As a business professional and industry thought leader, perhaps you’ve come to the conclusion that it’s time to share your expertise with the world and seek out opportunities for speaking engagements. Now, it’s just a matter of figuring out the best way to go about doing so. Do you hustle and send cold emails? Do you reach out to former colleagues with an announcement that you’re available? Do you submit proposals to organizations hosting conferences?
With the help of such networking tools as LinkedIn and through proper use of this application, you can actually bring the opportunities straight to you. It’s all about employing LinkedIn as a strategic tool and setting up your profile to reflect your search and availability for such engagements.
The amazing power of LinkedIn is that it’s business-focused, so use this to your benefit. Even if you have your own website, the fact is that your LinkedIn profile is likely going to rank higher in search results when event organizers start searching for industry-related, professional speakers. So, it’s just a matter of making sure the right meeting and event planners can find and engage with you.
Let’s take a look at what you can do to optimize your LinkedIn profile as a means of securing more (and better) speaking engagements:
Revise your headline.
As a digital marketing professional and business development coach, one of the most important pieces of advice I offer my own clients is that if you want your connections and active searchers to know that you are a public speaker, then you absolutely must add it to your profile headline. This automatically optimizes your profile to show up in search results for “public speaker,” and it not only shows up in LinkedIn results but in Google results, as well. Just make sure that you also include your subject-area credentials alongside your title of “public speaker” in your headline to ensure you go straight to the top of a searcher’s list.
Include related keywords.
If you want to become known as the expert, go-to speaker in your field, then you should include keywords throughout your profile that associate you with the topic and/or field you wish to speak in. Everything from your initial summary to your job descriptions should be optimized with specific keywords that are likely to be used by event organizers looking for subject-matter experts. If you’re wondering where to begin, though, don’t fret. You don’t necessarily need access to any specific tools in your quest to develop the perfect keyword strategy. To ensure you’re on the right track, simply ask yourself: “If I were going to search for an event speaker, what terms would I use in my search?”
Turn your summary into your story.
Use the summary section of your profile to really show off your areas of expertise. Your summary should connect in a conversational manner that shows that you’re not only a thought leader in your field but a real person with a compelling story who knows how to connect with an audience. Event organizers want to hire speakers who genuinely have something to share.
Provide related content.
Make sure you upload supporting content whenever you see the opportunity. Examples might include video recordings of previous speaking engagements, expert blog posts and articles that you’ve written for specific opportunities, and more. After all, the proof is in the pudding, as they say. So, don’t just tell users and event planners that you’re a reliable expert — give them the evidence they are looking for.
Keep recommendations updated.
All business owners and professionals know that your reputation is everything, and if you’re trying to book speaking engagements, the importance of recommendations is no different. Whenever you wrap up a speaking engagement, make sure you let the organizers know that you’ll be sending a request for a recommendation via LinkedIn. You can even specify which position these reviews will fall under so that all who click on your page seeking your expertise can go directly to your “public speaker” recommendations and read all of the (hopefully positive) feedback for themselves.
LinkedIn can be the ultimate tool for booking speaking engagements. It’s just a matter of optimizing your profile to reflect your expertise, specifically as a public speaker, so that event planners can find and connect with you. As a business owner, consultant or sales professional, you already have the skills to think like a networker, so hone your focus, solidify your presence as an industry-leading expert and share your unique story in a way that is sure to captivate searchers looking for people just like you.
