Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Preparing for social media presentations


I have been asked (and participated) in numerous social media speaking opportunities. This is not to say I am headlining major conventions or anything, but speaking to groups and participating on panels on the workings of social media. I will be making three speeches in the coming weeks and having thoughts that it might grow to be more and more in the next year or so. This past week, I have taken some time out to really plan out an extensive presentation, mainly to get all my ideas out and onto paper (and consequently the computer).

I’m trying to condense all that social media can handle into a 90-minute presentation. I know 90 minutes is a long time and I don’t really plan to ever speak for that long but I believe that I could rearrange a 90-minute presentation down to 60, 45 or 30 minutes if I had, to depending on the audience and time restraints.

90 minutes. Looking back on my high school classes (Putnam City North), each class we had was 93 minutes. We had four classes a day at 93 minutes each. We had each class for one semester (90 days) meaning we learned one subject for 8,370 minutes…wow. It took 8,370 minutes to teach me one Home Economics class. I spent 8,370 minutes learning Weight Lifting…now I have to put the entire industry of social media into a 90-minute presentation. When I put it that way, planning for 90 minutes shouldn’t be difficult at all.

The more I thought about it, the more it made me realize that a 90-minute presentation would be difficult to prepare for because it wouldn’t be long enough.

So, if you were to come to a social media presentation, what are some topics you would want to make sure were discussed? I have my thoughts and ideas…what are yours?

Would you want to see a breakdown on one platform? The differences between platforms? Strategies in a plan? The history of social media? Future thoughts on the industry? Case studies on proper/improper procedures? Customization options on platforms? Engaging strategies? Research and statistics? Recommendations who to follow? How to find ROI? Campaign ideas? Social Media policies? Management of multiple accounts?