As a public speaker, how much do you think about your online personal branding? Of course, you think a lot about the audience that comes to hear you speak as you prepare for the big event. A large amount of your effort goes into planning what topics will resonate best, what words will make the biggest impact, and what emotions you need to bring out to reach them at a deeper level. You want to make sure that you make the biggest impact you can while you are on stage, right?
But what about your online audience?
Have you paid as much attention to them as you have to your in-person audience?
Maybe you think it’s not a big deal to focus on how well your posts are performing on social media. Realistically, it IS a big deal. Here’s why…
Even if you’re not a millennial, you’ve obviously heard about the “millennial” generation. Consider the fact that millennials were in their teens and early twenties when Facebook was introduced to the world, growing up hand-in-hand with the rise of social media.
So how does this affect you as a speaker wanting to get bigger speaking engagements and keynotes?
Well…the next time you apply to speak at an event or conference, think about who is reviewing your application. Perhaps the organizers of the conference? Yes, but ONLY after your application has been reviewed by their team and has been given the “green light.”
Who is on their team? Oh yes, likely, your application is first reviewed by a millennial. Guess what they are gonna do FIRST? Yup, they are going straight to your social media platforms to see how many followers you have, how engaging your content is AND whether they can tell anything about you from your images!
Your social media feed MUST visually convey your personal brand statement and what they can expect from you if they invite you up on their stage, OTHERWISE that application you spent so long perfecting may very well have zero consideration and end up tossed aside.
You might think that sucks but it’s the truth!
So, what can you do about this?
Well, if you already have a good sense of your personal branding, the logical step, aside from becoming more consistent about posting your content, is to pay attention to the types of images you post WITH your content.
This is what some of the highly paid keynote speakers have done. People like Kindra Hall, a successful speaker and author of “Stories that Stick,” has a robust following of 19,000 followers on Instagram and is routinely landing paid speaking gigs and selling her books like hotcakes as a result.
Here’s a snippet of her Instagram feed. Do you have a good sense of her brand by reviewing this?
This is what can happen when you craft your personal brand carefully and strategically create images that tell your story!
Want to see how YOUR images stack up? Here’s a little challenge for you! Go ahead and review your last few posts on social media and ask yourself the following questions:
- How many of the posts include YOU in the image?
- How many images show what it feels like to “work with you?”
- How many images are “story-telling” images, ones that help you connect with your target audience on a deeper level?
- How many of the posts contain images that pair well with the content of the post?
What did you find when you looked at your social media? Do you feel like your brand and your personality shines through? Let me know in the comments what you found as you reviewed your posts. I’d really LOVE to know. 🙂
Want more help and inspiration?
Need more help designing and creating your brand images? I offer complimentary clarity calls during which we will talk about what images you must have for YOUR business and determine whether hiring a professional photographer is the right next step for you.
Whether or not we are a good fit to work together, you’ll walk away from our call knowing:
- What images you need for your unique brand
- When the time is RIGHT for you to invest your marketing dollars in a photographer
- How to prepare for when you ARE ready to take that step
So, grab a 30 minute call time on my calendar and let’s talk!
