Category: Curated Content

Hick’s Law states that the more choices we face, the harder it is for us to make a selection. Perhaps best explained in the terrific book The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz, Hick’s Law is why you stand slack-jawed when trying to make a cereal selection at Kroger: too. many. kinds. of. cereal.

Increasingly, we try to shortcut our decision-making by relying upon aggregate opinions of other people who have already experienced the thing we seek. Psychologically, this is what powers ratings and reviews sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, ApartmentRatings.com, RealSelf.com (plastic surgery reviews), and the hundreds of other sites that collect opinions and present them with one- to five-star scores.

The companion trend giving rise to these sites is our relative distrust of messaging from companies and organizations and our comparative embrace of the feelings of our fellow humans. Oft-cited research from BrightLocal says that more than 80 percent of people believe at least some online reviews as much as they trust recommendations from friends and family members. Companies, on the other hand, are trusted about half the time.

I suspect our reliance on ratings and… Read More

When you’re just starting out as a public speaker, it can be a challenge to find actual speaking gigs. In the past, speakers had to rely on sending out cold emails or reaching out to former colleagues to get invites to industry events and conferences.

But social media has made finding speaking gigs far simpler.

Here are some ways you can begin leveraging social media to land speaking gigs:

LinkedIn for landing speaking gigs

Not only is LinkedIn great for networking with other professionals in your industry, but your LinkedIn profile has a better chance of ranking in the search results than your own personal website pages. This is beneficial and allows event organizers to find you easily. That is, as long as you:

Optimize your keywords to reflect your expertise

What are public speakers, really, if not subject matter experts? When event organizers search for speakers, they are searching for people who have knowledge on a certain topic.

For this reason, it’s important that you use specific keywords related to your expertise throughout your profile, particularly in sections like your summary and job descriptions.

Not sure what keywords to use?

Think from the perspective of an… Read More

The influence of social media is present in nearly every aspect of your lives…

Especially when it comes to business, where it is arguably changing the game each day. In the past, companies could use their influence to convert potential consumers through paid ads or some other marketing strategy. Social networks have changed all of that, which is best evident by the recent emergence of influencer marketing.

People no longer turn to companies to inform them about what they want or need. They look to other people, people whose influence and expertise regarding a certain industry is valued among the users. Take for example, YouTube vloggers. They have millions of followers, their videos have hundreds of millions of views, and companies are lining up to collaborate with them. And it’s not just YouTube. It’s pretty much the same story when it comes to Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.

As you can see, the focus has shifted to individuals, and people respond better to being addressed directly, as opposed to being served some marketing strategy by a faceless company. This is definitely the era of influencers, so let’s take a look at 11 ways you can make infl… Read More