Hiring a keynote speaker

Keynote speakers can make or break your event. You can hir proffessionals in virtually every field imaginable from motivational speakers, and product specialist, to sales and marketing gurus. The sky is the limit and there are certainly a plethora of options.

These speakers are there for a reason and unless you have a wealth of networking under your belt, they are not cheap. For this reason you want to make sure you have seen them speak and are comfortable with their methods. You want to make sure they stay on topic and drive the pitch or information you want delivered while entertaining the audience. Have you ever sat through a 3 hour lecture? Dont do that to your audience. There are creative ways to deliver any message. There are people that could make lines of computer code seem interesting. Do your homework!

You may also want to ask if they can be the MC as well. This will help the flow of your event seem more fluid.

Now that you know what you want. Whats your budget. Keep in mind that you are in a business. Businesses trade services in every industry. If your a website designer in need a motivational speaker and they are in need of a website. There you go. Do your homework for that company. Find what relationships they have based on the work that you provide.

If you anticipate a higher attendance perhaps you can reserve a large room at a hotel. A lot of times based on attendance they will give you the room for free if you allow them to have the consessions. This would save you rental of a venue and you could spend that much more on a keynote speaker.

When you finally make a decision keep in mind that you get what you pay for as is most things. If you go for the cheaper guy and he fails you, You better have a backup. The speaker is your employee for the day. You should request references, certifications and see if they belong to the National Speakers Association or International Federation of Professional Speakers.

Whether you are looking for speakers to excite a workforce, provide specialized training or just to entertain, hiring your right keynote speaker is essential. If the speaker you hire connects with your audience while providing a valuable experience the benefits are tremendous.

Writing a press release

Bad publicity is good publicity... Thats a statement thats bothered me for years. If photos are published of you with a 17 year old girl and your trying to sell children books its not good publicity. Good for public, bad for book sales.

Lets focus on best publicity! Press releases dont take a lot of time to complete. Basically its; Who, What, When, Where, Why, How.

1.The information must be newsworthy to the PUBLIC, not just to you.

2.Tell the public this information is for them, how they can benefit from it.

3.Start with a brief description of the newsworth information, then who is announcing it.

4. Make sure the first 10 words of your release are effective, as they are the most important. Action! Think of this. you have 10 words to sell your press release. choose them wisely. Keep it coherent

5. Avoid excessive use of adjectives and fancy language. Just the basic info. Let the reporters be creative.

6.Deal with the facts.

7.Provide as much Contact information as possible: Individual to Contact, address, phone, fax, email, Web site address.

8.Make sure you wait until you have something with enough substance to issue a release.

10.Make it as easy as possible for media representatives to do their jobs.

11. Make a list or each local, regional and national press contact for press releases.

12. Send the press release to the APPROPRIATE contact. You wouldnt send a press release for a local celebrity night for charity to the national syndicate as this is something the celebirites publicist would perform.

Press release example here: [URL=http://www.press-release-writing.com/press-release-writing-tips-sample-press-release/]Press Release Sample[/URL]

Do It Yourself Website Design

Believe it or not there are still people out there who feel that they don't need a website. This is horribly wrong. Every business should have a website. A place to find more information beyond the normal business hours. Finding the right place to design your website is a daunting task if you are on a budget.

I was recommended . Intuit is basically a cut n paste, do it yourself website. It costs 20$/month for 1 website and 2
4 extra a month for additional sites. You pick a theme, and then customize it to your needs. Its very user friendly. The flash content is not worth posting as the quality is horrible, but the basic plain-jane website can be accomplished. You can post photos, videos, music, links or anything else a normal website has. If your just starting up and are limited on funds this might be a great option for you.

Now just because you setup the website, doesnt mean you will automatically connect with new customers. That is an entirely new issue regarding Search Engine Optimization or (SEO). Now its entirely possible to manage your SEO without hiring a big expensive firm but you will be paying in sweat equity. At first I must of spent no less than 20 hours a week on this issue. Unless your an insomniac and a workaholicnit might be in your best interest to hire someone.

Engaging via Social Media

I had recently attended the "Un-Marketing" book tour by Scott Stratten. I appreciated everything he said and was certainly entertaining but I'm having a very difficult time attempting to engage the people on facebook and twitter. People are just not responding. Iv'e given advice, offered FREE service, and finally 50$ cash for a contest. I'm currently at a loss. Absolutely stumped.

Getting your business listing on the first few pages of google

That's the Million dollar question isn't it. Ultimately your web presence itself will boost your ranking with google. The first priority of having a website would be content. Make sure each page has a good writeup of what its about, use your business name, location you serve, at least twice on your page. Inlude some photos ( make sure the pictures itself have your website on them as they are added to google images automatically).

If you have some tips for other event planners, make a video, put it on you tube ( put your website info on the video and in the tags) and post it to your website.

Join facebook, linkedin, and twitter and STAY ACTIVE! this will increase your web presence.

Join Message boards (like this :P) and post often using your website information in your signature.

Write a blog once a week, put your website information in your signature.

If you create your own website using the user friendly http://www.intuit.com, make sure you create a sitemap and submit it to google.
How do you do that? first [URL=http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/]Click Here[/URL] Then [URL=http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools]Click here[/URL] and submit your sitemap. Its easy and only take a minute.

Goto google places, add your business, and again add content to your "Place" Page, pictures, video, location of area you serve

Now goto yahoo and create a profile, rinse and repeat

This is not something you do once and forget. This is something you set aside time every day, and plug away. You could easily spend 8 hours a day doing this but you will drive yourself nuts. Just dedicate 20-30 minutes a day to add a couple posts here n there. Pretty soon you will find oppurtunities every where you go.

Nicholas Kin

I am nicholas kin. I am the owner of a premier event planning service in Buffalo NY. I have a passion for life in general. I've travelled from California and back to NY with 20$ for months, lived on the streets of Los Angeles, beat cancer, hosted huge festivals, and written a few unpublished books. This is my blog. I write about my life and my work. Welcome to me.


Nicholas A Kin
Kid V Productionz http://www.kidvp.com

Tweet: @KVproductionz

LinkedIn: Nicholas Kin

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