day “networking” on Facebook. Or “researching” the statistical performance of every active quarterback in the National Football League.

Okay okay. Just because you do something on the Internet doesn’t automatically make it a worthwhile pursuit but we do believe that you can give your speaking career a legitimate boost through the effective use of video. We’re not talking entire presentations here. Do a “Best Of” compilation or something similar. No matter how great you are at grabbing an audience by the throat and not letting them go until the very end, keep in mind that the average ‘net surfer has the attention span of a fruit fly and plan your video efforts accordingly.

A video of you in action is like the best business card imaginable for your speaking career, assuming that you’re good at what you do. A video lets them observe you in your natural environment and removes some of the distance that can accumulate with “traditional” marketing. YouTube limits user videos to 10 minutes, which is a good thing. Consider making yours even shorter. Maybe a punchy two or three minutes, professionally produced with a good music bed. Post this to your website as well.

If you absolutely must include a full-length presentation video, put it deeper in your website, accessed with a link but only after offering the shorter version on the front page. Now drive traffic to the website. Drive, drive, drive and let your natural charisma do the selling.

The Speaking of Wealth Team

Speaking of Wealth

Flickr / Michigan Municipal League (MML)