It’s difficult to imagine maintaining a public speaking career these days without a social media presence, a blog, or YouTube videos, but some do.  The range of comfort, expertise, and experience with online marketing is enormous amongst public speakers.  But the truth is that the world is moving too fast today to rely on (even) FedEx and marketing materials that only exist on paper. 

So focus on the social media you understand best – perhaps creating a Facebook fan page, for example – start your blog and contribute regularly to it, post some YouTube videos in your channel, put your slides on line, create a pdf version of your press kit – just get started.  If you don’t have a least some of this kind of marketing going on, you’re going to look like a troglodyte, and they don’t get hired much.

The real purpose of all this social media and online marketing is to create or join a community of people, developing and extending a platform of your area of interest and your brand that like-minded people can respond to, comment on, and generally help you get the message out. 

It’s important to understand that it’s not really about you.  It’s about the message.  That’s why people will respond, comment, and help – because they care about the same thing or things.  So get the word out, and create ways for the world to join you in the cause you care about.  If you do that passionately and well, the world will invite you to speak about it, and you will be able to sustain a public speaking career.

I’ll conclude this series next time with a roundup of most frequently asked questions about the business of public speaking.