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14 Ways to NOT Suck As a Guest Speaker

Photo Credit: “brinkley at dovedale” by Vicki Hughes

[Originally published Fall 2010. This post was featured by Lisa B. Marshall in her The Public Speaker podcast. Thanks, Lisa!]

When you’ve been invited to be a guest speaker for an organization’s luncheon or other meeting, you don’t want to be that speaker. And it can be terribly easy to be that speaker: You know, that high-maintenance one, or that boring/irrelevant one. You want to be the one who is memorable for positive reasons. Here’s a list of 14 ways to NOT suck.

  1. Learn as much as you can about your audience before you speak. (This is a good tip for any public speaking situation.) Even if you don’t know much about the organization beforehand, you can learn a lot during the mealtime, if that’s part of your engagement with them. During the meal, listen more than you talk. When your presentation begins, weave in examples that you know are relevant to this group.
  2. Find out from your contact at the organization what the norms are for speaking engagements like this one. Will the audience members expect handouts? Is there usually a Q&A session? What’s the best way for you to share your contact information with every audience member?
  3. Let your contact know what your A/V needs are as far in advance as possible, and only request what is necessary. Avoid last minute surprises, as they often cannot be accommodated — and they turn you into that speaker.
  4. Plan your presentation so that you can expand it or contract it as needed. Even though you may have been told you have 45 minutes, you may discover that the business portion of the meeting has run long, and you end up with just 30 minutes. Make no mention of shortening your presentation to your audience; just do it. Gracefully.
  5. Allow extra time in travel to arrive at the meeting location, especially if you have never been there before. Some things to keep in mind: Is there construction along your route? Do you cross train tracks on the way? When do the trains typically stop traffic? Do you know how to get into the parking lot? How far is it from the exterior doors to your meeting room? And never trust your GPS 100% to get you to a new location.
  6. Know how to use the technology you will be using, inside and out. Practice hooking up all the cords and cables and know how long it will take you. Know how to easily blacken the screen during your presentation when the slides are not needed (in PowerPoint, simply press B to blacken the screen, and then any other key to bring the slide back up). Do you have something new with you? In front of your audience is not the place to learn how to use your new presentation remote.
  7. Plan for the technology to fail. Always have hard-copy notes for your presentation, just in case you cannot rely on a PowerPoint slide to jog your memory for what to say. Save your presentation as a PowerPoint and as a PDF, and store it on your computer and a USB drive. (Yes, it’s like wearing a belt with suspenders. Twice. And I’m okay with that.)
  8. Never let your audience see anything on your computer other than the slide deck or other information you intend for them to see. They don’t (or at least shouldn’t) have any interest in watching you boot up your computer, open your file and put it in presentation mode. Keep the projector screen blank until you have your opening slide up. (And never be that speaker who preps her presentation in full view of the whole room while someone else is still speaking; I find this terribly rude to the other speaker.)
  9. Don’t count on the Internet working 100% perfectly. If I plan to show a YouTube video clip, I always download the video to my computer and show it from there.  (I’ve recently been using YouTube Downloader, a free app, and it works quickly and easily for me on my PC.) If I plan to demo a certain website, I’ll use Snag-It to take and save a few screen captures to show in case I cannot access the site during my presentation.
  10. Provide contact information on each slide or at the end. I like to have a detailed contact info slide as the last one in my slide deck, and I leave that slide up during the Q&A session.
  11. If you refer to websites or blogs in your presentation, create a set of social bookmarks for your audience so they can go to one URL to find all the links and not spend time during your presentation attempting to furiously scribble down all the addresses. I now use Pinterest for my social bookmarks. Let your audience know early in the presentation where they can find all the links.
  12. Upload your slides to SlideShare at least a day before your presentation if you want your audience (and others) to have access to them. You can choose to keep the slides private until just before or after the presentation, if you wish.
  13. The show must go on; be prepared to speak even if you don’t look quite perfect. For example, yesterday, I got caught in a deluge just as I opened my car door arriving at a speaking event. Even with an umbrella, I was drenched (kind of like the cute, wet puppy at the top of this post — at least in my mind). My shoes and blazer sleeves were literally dripping when I entered the venue. What did I do? Dashed into the restroom, grabbed some paper towels, mopped up what I could, and put a smile on my face.
  14. Arrive with your speaker’s toolkit in tip-top order. I think I almost got a hug from the conference room tech guy at my last speaking event because I had everything I needed, and more. What’s in mine? Here’s what I typically carry with me:
  • Computer & power cord
  • Power strip
  • External speakers with their power cord (just in case there’s no sound system attached to the projector)
  • 3.5mm cord to connect speakers to computer (even if I have my Bluetooth-enabled computer and speakers with me, I have the cord as a backup)
  • Projector (only if I know that there is not one available for me onsite)
  • Presentation remote
  • Extra set of batteries for anything that uses batteries
  • Hard candy or throat lozenges
  • More business cards than I think I could possibly need

So in a large nutshell, these are my 14 best tips on how not to suck as a guest speaker for an organization. What additional tips would you offer?

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Personal Branding: A Tale of Two Murrs

Image Credit: Tongue in Cheek Antiques
Image Credit: Tongue in Cheek Antiques

This morning, I saw my friend David Murray (AKA Friend Murray, who often calls himself Murr) post a link to a blog post by another David Murray (AKA Other Murray). It seems as though there are two professional communicators by the name of David Murray, and Other Murray seems to believe he’s the Superior Murr, and he says so in his post “A personal branding problem: “David Murray,” if you’re going to play off my brand, step up your game.” He’s wrong.

I think I know why Ragan Communications chose to have my Friend Murray rather than Other Murray speak at an upcoming conference, even though Other Murray has been a writer and speaker for Ragan before. The Other Murray writes about Friend Murray:

“a hapless fatty who doesn’t know what the f*** a pear is, in order to get more likes on social media for an insurance company’s website.”

Really? Sounds rather unbecoming coming from the current editor of Vital Speeches of the Day, doesn’t it?

Which Murr do you think has a tarnished personal brand? And if you were Friend Murray, how would YOU handle this?

barbara_is_listening

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Eight Tips for Getting the Most From a Facebook Group

Over the course of the last few months, I started crocheting again. And while I did find inspiration for new projects on Pinterest, I wanted a bit more, so I joined several Facebook groups dedicated to the art of crochet. These groups range in number from a few hundred to more than 35,000.

Some of the groups I’ve remained active in; others I’ve left. Whether to stay or go is often impacted by the actions of the other members and how those actions are handled by the group’s admins.

Based on my experiences, here’s a list of eight tips for getting the most from a Facebook group.

  1. Lurk for a day or two, reading back into previous conversation threads (and their associated comments) and look at photos people have posted. Get a feel for the ambiance before becoming vocal yourself.
  2. Read the group’s rules before posting or commenting. This seems like a no-brainer, but it’s amazing to me how many people don’t. And just like rules in schools, most of the rules are in place for a reason: someone did something, and the admins don’t want it to happen again.
  3. Have a question or a gripe about how the group is run? Send a message directly to one of the group administrators, rather than in the group itself. Gripes quickly spiral out of control in some of the larger groups. You can find out who the admins are by clicking on the Members link in the group, then choosing Admins from the drop-down.
  4. Don’t enjoy the group, or disagree with how it is administered? Find a different group to join instead. I’ve seen some people say, “It’s a free world. I can say/do what I want in here.” Nope. It’s a Facebook group. The admins make and enforce the rules.
  5. If you see someone has asked a question in a post, read some of the comments before answering it yourself. You may find that the answer has already been provided. (And if it hasn’t, or you have another idea to share, by all means, chime in.)
  6. For the crochet groups I’m a part of, one of the most frequent requests people have when they see a photo of a project is “can you share a link to the pattern?” Make it easier on yourself and others in your group by sharing a link to a pattern (if there is one) at the same time you post the photo — or if you forget, it’s easy to go back into your photo/post and edit the text to include the link.
  7. To keep from getting overwhelmed after adding a comment to a post in a group, turn off notifications for the post.
  8. Sometimes I’ll want to find something that I remember another group member posting a while ago. There’s a Search This Group box just under the banner for the group. It works fairly well, if you can recall a few key words or the name of the group member who wrote it.

What other tips would you add?

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Genghis Grill: There You Go Again

Using the words of The Gipper, I say to Genghis Grill, “There you go again.”

Image Credit: Created by Jack LeBlond (http://www.jackleblond.com/)
Image Credit: Created by Jack LeBlond (http://www.jackleblond.com/)

I wish I was surprised that the company still holding improper contests. But after my experiences in its “Health” Kwest, I am not surprised at all.

Here’s the latest, a photo contest on Instagram using the hashtag #GGDad. Seems innocuous enough, right?

instagram

 

So what’s wrong with this “most likes on this photo” contest? Let’s start with where the contest violates Instagram’s own Promotion Guidelines.

  • The official rules are nowhere to be found on Instagram (via a link) or on the Genghis Grill website.
  • The offer terms and eligibility are nowhere to be found on Instagram (via a link) or on the Genghis Grill website.
  • The promotion does not include a “complete release of Instagram by each entrant or participant.”
  • Nor does the promotion include an “acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram.”

In addition, Genghis Grill (again) does not include guidelines for how contestants should disclose that their photos are hashtagged for a contest. When Cole Haan did something similar in March 2014, the FTC issued a closing letter (a type of warning) to the company.

Sigh.

So what am I doing, other than sharing the information via this blog post? I’ve reported the company’s contest to Instagram and to the FTC. I would have also contacted the company directly, but the last two times I did, it apparently didn’t matter.

It really isn’t that difficult for a social media manager to learn the guidelines for contests, is it?

Please, if you are holding a contest using social media, take the time to learn how to do it ethically.

barbara_is_listening

 

 

 

 

 

(NOTE to PR Professors: Feel free to use this Instagram contest as an example in your classes.)

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Before You Get a Tattoo, Think About These Four Things

Barbara's TattoosYesterday afternoon, I was excited to see that HuffPost Live wanted to interview me. I thought it would probably be about my experiences in the Genghis Grill Health Kwest debacle, since that story had just been featured on PR Daily, but no . . . the producer wanted to know if I had thoughts to share on getting a tattoo “later in life.”

Later in life? Ouch. Yes, I know I am 50 years old (or a half-century, as I was reminded by one of my kiddos). But I still barely think of myself as being middle-aged,  and being middle-aged is way younger than “later in life,” isn’t it?

Anyhow . . .

Here’s the advice I shared for anyone, regardless of age, who is considering getting a tattoo:

  1. Think long and hard about what you want, because your tattoo should be meaningful to you. It took me several years to decide what my first tattoo would be; I decided on the Borneo Rose that you see in the upper left photo. It very closely resembles a doodle I’d been making for most of my life. Once I got the first one, I couldn’t wait for the second. My oldest son Kyle helped me find and tweak the design of my Wizard of Oz tattoo, which I have on my right leg. And the third tattoo is the most meaningful of all; it’s a memorial tattoo for Kyle, who passed away unexpectedly in 2011 as a graduating senior at Auburn University. Kyle had a cross tattoo on his arm, and my husband, middle son James and I all decided to get memorial tattoos in his memory. Every day when I see this Celtic cross, I can physically feel Kyle’s hand on my arm comforting me.
  2. Work with an artist whose work you have seen in person and that you trust. Each of my tattoos are done by different artists in different states; I got recommendations from people I knew.
  3. Get a temporary tattoo of your design before getting it permanently inked on your body. Still unsure if you really want a tattoo? Or know you want one, but can’t decide on size or location? Mock up your design and print it with your inkjet printer on temporary tattoo paper. Try it out in different sizes and locations before you make a final decision.
  4. And place your tattoo so you can choose who sees it. Where you place your tattoo is totally up to you. But for me, I needed to be sure that I could either show or cover my tattoos, depending on who I am with or the situation I am in.

The 20-minute video from HuffPost Live is below; my part of the video starts about 5:50 in and lasts for about 5 minutes:

 

What advice would YOU give people who are considering their first tattoos?

barbara_is_listening

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How to Rock Your Internship in 10 Easy Steps

Image Credit: "Rock Stacking" by Chris Geatch
Image Credit: “Rock Stacking” by Chris Geatch

Summer is near, and so is the season of internships. This post is primarily for my student readers. (I’ll have another post next week for those who are supervising or working with interns.) Here are 10 easy steps for rocking your internship.

  1. Learn names. I know the first few days are overwhelming with all the people you will likely meet. Ask if there’s an org chart with photos (some companies have them — they’re a great help). Write down names as soon as you can, along with something about what the person does and how you may be working with him or her. Greet people by name the next time you see them. And if you forget a name, just ask the person for a reminder — the sooner the better.
  2. Be on time. Always. And find out what “on time” means at your new organization. For some, a 10:00 meeting means that people should walk in the door at 10:00. For others, it means arrive before then, and be ready to jump into the first agenda item at 10:00.
  3. Dress the part. For the first week or so, take note of how others dress in your office, and dress similarly if possible. Ask your supervisor about attire, when in doubt. And it never hurts to dress a little more professionally than the norm, especially if your role is client-facing.
  4. Ask questions. You aren’t expected to know how to do everything on Day One.
  5. Recap every meeting. Takes notes and be sure you know what action items from the meeting have been assigned to you.
  6. Avoid personal use of social media on the job. Focus your time and efforts on your employer, and save personal use of social media for breaks and lunchtime. And if your internship requires you to interact in social media, be sure to post from the correct account. (There are numerous examples of people accidentally tweeting, etc., from their own accounts. Trust me.)
  7. Don’t complain, especially publicly. Internships (and jobs) are not all sunshine, roses and unicorns. Do what you’re asked (within reason) with a smile on your face and a positive attitude. If things aren’t going well, discuss it with your supervisor. Don’t take it to social media, even with vague complaints; it may come back to haunt you.
  8. Save copies of your work. Unless your employer specifically prohibits it, save as much as you can of the content you produce. You may need to share copies to earn credit for your internship.
  9. Keep in touch with faculty. Even if it’s not required, send periodic updates of your internship with relevant faculty members at your university. They really want you to succeed, and most are willing to offer help or advice when you need it.
  10. Leave an impression. Recap the body of your work and share it with your supervisor and any co-workers who might benefit from it. Let them know how to reach you once the internship is over. Connect with them on LinkedIn. (You are on LinkedIn, right? And your profile is updated, including the internship, right?) Keep those bridges clean, clear and unburned.

What other tips would you offer?

barbara_is_listening

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Six Guidelines for Running an Ethical Contest in Social Media

ACT ETHICALLYAs many of my readers may recall, I was a participant in a social media contest earlier this year that went horribly wrong, in oh-so-many ways. In fact, it went so poorly that the company didn’t even publicize the results of the contest in its own social media channels (though it did issue a standard news release). I found myself frustrated when my repeated attempts to provide helpful advice to the contest sponsor were dismissed. And I learned a LOT from this experience that may help your organization should you desire to plan a contest in social media.

So what I have for you here are six things I learned during that catastrophe about running an ethical contest in social media. Following these guidelines may help turning your brand ambassadors into your “assadors,” as one of my Facebook friends called them.

NOTE: I am not a lawyer, nor am I giving legal advice. I am just sharing my understanding of the guidelines.

One

Learn, understand and apply the disclosure guidelines that the Federal Trade Commission has published. As the FTC says, “If there’s a connection between the endorser and the marketer of the product that would affect how people evaluate the endorsement, it should be disclosed.” Put simply, if you are incentivizing people to mention your company online (by providing them with something free OR having them mention something specific to enter a contest of yours), they need to say so. And it’s up to YOU to be sure they do.

The FTC provides a handy, dandy mnemonic to help:

  • Mandate disclosure from your contestants. (See my post “In the Interest of Full Disclosure” for more on this.)
  • Make sure your own staff knows the rules, and
  • Monitor the contestants, to be sure they are following the guidelines.

Two

Don’t ask or require participants to “stage” something as a way of endorsing your product or company. Doing so is creating false advertising.

Three

Know and follow the terms of service for the social media platforms you are using in your contest.

Did you know . . .

  • businesses should not ask for reviews or endorsements on Yelp?
  • if you’re having participants create a video to post on YouTube, you must provide clear judging criteria, and you must not use video views or video likes to conduct the contest?
  • requiring participants to post something on their personal  timelines to enter a contest violates Facebook’s terms of service?
  • you can’t use Facebook Likes or Shares as a voting mechanism?
  • you should not ask contestants to tweet something multiple times for multiple entries, or the contestant risks being  suspended for Twitter spam?
  • and for more examples, see Social Media Promotion Law: Contests and Sweepstakes.

Four

Follow your own contest rules and guidelines to the letter. Varying from them will cause frustration among the participants at a minimum, and a run-in with the FTC or state for more egregious errors.

  • If you are asking contestants to create a 30- to 45-second video, then award points only to those whose videos are within these parameters. No exceptions.
  • If you have in your contest rules that “no additional purchase is necessary,” do not require contestants to purchase specific items for photos they must post.
  • If you provide a calendar of social media posts that your participants must publish on specific days, use that calendar; do not make last-minute changes. (In the contest I participated in, this happened more than once. One of the days, the participants were supposed to create a specific video to post on YouTube. Videos take time to shoot and edit. The day the assignment was due, the contest manager changed the assignment to something totally different . . . and never had the video used at all as an entry. This caused much frustration among the participants, as you might imagine.)

Five

Provide objective criteria for judging entries, especially when the entries will be judged by a panel chosen by your organization. Having your panel vote for which entry they “like best” doesn’t cut it.

As a professor, I tend to use rubrics to grade assignments. (A rubric states what the criteria are and how many points can be earned by fulfilling the requirements.) A rubric would be helpful for participants in contests, as well.

Six

Be available to answer questions from your contestants. Have one place the contestants can come to for official answers from your organization. Ideally, this would be a place on your own platform, rather than an informal Facebook group, for example.

Availability is especially important if you are running a lengthy, multi-part contest. Establish and maintain an expected turn-around time for answers. For example, if someone submits a question, respond within 24 hours.

Remember, in the absence of official communication, the contestants are left to speculate about the answers to their questions.

 flourish

That said, what other recommendations do you have for making sure your organization’s social media contest is run in an ethical (and legal!) manner?

barbara_is_listening

 

 

 

 

 

Related posts:

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Spin Sucks Puts an End to Destructive Spin

Today’s post comes from guest blogger Eden Spodek. This post originally appeared on Eden’s blog.

flourish
“The tools today are different, but the premise remains the same. Lie or spin the truth, and you will be found out. People will take you to task.”

 – Gini Dietrich

 

Spin Sucks puts and end to destructive spin

I’ve known Gini for several years, am a loyal reader of her award-winning Spin Sucks blog and a regular listener of Inside PR, the podcast she co-hosts with Martin Waxmanand Joseph Thornley. I’ve watched her implement some relatively simple tactics – such as her take on the #Follow Friday meme, livefyre Q&As and, Gin and Topics – that can only be described as part of her brilliant marketing strategy. All the while, she’s constantly sharing her “secret sauce” to digital communications and reputation management… for free! If we only only knew about how she applies her knowledge to her client work, well now we can, sort of – stick with this and you’ll see.

Gini has an amazing ability to make everyone feel welcome while spreading her hospitality and enthusiasm across the social web. She’s built an active community where members have developed friendships extending beyond the borders of Spin Sucks (the Blog). If I didn’t know better, I’d think her blog was her full-time job. But I do. She helms a successful integrated marketing communication agency and among other things, is a sought after public speaker who has given the keynote address at conferences in Canada, the United States and Europe. When she put out a call looking for Spin Sucks Brand Ambassadors, I jumped at the chance to get involved and get an advance copy of Spin Sucks (the Book). That in itself was reward enough. Little did I know how much I’d enjoy being part of a wonderful subset of the Spin Sucks’ community.

Spin Sucks puts and end to destructive spin

I’ve learned a lot from Gini. Not only from what she shares in her blog posts but also by watching what she does, how she does it and learning some of the thought processes behind her work through her public speaking engagements. I’m also a digital communications strategist who works and teaches in the online space and espouses the gospel of transparency, disclosure and anti-spin on a daily basis. So, much of what’s written in Spin Sucks the book was familiar yet, there were still several actionable tips I learned.

If you’re looking for a quick fix or a magic bullet to help market your business online, you’re not going to find it here. However, if you’re willing to invest the time and follow Gini Dietrich’s secret sauce over the long haul, Spin Sucks: Communication and Reputation Management in the Digital Age is a must-read.

“Your competitors know the exact recipe to your secret sauce, but no one does it as well as you do. It’s your secret sauce. It was created with your people, your thinking, your culture, your passion, and your vision.”

 

Gini brings her personal voice and tone to Spin Sucks the book, the same as her blog readers have come to know and love. She’s up front about telling you who the book isn’t for – several times throughout the book, in fact – all the while reminding those who stick with her that this journey is a “marathon and not a sprint”. Gini uses current examples to illustrate her points, including some case studies from her own client experience. This is more than theory folks; her secret sauce is based on actionable items she’s implemented and measured! In each section, Gini starts with the “what” then uses examples to explain the “why”. Unlike many business books, she also includes the “how-to’s” right down to the tactical, technical details in an easy-to-follow manner. Some things, like Google algorithms may change – remember this is the web and social media we’re talking about – but the importance of good writing, using common sense, being transparent, disclosing relationships and saying “I’m sorry” don’t.

If you’re new to Spin Sucks, you don’t need to be a PR agency or big business in order to appreciate and follow Gini’s approach. In fact, it’s designed with small-to-medium businesses in mind and can be applied to any industry.

If you’re like me, even though you’ve read the blog regularly, you may appreciate having a single reference document with additional information and insights you won’t find online. Spin Sucks: Communication and Reputation Management in the Digital Age is short and easy-to-read but it makes you think. Plan to give yourself time to absorb the message and put the approach into practice.

Disclosure: Although I’ve purchased copies of Spin Sucks: Communication and Reputation Management in the Digital Age, I was given a review copy. Gini Dietrich has been a regular guest speaker for the Foundations in Digital Strategy and Communications Management Certificate program at U of T School of Continuing Studies where I’m a curriculum developer and instructor. I consult with one of the companies referenced in the book and the sock monkey is from Parkdale Novelty, a client.

What I’m reading…