It’s a fact: Social media and leadership keynote speakers are now linked. Every category from motivational speakers to business speakers use social media to promote themselves. There are blogs from leadership speakers, inspirational speakers, technology speakers, and more. Speakers have fan pages on Facebook and they Tweet, but what happens in the age of democratization when the audience can speak back to the speaker?
What is the expectation for how speakers respond when attendees can quickly disagree with their message? We’ve all been in a meeting when one attendee dominated the conversation with questions and comments that were not relevant to the group. How much leeway the meeting leader allows tells everyone else present to either expect a great experience or gives permission to tune out since it no longer matters to them.
The same is true with social media. Already there are some speakers who welcome real-time text input on the platform from attendees. Other than the initial “cool” factor to watch the give and take, don’t we run the risk of having the discussion go seriously sideways if it is not carefully controlled?
The Pandora’s box once opened it impossible to shut, and there is no happy ending of trapping hope inside like in the original Greek tale.
Motivational speakers are going to find that Social Media may not matter much if it is just used for free publicity. It does hold huge potential and probable discourse by allowing others to actively and publicly comment about your message. As an attendee – what do you have to say? As a speaker – how are you prepared to respond? The why of social media has been established. Now we all focus on the how.
Tags: keynote speaker, leadership keynote speaker, social media