How To Use Social Media To Get More Out Of Your Next Speech

Social media needs to become an important part of every speech we give
Social media needs to become an important part of every speech we give
Image Credit: Jason Howie

Take it from me: giving a speech is hard work. When you are asked to give a speech, you’ll spend time thinking about what you want to say, you’ll go through multiple versions of creating your speech, and then you’ll actually end up delivering it. Now the reason that you did all of this was because you know about the importance of public speaking and you wanted to make an impact on your audience. Did you? What if I could show you a way that you could make sure that you could connect with your next audience both before, during and after your speech?

Say Hello To Social Media

We are all living in a very special time. In just the past few years, “social media” which is loosely defined as being online communities have sprung up all around us. There is not just one of these, but rather many of them: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumbler, etc. To make use of social networking, you first have to join one of these online social networks and then you have to build up a network of friends.

It will be your network of friends that will provide you with the boost that your next speech will need. When you agree to give your next speech, it is going to become doubly important for you to discover who is going to be in your audience. What you are going to want to do then is to reach out to these people though the person who invited you to give the speech and invite them to join your social media network. It’s often a good idea to join more than one social media network because you can never tell which network will be popular with this audience.

You’ll have to be just a little bit careful here. A lot of us get a lot of invitations to join other people’s social networks all the time. More often than not, we just end up ignoring them. When you ask members of your future audience to join your social network, you’ll need to tell them what’s in it for them. The #1 thing that I think that you have to offer to them is going to be access to yourself. Let them know that you’ll be coming to talk to them in the future and that you’d like to connect with them to find out more about what they’d like to hear from you.

How To Use Social Media To Boost Your Next Speech

One of the things that you are going to want to use social media for is to build excitement about your upcoming speech. This can be done in a number of different ways. One of the best ways is by using photos. If there is a particular topic that you’ll be talking on (teamwork, ethics, sharing, etc.) you can take pictures of people in everyday life doing these things and post them on your social media channels. Another good thing to do is to take a snapshot of you at a desk or your table as you work on your speech. It will let everyone know that you are working hard for them!

The next thing that you’re going to want to do is to make sure that everyone gets a chance to come into contact with your speech. This can mean a lot of different things. One thing that you can do is to make an audio recording of your speech as you give it and then post it on social media (if this is ok with the person who asked you to give the speech). If you’ve written out your speech, you can also post a copy of the speech online for interested parties to read. Just because someone was not able to make it to your speech does not mean that they can’t get a chance to hear what you had to say.

Once your speech is done, your work is just beginning. Now that you’ve invited your audience to join your social network, you are going to be able to easily find out what they thought about your speech. Yes, you think that certain parts of your speech were powerful and motivating. However, what did your audience really think about them? Your audience will talk about your speech in their social media postings and you are going to want to read every comment that they make. The great thing about social media is that it is a two-way street. This means that if someone didn’t like your speech and they post about it, you can reach out to them and find out more about why they didn’t like your speech. All in all, what you learn after your give your speech from social media will help to make your next speech that much better.

What All Of This Means For You

Welcome to the 21st Century where when we give a speech it is no longer just a moment in time. Instead, it has the possibility to very quickly become a part of a much larger social network. As speakers we need to understand the power of social networks and find ways to leverage this power in order to make our next speech that much more powerful and effective as we share the benefits of public speaking.

There are a lot of different ways to go about doing this. It all starts long before your give your speech. You’ll need to join some social media networks and build up a network of friends. Then you’ll have to reach out though the person who invited you to give the speech and invite the members of your audience to join your network. While you are working on your speech be sure to keep your social media networks updated with your progress and post pictures that are relevant to what you’ll be talking about. When your speech is over, you need to take a close look at your social media networks. What are people saying about your speech – did they like it? Remember, social media is a two-way street so you can reach out to members of your audience and get more information from them.

You might be thinking that you already have enough to do when you are asked to give a speech. All of this social media stuff sure seems like a lot of extra work to do! However, once you realize that by putting the time and effort into using social media, you can connect with your audience both before and after your speech. This can open an amazing new door for you where you’ll finally be able to discover what your audience really thinks about your speech!

– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: If after your speech someone says that they didn’t like it, should you reach out to them to find our exactly what they didn’t like the most?

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Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Once you get over the shakes and nerves that go along with standing in front of a group of people and delivering a speech, your next big challenge is going to be finding ways to get better in order to maximize importance of public speaking. Deep down inside, what each one of us would like is if we could find ways to make the effort that we put into each speech make us just a little bit better. It turns out that there are three things that we can be doing that will make this happen.