Google+ Where Have All The Speakers Gone?

Why is Google+ a great tool for talent?

Speakers, Emcee's, Trainers, Entertainers, Bands for that matter anyone who who would like to get more work in the Corporate sector in Australia, would be advised to optimise their presence on Google+.

Google+ has 359 million registered users and contains the most business friendly features of all social networks. My tip is to take advantage of this before things change, as they have done on other social media sites where we are squeezed, little by little, into submission for that monthly subscription or pay per click adverts.

The Entertainers have managed to connect with a number of Speakers on Google+, those who always seem to be ahead or at least up to date with the current online marketing curve, however it would seem the take up is rather sluggish!

The Google+ platform has been shown to dramatically improve search engine rankings,  which increases your online presence and boosts your SEO efforts.

Our online marketing efforts make up a large percentage of the resources that we allocate to our overall marketing strategy, The Entertainers are consistently working towards becoming a noticeable and trusted source of information for our Clients and the talent we work with. This article ,we trust is an example of that intent.

While attempting to connect with Speakers in the past few months on Google+, it is "mind blowing" at the lack of attention Speakers are paying to Google+.

Here is an article which we found to be a great resource to give you a grounding and basic understanding of how to get going 21 Simple Ways to Get More Followers for Your Google Plus Business Page

For Speakers, Emcee's, Trainers, Entertainers, Bands to compete in a very competitive marketplace and stay on Speaker Bureau's radar, their marketing efforts towards such, need much more attention than sending a Speaker Bureau a Bio and Pic and hoping for the best. We encourage you to connect with The Entertainers on these platforms, be supportive of the roles we each play in this market, which will assist us all to "reach out" into the clients sphere of influence.

Perhaps the most difficult concept to understand, is the paradox between what we have been doing for the last few decades around marketing and what is now required of us. It is hard work! Not only is it required of us to post relevant, original and creative content on platforms such as Google+, it is also paramount that we understand these marketing devices as a matter of continuity for our respective business's.

While hiring a "gun for hire" may seem the most practical and convenient approach, beware!  The essence of who you are, what you do and how you want others to perceive the work you do can be lost by the incongruent nature of this type of arrangement. DYI is the most effective course for you to take.

So why is it that searching for Speaker profiles on Google+ produces such low results?

Apart from the obvious such as not having the knowledge or skills around the basics, such as tagging or making yourself easy to search by using commonly searched keywords, overwhelm is the most likely suspect. There are a whole new set of skills required which involve linking your accounts, designing your profile, writing a blog, creating content, Authorship and the list goes on. Fortunately the resources are all at your fingertips with a simple search. There are literally thousands of articles and videos on how to optimise Google+.

So get to it and make sure you connect with The Entertainers once you have your Google+ profile up and running. It is the business tool you have been looking for to make your business visible to the right prospects and I promise you it will lead to more work.

Speaker Bureau Marketing - Don't believe the hype!

If you are like me, seeking the truth is high on your agenda.

If I may wax lyrical; Akin to the global effort to awaken from a deep sleep to realise all we are spoon fed from the media is far from the truth. We wipe the sleep out of our eyes to set our sails on the winds of change, seeking a fresh start allowing our conscious compass the opportunity to navigate out of perilous waters. With courage and a strength born of a desire for "deep change", the journey we are all on requires a curiosity, persistence and an undertaking not to be silenced despite our collective ambivalence. 

But hey....Speaker Bureau's have got to make a living right, so why not just carry on the charade while the world is busy correcting itself?

One of the great myths about Speaker Bureau's is that those who list with a Speaker Bureau are getting equal opportunity. This is clearly not the case!

There is a conundrum afoot here, which keeps this paradigm upright that is delicately illustrated by these words, "I dare not tell the naked truth to a King, my reward may be a hanging"!

Let me ask you if you have ever asked a Speaker their thoughts on Speaker Bureau methodology? I have!  Though each have their own opinions based on the experiences they have had with various Speaker Bureau's, the over riding consensus is not flattering. While I was having a conversation with a Professional Speaker recently they said tongue in cheek, "oh, I will have four enquiries to take care of from Speaker Bureau's when I get back to the office". Sarcasm perhaps, however the attitude of the individual is exemplary, however the undertone of these words highlights an inherent dissatisfaction with the current status quo.

Perhaps because my early experience of working for a Speaker has shaped my expectations and beliefs of the gratitude and respect that Speaker are deserving of. Maybe it is that I am an Alan Weiss fan, who I am told is loathed by Speaker Bureau owners, personally I am of the opinion there is much to be gleaned from his writing, which we put practice as part of The Entertainers cultural agenda on a daily basis.

The fact is that Speaker's are just not marketed effectively by Speaker Bureaus!

To say that "no" marketing is evident, would be a misinterpretation of the facts, however if you do some simple calculations on the number of Speakers listed against the staff members actively working on marketing individual Speakers the result is far from complimentary. The marketing that is done is reserved for the A-list Speakers who are in demand, hot, topical and basically easy to book requiring minimal effort. 

The Entertainers currently list approximately 100 Speakers on www.theentertainers.com.au. While this may appear insignificant to our competition, we have made a conscious decision not to follow the trend of loading thousands of Speakers onto a website and hoping for the best. Fire the shot gun, wait for the smoke to clear and see if we hit something, anything! Bugger the respect we owe to those we work with, "that's just the way we do things..."

SEO is where the bulk of current marketing efforts are concentrated with the emphasis on getting a Speaker to the top of search engine pages. The trick here is when someone is Google searching for a Speaker, the Speaker Bureau's appear on the top of the search page, this impression indicates to the person searching that the listing, which ever company it is, (unless it is the Speakers personal website) has a close association with the Speaker. While this is true in some cases, by and large it is inaccurate.

All is fair in love and war particularly when it comes to business, in fact The Entertainers has an active SEO marketing strategy in place and we enjoy the leads that are generated from this effective marketing strategy. This is how business is done and is a completely accepted and ethical way of advertising listing. The problem is that little else is done in most cases.

Traditional BIO and Pic listings are the standard format for marketing Speakers. Again we use this format with every Speaker we work with but that is not where it stops!

The Real Time video interviews we have been producing over the past year and a half are deliberate effort to "give back" more to the Speakers we are lucky enough to profit from. While the series is still in development as we get better at interviewing and producing the final product, we actively market each of the Speakers to a growing database with aim of delivering a much more effective methodology.

We do not have all the answers to this conundrum however, we continue to push towards a more mutually beneficial relationship with the Speakers The Entertainers work with. While not all the Speakers that we have interviewed and profiled have received work through as a result of the Real Time video interviews and the marketing we do around the interviews, the majority of our bookings now come from the interviews we do.

Our methodology is not something that become as effective as current practices overnight. We are "new players" in a competitive industry. We will continue our efforts as we build our business with mutual respect between the Speaker and the Bureau as the foundation of our culture.

Don't believe the hype, Speaker Bureau's need to do more for the Speakers they list! If they are not actively marketing you and you have not received an engagement for many a year, call them and tell them to take you off their web site and look for someone who will work with you to market your services. That is the only way change will occur!

There is so much more to what is "not" actually happening around marketing Speakers which I will continue to make commentary on as duty of care.

If you are Speaker looking to work with The Entertainers please contact us at enquire@theentertainers.com.au or call 02 8958 6482