Speak Chat Connects Speakers, Event Planners, Speaker Bureaus, Publicists and Clients

Having seen the wildfire of communities created on Twitter called Twitter Chats it is a wonder that more industries have not looked at twitter chats as a vehicle to  connect with their consumer base.

(Here is current cloud of host @ProsperityGal-what emerges in your conversations?)

Being inspired by #blogchat and Mack Collier I suggested to a then book partner that we needed to create audience if we want to have our book be a best seller.  We needed to create the audience NOW.  So, I went to work…drumm roll

Since I was looking at writing a book on Social Media Manners I created a twitterchat without a second thought.  Setting up the hashtag, registering it with Twubs and “what the hashtag”; Social Media Manners (#SMmanners) was off and running. (I have since turned this group over to another individual)

Then it was about inviting all my twitter friends to join the conversation.  It started off slow and I noticed that by picking topics that were important pieces I wanted to write about on the blog and potentially in the book ended up being really popular chats.

Discovering that when I applied my natural speaking topics in the twitter chats I moderated, there was also a huge surge in participation.  Could there be a link there?

Now, it is about taking it to another level.  Being big on aligning with my business goals (and walking the talk I give to clients) -it was time to make a bigger move.

Hence Speak Chat.

The vision for Speak Chat is simple…

Creating a community of individuals and companies who revolve around the professional speaking industry.

You are welcome if you are a speaker, event planner, speaker bureau, publishers, conferences,  vendors of the industry i.e. video, sound, product productions…the list is rather long which is what will make this an exciting chat.

Our goal is to have weekly topics that share and expand all of our knowledge, connections and of course businesses.

Stay tuned as we roll out more information in the coming weeks.

We will hold our first chat January 17

Here’s the scoop! So far…

What is Speak Chat?

Weekly conversation (twitter chat) that revolves around the topic of Speaking.

What do you talk about then?

Each week we discuss topics that concern speaking.  One week we might talk about differences between a keynote speaker and a platform speaker.  Another week we will discuss the many uses of video for speaking and how they benefit or hurt you.  How to pick an outsource team to handle the business-while you focus on speaking.  Each week is a new topic as it fit’s into the topic of speaking .

How will these conversations help my business?

By discussing in a public chat you have the ability to teach, share and spotlight your knowledge.  Whether you are a speaker, trainer, publisher, videographer they all serve the same industry-speaking.  By collaborating allows us to learn and expand our expertise as well as grow our businesses.

Our purpose for Speak Chat is to be educational and not marketing our businesses or services to each other in our conversations (just for clarification)

Speak Chat When is it?

Mondays 9pm ET

I have heard of Twitter but not there much-how does that work?

For those of you who have been on Twitter and feel that the conversations are all over and everywhere, making you wonder where to focus your attention-along comes twitterchats and hashtags!

Hashtags are something that allows us to organize conversations around a topic, to make it easy for you to follow the conversation.  For example you use #speakchat at the end of all your tweets and it allows every one who is talking in the community to follow your tweets.

Are their rules to #speakchat

Here are our common sense guidelines we borrowed from @Mackcollier at #blogchat (when it works well, do not reinvent the wheel-that wisdom comes from a community mindset)

1- Stay on topic

2- Please DO link to your blog post and add the #speakchat hashtag to your tweets ONLY if your post is relevant to that week’s topic.  For example if we talk about the components of a signature speech and that week you wrote a post on “10 elements of a signature speech” then ABSOLUTELY share that link with the #Speakchat community! But, if we are discussing how to use images in your speaker package that wins trust and you wrote a post on “Working with Speaker Bureaus” and add the #speakchat hashtag, that would be considered spam by the community.

3-Be courteous. If you do not like the topic that night, thanks you can email me with your suggestions for future topics.  There have been some people in others chats who just come to disrupt.  Everyone sees your behavior for what it is and we are nicely saying “Not in our House”.  Here is our promise to you, we will not allow you to hyjack the conversation and take us off course.  (I am all about being straight forward and honest.  If that is your intent when you visit us, we ask you kindly to find another place where the conversation fits your needs.  If you persist we will report you to twitter-never mind the community backlash against you)

Here are guidelines on how to use #speakchat for promotion (coming soon) Are you a Speaker, Author or even PR specialist who has great education to share and want to sponsor a Speakchat?  We want to talk with you. You can email Michele here.

You convinced and ready so here are a few helpful hints to make this easier and more fun for you to participate.

You can sort all the tweets in a column when you use tweetdeck, tweetchat or tweetgrid by typing #Speakchat.

I open a separate column in tweetdeck for following the chat conversation.  You might also find it helpful to have a separate column for the host or guest that week, so we can read their questions and answers without looking through the rest of the chatter.

Whoa , you guys talk a lot and so fast I cannot keep up!

Really, do not diminish your ability if you are new, it’s like any skill you work out those muscles, which makes you stronger and better.

There does not seem to be topics I find interesting.

Great! That means we need you.  Email us and make your suggestions so we can put them on the calendar.  This is our chat, so the more you participate and suggest, the more it will meet your needs.

I am with a company and we think you might want to sponsor a chat.  Is that possible?

Maybe, connect with me Michele and let’s discuss.

As one of my favorite authors and speakers Michael Port says “P.S. I don’t charge extra for typos. They’re just my gift to you.“