pages and your NSA colleagues’
walls. (See video tutorial at
SpeakerHowTos.com)
The conversation will be hosted at
the original post. By posting on the
conference wall, people should “like”
it and comment about their excitement
for the event. If there are only a few
active Facebookers, then ask the active
ones to keep the posts in the stream.
After you have shared the original posts
about the event, then start dropping
in announcements, questions and “did
you know?” posts. Post a few points
or mini-points you will be covering in
your presentation. These teasers will
entice people to attend and start thinking about the program.
Twitter
You can set up your Facebook Business
Page to automatically tweet your posts.
If you want to do this, make sure to
add the meeting “hashtag.” If you have
time, manually tweet.
Add the organization’s handle and
influential participants and meeting
hashtag.
Post “Did you know…? At the
meeting, find out why.” Pique their
curiosity.
Promote aspects of the meeting other
than your program.
LinkedIn
Post in relevant LinkedIn groups to
share the meeting and start discussions.
You can set up LinkedIn to automatically share your Tweets. Use LinkedIn
to post status updates on the event and
to post to groups.
Recycle your tweets.
Announce to your contacts you will be
in town using Tripit. Or post to your eSpe-aker calendar so your appearances show
up on the NSA website under "Where in
the World Are NSA Speakers Today?"
This type of promotion is relatively
simple if you follow a plan. You will
reach a more diverse audience because
of the varied media. Even if your audience is not tech savvy, you will still get
mileage from your efforts because SEO
will drive traffic. The beauty of it is it is
all free. It just takes a little architecture,
a sprinkle of personality and discipline
to keep the conversations rolling.
DURING THE MEETING
Recognize and Reward
Social media users participate to connect
with people. We want to build live con-
nections from these online interactions.
As the presenter, verbally encour-
age Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and
You Tube users to continue a live con-
versation. This will motivate others to
engage with these media in the future.
For example, as the presenter you can
include a Twitter user in the discussion
by saying, “@amidexample on Twitter
asks, ‘On the topic of meeting distrac-
tions, I was wondering how we can stop
latecomers from interrupting?’”
Another example of integrating
the online conversation is “Sally Soup
raised a good point on the Facebook
Conference Wall that many people don’t
want to be on time at meetings because
they never start on time. Eleven of you
commented and agreed with this.”
People like to know what others
think, so incorporating previously
shared opinions is interesting. People
who didn’t participate earlier will see
the value of connecting.
Get Viral Visuals
Use a camera to capture pictures before
and after the presentation, as well
as during the breaks, to capture the
audience, build rapport and aid your
memory. I constantly use my camera to
photograph people and events I want
to remember. Are these pictures just
for me? No-sirree. I want others to
remember the positive, valuable experience and to share with their friends
and contacts. Getting interviews and
testimonials on the spot with video is
some of the best footage you can get,
and also draws a live audience. I use my
Personal Camera Crew to take my own
pictures and videos while still being in
them. Capturing people and events will
help your messages go viral. (See video
tutorial at SpeakerHow Tos.com.)
If you don’t have a camera, use your
phone. I use the mobile photo app
Skitch to show distractions I find in
meeting rooms. I can post the images
directly to the Meeting Maximizer
Facebook Page. This saves me a lot of
time and can be done in real time. You
might also use this application to circle
the person in the group who needs a
follow-up. Or you can use it to show
what inspires you, adding arrows to
explain it and then tweet it.
