SocialWayne.com by Wayne Sutton

Posts Tagged ‘ted murphy’


Posted on October 6, 2009 - by

How to become a social media conference speaker. Tips and a free conference pass.

IZEAFest

Photo: by chrisheuer

If you listened to my podcast yesterday on the ROI in attending Social Media Conferences, then you know I just returned from IZEAFest a marketing / social media conference in Orlando, FL. organized by Ted Murphy. In my podcast I mentioned how the ROI for attending various social media conferences is relationships and from the relationships it could lead to more business deals and/or speaking opportunities. While it seems that everyone now is a social media guru or expert, or ninja or “fill in the blank”, the next social media must prove yourself thing to do is write a book or speak at various conferences. While my book is on the way, haha, I have been fortunate enough to take part in both local and national conferences / events such as SXSW, CLT WordCamp, SoFresh, Social Media Club meetings, Triangle Chapter of the American Marketing Association meetings, IZEAFest and more before the end of the year such as BlogWorld Expo, the Social Media Business Forum and Internet Summit 09.

Often I get asked how was I able to take part at various events or how can someone become a speaker at those events. While I’m no “keynote” speaker … yet  :), you can see a list of my past speaking events here on FriendWayne.com.  I still have a long ways to go, but here are a few tips on how to become a social media conference speaker that I have seen and done.

How to become a social media conference speaker:

  • Start local – Be known in your own backyard before you try to go global
  • Establish a personal brand / identity / voice – What will people say about you.
  • Keep your social networking profiles updated (outdated info can cost you a gig)
  • Attend other social media conferences – Network!
  • Create valuable content to showcase your skills. No blog, no videos, no podcast = no gig. Unless you work for a major brand!
  • Start your own conference / event and ask others to speak – if it works out they may return the favor… maybe.
  • Have a travel budget
  • Share your existing presentations on http://www.slideshare.net

Speaking Tips – As you start  becoming social media speaker, you need to do a few things such as:

  • Be memorable and awesome
  • Provide great content
  • Provide new content (dont’ just talk about post you read on Mashable)
  • Tell jokes and stories
  • Rap – hat tip (Chris Brogan), I dare you! Wait, that’s Chris’s thing so …
  • Don’t copy other speakers ( I know it’s hard to be creative)
  • If you’re a quiet person, provide Really great content
  • Practice, breath and have thick skin
  • Don’t think about the tweets or “noise” that are being posted while you’re giving your talk.
  • Have someone video your talks so you can post online for later.
  • Ask yourself what separates you from the rest and why do you want to become a speaker.
  • Be yourself.
Free passes to the Social Media Business Forum
SMBFlogo2

If you have Never spoken at a conference in the past and would like to Attend the Social Media Business Forum on Friday, October 23 in Durham, NC, the first Two people who leave a comment on this post saying “I want to attend the Social Media Business Forum” will receive a free pass to the 1 day event. *Tweets or ReTweets of this post do not count.

If you’re a speaker I would love to hear any thoughts you have in the comments or if you have any speaking tips.


Posted on October 3, 2009 - by

IZEAFest announcement: Sponzai launches as sponsored post platform for bloggers and brands

sponzai

Whether you agree with it or not, sponsored blog post or tweets which some call sponsored conversations are here and more are on the way. Today at IZEAFest conference organizer Ted Murphy who’s behind sponsored tweets announced Sponzia which works to match bloggers with sponsored content.

The Sponzai pitch
Sponsors write their own guest post including multimedia and links. Sponsors then select the blogs on which they want to distribute their pre-written post. Bloggers earn cash for posting the content.

Monetize Your Blog
Sponzai.com is an online marketplace that allows you to connect directly with sponsors to find sponsored guest posts for you blog. Sponsors compensate you with cash in exchange for you publishing a post they have written. You simply copy and paste a guest post to your blog and submit the URL back to us. Think of it like eBay for sponsored guest posts.

Web: http://Sponzai.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sponzai

As Sponzia launches and sponsors content continues to evolve, we’ll see more platforms like Sponzai launch. I personally believe in 100% disclosure which something that Sponzia says it will only support. It will be interesting to see which bloggers and sponsors start to use Sponzia.

This is not a sponsored post, I’m attending IZEAFest as a moderator of a panel but I do wish Ted and IZEA much success with Sponzai. Also congrats to IZEA to continue to push the envelope to create products to help the blogging community and companies to monetize their products and services. Only time will tell how sponsored conversations will evolve and how it will shape the blogosphere as readers trust will be tested with blog authors.

What are your thoughts on sponsored blog post / conversations?

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