Episode 108 -- Digital Marketing Meets Public Speaking

 

 

2-Minute Tip: You Know Your Stuff

 

Experienced speakers still feel anxiety and nerves before getting on stage, but there are a couple thing you can remind yourself of before you start speaking.

 

First, you know your stuff. The reason you earned that stage is that you are a subject matter expert (SME). You're likely speaking about your work or your passion. Or you're presenting material you've studied. Sure, there might be a question, you can't answer, but that's okay. You don't have to have all the answers at the tip of your tongue. Do your prep work. Rehearse your talk. And know your stuff.

 

The second thing to keep in mind is that people -- including your audience -- think about themselves 95% of the time. If you make a mistake, they likely won't even notice.

 

Remember, it's not about you. It's about your message and your audience.

 

Post Tip Discussion: Meet David Erickson

 

A lot of the speaking many mid-career professionals do is in the conference room or other small space. It might be pitching a potential client, reporting on an initiative, or briefing their own team. The core of it all is still the same, though. Know what you want to accomplish. Prepare. And establish a connection with the folks in your audience.

 

One of the valuable lessons to come out of today's episode is the importance of establishing that in-person connection -- that analog relationship with your audience, especially when you are selling modern products like digital marketing services to businesses.

 

I talked a few months back about the importance of balancing logos, pathos, and ethos back in episode 035. To put it much more simply, today's guest, David Erickson, reminds us that people like to do business with people they know, like, and trust. Establishing credibility and building a relationship with your audience is just as important as making logical points.

 

Machine Transcription

 

David and I recorded our conversation in January. One of the things he predicted at that time was how Google would probably start searching and transcribing audio content in the near future.

 

It turns out, he was right.

 

Within the past couple of weeks, news has come out about how Google is making transcribing some podcasts, presumably to make them searchable. You can read more about these early efforts here: https://9to5google.com/2019/03/27/google-podcasts-transcribing-episodes/

 

It's also helpful to note that YouTube (a Google property) has been converting audio to text for years as they do automatic closed captioning for videos. The main reason I also publish this podcast to YouTube is to take advantage of this feature so folks with hearing challenges can still follow along with the content. It's not good enough yet, but it will get there. You can take a look here: http://2minutetalktips.com/YouTube

 

And, of course, Microsoft is doing some pretty impressive work with audio-text conversion. Speakers ought to familiarize themselves with the free PowerPoint add-in Presentation Translator. I talked about this in Episode 65 -- http://2minutetalktips.com/2018/06/05/episode-065-close-to-open-and-presentation-translator/. I'll likely revisit this in a couple months since almost a year has passed.

 

On a related note, Microsoft has also started offering automatic closed captioning in Skype. You can enable it in the settings. It even support live translation into dozens of language. This opens tremendous opportunities for greater communication across ability, cultural, and language barriers.

 

My experience is that the English captions for English speech work well, but it adds a little bit of latency to the conversation so it's not something I use by default. But the fact that it works at all is amazing. And the fact that I can now have Skype phone conversations with folks that don't speak English is a huge benefit to our world.

 

Bio

 

David Erickson is a digital marketing veteran, principal of e-Strategy Media and producer and co-host of the Beyond Social Media Show. He is a frequent expert source for media coverage of digital marketing topics, having appeared on MSNBC and CBS and cited in such publications as USA Today, US News & World Report, Slate & Search Engine Watch.

 

 

 

Links

 

David's website	http://e-strategymedia.com
Beyond Social Media Podcast	https://beyondsocialmediashow.com/
David on Twitter	https://twitter.com/derickson
2-Minute Talk Tips on Logos, Pathos, and Ethos	http://2minutetalktips.com/episode35
2-Minute Talk Tips on Presentation Translator	http://2minutetalktips.com/2018/06/05/episode-065-close-to-open-and-presentation-translator/
2-Minute Talk Tips on YouTube	http://2minutetalktips.com/YouTube

 

Call To Action

 

• What are your thoughts on this week's episode? Let us know in the comments below.
• Learn more about David's business or find the Beyond Social Media Podcast by checking out the links above.
• Share this episode with a friend, colleague, or relative by giving them the link http://2minutetalktips.com/david
• Don't get best…get better.

 

 

2-Minute Talk Tips is the public speaking podcast that help you become a more effective speaker in as little as 2 minutes a week.

Check out this episode!