10 Ways To Judge Speaking Success

 

I have a dear friend who works for a well known not for profit and speaks to community groups about cancer-related issues.  

Recently she asked me how she could judge her speaking success.  

Your community group may have a speakers program as part of its PR activity.  So how do you measure if speaking to other organisations is worth the time and effort that goes into preparing and delivering such a talk.

Some measures that might help you measure whether your next talk is successful, are:

• Did you motivate some-one in your audience to do something as a result of listening to you? Did they visit your website, ask for a brochure, call a hot line or come up to you after you finished to register their interest or continue the conversation? 
• If you had a particular call to action in your presentation, how many people responded?
• What reaction did you get during your talk? What was the mood in the room?  Were the audience engaged and interested or were they bored and tuned out as you rambled on?
• How many questions were asked during and after you spoke? The number and nature of questions and comments is often a clear sign if you have engaged your audience.
• How people collected a brochure, business card or other material you may have brought along and distributed?
• How many people accessed  your presentation online if you shared it through Slideshare or other  platforms. Or asked you to email them a white paper or more information?
• Did you receive any feedback a couple of days after the event?
• Did the organisers feel your presentation was of such value,  they donated funds (if that was the goal of your presentation) or did they invite you back to speak again?
• Did one speaking opportunity lead to another invitation to present.  I heard you speak at x.  Can you come and speak to our group.
• Did you speech get reported or were you asked for information for your host's newsletter, website, blog or elsewhere.

These are the effectiveness measures I look: but how do you measure speaking success in your organisation? 

Let's share some ideas.

Online PR Is All About Community

Social Media Is Not All Wild West

We often hear social media is a bit like the Wild West, full of outlaws where things happen fast and loose. Well, not always.

This past week in the lead up to Remembrance Day in Australia (Veterans Day in the US), the online discount site DealMe carried an offer for a photography course with heavily reduced  tuition prices.  Illustrating the offer was a selection of images taken by the people who run the training.  Among those images was a picture of the Australian War Memorial.

Australians view the Memorial as a special place that honours the men an women who gave their lives in the wartime service of Australia.  So the use of this particular image to advertise a sale - for completely non-related commercial purposes - would be regarded as insensitive by many people.  

The DealMe staff were contacted about the issue, recognised its significance, apologised and within minutes the Memorial image was gone .... off the site.

Internet selling certainly has its rogues gallery, but there are also many decent folks who respect the concerns of others. 

(Disclaimer: I do work for the Australian War Memorial)

Elections And Story Telling

I spent this weekend at a Lions convention in the south west Victorian town of Portland.

Lions is that wonderful organisation that does so much to help families, protect the environment and strengthen communities.

Part of the convention involved electing a new District Governor to lead the 1500 members of local clubs in 2012.

Delegates had to choose between three candidates, each with impressive community experiences over many years.

Each addressed the convention before ballots were cast. Two candidates spoke about the appointments they had held, where they had served etc. The third told a story.

Tapping into Australians' abiding interest in the ANZACS, he spoke of his experiences visiting Gallipoli where Australians had battled opposing Turkish forces in 1915.

In particular he related the story of a Turkish soldier saving the life of an Australian digger. An illustration of humanity cutting across barriers even in war. This image of one man helping another had, and still motivates him in his not for profit work.

The story teller won the election.

Of course there are other reasons why members chose him, but his story telling was certainly a factor in engaging his fellow Lions.

I took it as a small but powerful example of how storytelling can impact not for profits and other organisations but more importantly how it grips people.

Insiders Reveal Ocean City's Best Kept Secrets

The US city of Ocean City is a mid Atlantic seaside destination attracting millions of visitors each year.  But it is in competition with  holiday destinations like nearby Washington DC and Virginia Beach.

Consumers often turn to peer-to-peer advice to help plan their holidays and increasingly these conversations are happening through social media.  That's why the City's PR team has recruited online volunteer ambassadors to help promote Ocean City as a vacation spot.

20 Ocean City Insiders have been chosen to represent the area by spreading positive and valuable online information  to potential visitors. They offer travel advice, suggestions and answer questions on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and TripAdvisor, and through a special area on the municipal website.

So far results are impressive:

• Insiders have provided over 8500 answers to questions posted to the Town website.
• In four months there were 100,000 unique visits to Insiders sections of ococean.com.
• There have been hundreds of thousands of impressions to ambassador-posted content.

City merchants support the program and hard working Ocean City tourist staff benefit from having additional online help, which means:

• Less time spent answering questions.
• Ensuring the accuracy of answers and reviews that other people post online.
• Increasing search engine optimization for the City website.
• Enhancing Ocean City’s online presence.

The program has the hallmarks of a great online campaign - positive user generated content, limited budget and authenticity.  Real people talking passionately about a place they love.

You can download helpful program resources at MGHtourism.com