Do you ever get the unwanted, intrusive e-mail or LinkedIn (InMail) piece of spammy crap that suggest you would be a great fit for an upcoming CMO, CTO, CEO speaking event?

Lets agree its an ego thing so you go with the introductory conversation, that very recently went something like this;

"We have attendees from your industry, they would love to hear you speak and share your thoughts and wisdom" - cool, how much do I get paid you ask?, well, long pause........nothing really, we charge you a fee of £$xx to get you on our list of awesome speakers, you never know who is going to be there that might buy what you sell. 

Oh, you will also need to find your own travel, hotel and food cost, along with writing off a couple of days of running your own business as well.

C'mon, you have been 'Spartacus' and you know it, I know I have over the years.

Now I’m not saying that all  non paid ‘speaking’ engagements should be avoided, especially those where there is a genuine mutual interest between the person whose asking, and the subject matter. 

There’s an investment of sorts from both parties.

This is important because these type of events are potentially of a 3 way benefit, the organiser (probably a friend, or client) gets to showcase your talent to attract attendees, the audience (very important) because it has cost them to attend, so you need to add value, and last but not least you the ‘Speaker’ whose job is to inform, entertain, and hopefully educate.

And yes, you never know who might be in that audience, and as good as social media is you can become a ‘real’ person to the audience.

As of end April 2019 there are 3.5bn people 'Globally' now active on Social Media, so why on earth would you even consider being a speaker at non-paid gig if none of the above criteria apply?

My Mother (RIP) always used to say to me "Stephen, if you can't value yourself, how do expect others to do the same?", especially when she didn't like my choice of friends, or especially Girlfriends.

LinkedIn alone has circa 615 million registered users, with circa 300 million of them active each month, Instagram has over 900m, and Twitter has circa 262m, the list goes on courtesy of 'Data Reportal' (Link below).

Every one of these platforms rely on one key resource - GREAT CONTENT.

They rely on it because they offer it 'free' to the user base, and among that user base are people and businesses who are keen to hear your stories, learn from your experiences, and engage in conversations - but not advertising or sales pitches.

We are active 'practitioners' of what we do, we already know and can evidence the ROI of a robust and internally aligned 'Social' strategy.

Part of that evidence it that you are reading this blog, just like many others - including your competitor!

We also don't do outbound pushy, salesy marketing, so if you would like to explore more, please contact the author of this blog.