I had the opportunity to speak about link bait at this year’s SES San Jose. It was my fourth speaking engagement, and I potentially have at least two more speaking gigs lined up before the end of the year (the Shop.org Summit in Las Vegas September 17-19 and hopefully SMX Social Media in mid-October). After having experienced a small handful of giving presentations, I thought I’d share the things I love and not-so-much love about public speaking.
Pros:
- I love the challenge of putting together a presentation that is engaging, informative, and amusing (it can be hard to make your audience laugh, but I’ve successfully managed to elicit a few chuckles from the crowd). I know what it’s like to sit in the audience and stare at slides that are either:
- contain too much text that isn’t broken up by bullet points or images
- contain too much white space
- use weird colors that don’t look right when projected on a huge screen
Conversely, I know what it’s like to sit in the audience and be totally sucked in by a speaker who has a valuable and useful presentation. It’s fun and rewarding to try and find a balance of the right amount of images and text that will look clean and hold your audience’s attention.
- It’s an honor to be looked upon and thought of as an expert in your field. I’ve only been in the SEO industry for about twenty months, but apparently the folks organizing these conferences have enough faith in my knowledge base and SEO abilities to award me with speaking spots. The audience thinks of you as someone who knows what you’re talking about, and for me knowing that means an awful lot.
- I feel a sense of pride knowing that I helped people improve their SEO tactics, enlightened them with a tip or idea they haven’t thought of, or gave them advice on what to do about a certain situation. It’s really cool (and a bit scary) to hear the words “This question is for Rebecca” during the Q&A, and I feel really flattered when people come up to me after the session and pick my brain some more or want to exchange business cards.
Cons:
- Speaking in front of a large group of people can be pretty nerve-wracking. I sucked the first time I spoke in front of an audience, and it was only about 50 people (I’ve since steadily expanded to around 100 and then a few hundred at SES San Jose). I think I’m a more confident speaker now, but I still get pretty nervous. When I’m nervous I tend to ramble, and I’m conscious of my brain telling my mouth “You’re rambling! Shut up! Move on to the next slide! Stop it!!!” It’s something I would definitely like to improve.
- Sometimes, no matter how great your presentation is, you’ll have an off day. I call those days “First session on the last day.” It sucks to give a presentation to a crowd that just sleepily stares at you and jots down the occasional note. The worst of these sessions is the Q&A, which is like pulling teeth. “Questions…anyone? Anyone?” The moderator sounds like Ben Stein from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
- It’s challenging to come up with a new presentation for the same topic. I’m of the mindset that you should try and change things up a bit from presentation to presentation. It can be a struggle to think of different things to talk about for 15 minutes vs recycling your old presentation, but I think your audience will appreciate diversity.
I’m sure there are other pros and cons, but my brain is foggy from the SES San Jose bug that was going around (and from copious amounts of cold medicine). I’d love to read about any of your experiences and feelings about speaking in the comments section below.
