Danielle Atkins

People watching only gets you so far… and it CAN show a lot, but it’s only on actively participating can you truly understand how things work, how and why people navigate to different features and then really leverage those insights to your advantage.

Everyone has their own spin on what’s right, what’s best… but it’s important to remember your GOAL when choosing why you’re showing up on social media, and then finding the expert who aligns with those same values and goals. Some swear podcasting is BEST, others YOUTUBE, others INSTAGRAM! And the things, they’re all great for different purposes… so you must first determine WHY you’re showing up, align it with the best platform for those goals and then find experts in that particular niche. I’d go even one further and look for experts who not only understand THAT platform but also understand YOUR audience goals… marketing specialists and farmers are going to view using social for different reasons… find someone who understands that…

Outside of reading books I learn continuously through attending OTHERS speeches, webinars, sessions and observing their techniques: what made them so appealing to me (and the audience) and what turned me off to start to tune out. Books share a lot, but seeing in action on top of that and how people mold different techniques with their topics and personalities really helps drive it home and makes it easier to adapt ourselves.

It seems obvious but be sure to introduce your credibility up front: this sets the stage of WHY they should listen to you as an authority, but doing this in a more strategic way that simply reading your resume to connect with your audience. I usually like to do this through story telling an experience- this may be a humorous story or not, but it’s something they can relate to AND sets my credibility for the remainder of the talk.

You not only need to know WHO your audience is, but you also need to know the end goal of what your audience expects to get from the listening to you! For example for me if I’m at a loggers convention and im talking about the problems with women not showing up in landownership I’m going to completely miss the mark no matter how great my talk is because it’s not connecting to my audience OR what they expect to hear. I CAN still talk about lack of womens engagement but need to be sure its from the perspective of WHY it matters for the loggers: how to minimize complaints from widows, how to communicate more effectively with women customers, why it matters to THEM that more women are inheriting land, etc…

Tone can greatly change the receptivity of your message- sticking to my widow message if I am talking about understanding their grief and overwhelm in an upbeat cheerleading fast-pace voice, I will come across as insensitive and immediately be shut down mentally or even physically. That being said, tone can and should change with different portions of the talk- talking with widows my tone will be slower and lower when talking about their problems and anxiety, but I’m likely to change my tone to more upbeat and authoritative towards the end of a talk striving to empower them to take the reigns and inspire them with confidence they CAN do what I want them to do. Making sure the tone reflects the message is crucial.