Do you use LinkedIn and Facebook to get more speaking engagements? Many people grow their businesses through speaking on topics that relate to their expertise. Sometimes they are paid for these engagements, and other times they do them solely for the exposure.

Effective use of LinkedIn and Facebook can help you secure more speaking opportunities. Plus, you can use these sites to invite people to hear you speak.

Remember to put up a post on your business page about the event well in advance so people can plan to attend. Then, post after the event with photos and videos and thanks to whomever made it possible.

 

Using LinkedIn

  • Include key words such as “speaking,” “training,” and related terms in your headline, summary, and other parts of your profile.
  • Include short videos from previous speaking engagements in the media section near your summary. You can also add videos to the media sections of selected positions in your experience section.
  • Create a separate position in your experience section dedicated to the speaking aspect of your business. Use the description portion to list some presentations you’ve given. Be sure to update this list regularly to include your most recent talks.
  • Get testimonials that attest to how well you performed. Then select some of these to include in your summary and in appropriate position descriptions.
  • Add a variety of terms related to speaking to your skills and endorsements section. Examples would be public speaking, keynote speaker, breakout sessions, conference speaking, presentations, and motivational speaking.

 

Using Facebook

  • Post photos and short videos of recent speaking engagements. Then reorder the sections on the left side of your page so the photos and videos appear as close to the top as possible.
  • Ask people who have been at these engagements to post a positive review.
  • If the Recommendations option is enabled on your business page, people can recommend you as a speaker. This recommendation lives on their personal page. It also comes up as a post in the news feeds of their Facebook friends.
  • Consider sharing the post from your business page to your personal Facebook page so more people will see it.
  • Be sure to “tag” the person who invited you to speak, as well as the entity where you spoke. This makes the post appear on their personal Facebook page. Doing so also notifies the entity that you referenced them.

 

How About You?

How have you used LinkedIn and/or Facebook to gain speaking engagements? Which of these sites has worked the best for you? Do you have any other suggestions for maximizing their use for this purpose?

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 45 and up, to become more comfortable using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

She works with business owners, business development professionals, leaders of nonprofit organizations, job seekers, and more – ranging from entrepreneurs to people in large corporations. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com