Speaking - The Social Media Professor

6 Ways Professional Speakers Can Help Meeting Professionals

March 11, 2018 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Enjoyed a very enlightening talk by Deborah Gardner CMP (Certified Meeting Professional) at the monthly meeting of NSAGLAC (National Speakers Association, Greater Los Angeles Chapter). Deborah Gardner has a rich background to draw upon including qualifying for the 1980 Moscow Olympics that the US boycotted and serving as a Marine. At this meeting, however, Deborah built upon her 27 years of experience as a meeting professional and she generously shared many value nuggets in her presentation. Here follows merely a small sample in the form of six ways a professional speaker can better accommodate the needs of meeting professionals:

Respect the complexity of a Meeting Professional, speaker selection and management is merely one small piece in a much bigger puzzle. They are heavily involved in the strategic aspects of meetings and manage logistics, food and beverages, hotels, sponsors, etc. Hence, call them “meeting professionals” and not merely “meeting planners” as the latter doesn’t quite capture the depth of their profession.
Market the event on various social media platforms and produce videos sharing your enthusiasm for meeting the audience. Also ask the meeting professional about various ways in which you can help promote the meeting as they may have desired format, timeline, hashtags, etc.
Communicate in a responsive manner as meeting professionals experience very high stress levels. Answer their calls and emails in a responsive manner and let them know when you arrive, etc. Avoid big surprises on stage that you have not cleared with them beforehand. She brought up an example of a speaker who changed the topic based on the news he saw in the hotel room the night before the event which meant that his talk didn’t match the conference agenda. The meeting professional was not pleased.
Customize your talk to the industry as industry-related topics increasingly are in focus. Therefore, you may want to consider speaking more to industries in which you have more direct experience. Also, keep in mind that many people in the audience go to 5-6 events a year these days so the chances are higher that they have seen you before which means that you increasingly have to create a new presentation every time.
Engage the audience. Meeting professionals want “participants,” not merely “attendees” so find different ways to get the audience involved as this will increase the likelihood that the audience achieve the goal of true professional development. You don't want people to just passively sit back and watch your keynote. You can use exercises, props or social media during the presentation to get interaction going with the participants. However, don’t overdo the complexity in terms of technology as this could stress out the audience if they don’t understand what they are supposed to do.
Develop relationships with meeting professionals to better understand their changing needs, so now I am pleased to get to know Deborah ? This was merely a sampling of what Deborah shared with our chapter and for more knowledge about meeting professionals and what speakers need to know, look no further than to Deborah Garder!

Keynote Speaker at Public Sector Digital Transformation Conference

October 13, 2017 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Anna Bellman Niklas Myhr — Stage Selfie with Anna Bellman, Master of Ceremony

Got the opportunity to serve as a keynote speaker in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 700 public sector executives at a major digital transformation conference (eFörvaltningsdagarna & Publikom) at Stockholm International Fairs (Stockholmsmässan) in Sweden. I shared my perspectives on digital transformation with a specific focus on social media and digital communication strategies.

While I respect that many public sector executives are unlikely to jump all over the latest social media platforms and tactics, I was impressed by the curiosity shown both during my talk and in many subsequent discussions with attendees. Many of them also agreed with me that many of the same principles that apply to businesses also are relevant in the public sector such as the value of being faster than ever before with your communications such as in the following situations.

Social Media for Crisis Management

Niklas Myhr, #EFDagarna, #Publikom, Keynote speaker, digital transformation — Photo by Rikard Hällberg, Företags TV

A few years back, I worked with Orange County Government and their social media activities. One thing I remember one of their executives mention is that they strived to build a following on social media so that they would have established alternative modes of communications with the public before the big earthquake hits. That is, if you wait until a crisis situation to occur before you engage on social media, you may not have anyone finding your messages.

I also showcased the impressive efforts by various fire departments and other first responders in Orange County during the Canyon Fire 2 brushfire. Anaheim Fire & Rescue, for example, demonstrated their ability to use Twitter for continuous sharing of real-time updates with the latest news on mandatory evacuations, emergency shelters, where to bring your horses and other animals, as well as the status of their efforts to contain the fire itself.

Newsjacking and Fake News

Another reason why public sector executives may benefit from getting their updates out on various social networks in an expedient manner is that if they are not doing that, they will be more exposed to the threat by various fake news campaigns. For example, during the Las Vegas massacre, it didn't take long before fake news began appearing claiming that the event never actually occurred but was merely a conspiracy to force tougher laws on gun control. Therefore, it could be more important than before for public sector officials to get quickly get an official version of an emerging story out there to at least provide some counterbalance to various sources of fake news.

Focus on Customer Experience

Niklas Myhr, the social media professor, #efdagarna, #publikom — Photo by Patrik Koc Strömberg

Outside of crisis situations, more and more public sector executives are beginning to consider their citizenship as customers and are following the lead of the business world in trying to provide as much of a seamless customer experience as possible in dealing with various government institutions. I shared how I expect that my upcoming book The Social Customer Journey would be important in this regard. For example, the public sector would serve their citizens better by providing more options than before in terms of how you communicate with a government office. Also, that the institution is able to better serve what is needed, when it is needed, and not too much redundant information that isn't needed for the transaction in question.

Audience Interaction

One of the best parts of speaking at events is chatting with people afterwards to learn about their challenges and this conference was no exception. Se below for some people I met even including a nice testimonial by a happy attendee Lars-Erik Andersson, IT Director of Knivsta & Heby Municipalities:

Photo credits: Thanks for some of the pics by Patrik Koc Strömberg, Christina Nordström, and by Rikard Hällberg (Företags TV).

Isabella Ljungdahl och Niklas Myhr — With Isabella Ljungdahl of Hexanova Events

Niklas Myhr Helena Renström — Helena Renström from the City of Skellefteå

With Sune Lindström and Ola Lidström from City of Piteå

Niklas Myhr Anna Kelly Eva Sartorius — With Anna Kelly & Eva Sartorius

My TEDx Talk on The Modern Specialist

January 5, 2017 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Define yourself in terms of who you serve, not in terms of what you do.

I am very pleased to announce that my TEDx Talk on the role of the Modern Specialist has been published. In this talk, I share some perspectives that at times run counter to some popularly held beliefs on how to set yourself up for career success such as focusing on one thing and become really good at that. While I can see the potential benefits of such an approach, the question is what you do if you don’t know what to focus on, what your passion is, or if there is no demand for your services? Those are some of the concerns that I address and I also present an alternative perspective that I at times advice my students to embrace, the one of “The Modern Specialist.” This perspective is partially developed as a result of my summer internship in New York with Gary Vaynerchuk at Vayner Media and my talk also builds on my previous TEDx Talk at TEDxUmea.

This talk was recorded during a very special day at TEDxMissionViejo superbly managed by Stephanie Paul and where I got to engage with a very dynamic group of people composed of other speakers, audience members, and volunteers. I was proud to share the stage with my social entrepreneur student John Cefalu who spoke on making an impact in Africa and was also very pleased to see my Chapman University students volunteering and helping make the event run very smoothly to make it a tremendous experience for the audience and everyone involved! Special mentions go out to Venice Gell, Laurisa Sanchez, and Taylor Myers and the whole TedXMissionViejo Team and to Noel Witcosky and Annika Streng for helping me with research.

Lawyer and Social Media Expert Mitch Jackson honored me by attending.

TEDxMissionViejoMakeup — Getting ready, makeup time!

TEDxMissionViejo Niklas Myhr — Shot captured by my intern Annika Streng!

Social Content Marketing Talk and Master Class in Gothenburg

January 26, 2016 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Niklas Myhr, Social Content Marketing keynote, KNTNT — Niklas Myhr keynote on Social Content Marketing at KNTNT

Enjoyed quite the whirlwind day yesterday when I paid a visit to Gothenburg on Sweden’s “left coast” and had a busy program together with my good friends and hospitable local hosts Pia and Thomas of KNTNT. Under the heading Social Content Marketing, I spoke to a full house of 180 attendees for a breakfast talk and then taught a full-day Content Marketing Master Class to a high-caliber group of marketing communications managers, consultants, and executives.

Digital Success Principles with Frida Boisen

I was also very pleased that we were able to bring in two intriguing guest appearances. Leading Swedish social media expert Frida Boisen shared perspectives on how content can catch fire on social media and she particularly stressed the importance of bringing in the emotional element of communication for people to care. This and more can be found in her best-selling book Digital Succé, check it out 🙂

Content Marketing Success with Mark W Schaefer

Mark Schaefer, Content Marketing Master Class, KNTNT, Gothenburg, Niklas Myhr — Mark Schaefer guest in Content Marketing Master Class

In the afternoon Swedish time, international content marketing thought leader Mark W. Schaefer joined us for a virtual session from Knoxville, Tennessee, during which he shared the thesis he presents in his groundbreaking book The Content Code. He stressed the importance of nurturing your so-called Alpha Audience, the relatively few followers you have who are regularly sharing your content. In fact, Mark Schaefer suggests that may be doomed if you do not start worrying more about taking good care of these ambassadors as their trust and ambassadorship may be the most valuable asset you have as competition for attention will only get worse. He cited an estimate that by year 2020, the amount of content will go up another five times from today's already crowded web.

Social Media Marketing vs. Content Marketing

KNTNT Radio podcast, Thomas Barregren, Pia Tegborg, Niklas Myhr — KNTNT Radio podcast interview by Thomas Barregren and Pia Tegborg

It is not surprising that it is challenging to discuss the interrelationship between social media marketing and content marketing as both terms are relatively undefined and are also undergoing changes in terms of how they are understood over time. That being said, social media marketing encompasses communications across a wide variety of social networks and stresses the interactive nature of communications amongst a group of people whereas content marketing takes as its point of departure a piece of content that should fulfill a number of criteria such as adding value and driving profitable customer action, albeit indirectly. This is the definition of content marketing that I used in my presentation:

“Content marketing is the strategic marketing approach of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

– Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing Institute

Content Marketers becoming Professors

One aspect of content marketing that many struggle with is the extent to which they can talk about their own products and solutions in their content. While I am not going so far as saying that you are not allowed to mention your own product in your content marketing, the most effective content marketers seem to stay away from it to the largest extent possible. As a marketing professor, I have noted how content marketers are communicating and behaving more and more as professors these days as they are adding value to prospective and existing customers by teaching them ways to solve their problems irrespective of specific product purchases. It is best illustrated by the quote by Jon Ferrara of Nimble when he said:

If you teach people to fish, they’ll figure out you sell fishing poles.

– Jon Ferrara

During the day, I covered four areas in which social media marketing and content marketing are interdependent and discussed how each can benefit from the other:

Social Content Marketing

Listening on Social Media for Content Marketing Ideas. What are the questions they ask on social media? On what platforms do they search for information? What are their frustrations?
Connecting to an audience suitable to your business using relevant content. By offering content that is particularly valuable to your target market, you can both attract the right type of audience to connect with you and identify themselves such as giving you their email address at the same time as you may even repel the wrong type of audience that sees little interest in the content that you offer.
With recent Chapman University grad Filip Westlander, his girlfriend Josefine Berglund, and my cousin Per Ericson

Engaging. How can you get your followers to not only consume but also share your content on their social media platforms?
Creating. How can you motivate your followers to contribute their content for you to use on your platforms?

So, have you wondered about the relationship between social media marketing and content marketing? I am curious to learn about your thoughts and experiences so please let me know in the comments below!

Frida Boisen guest in Content Marketing Master Class, KNTNT, Niklas Myhr — Frida Boisen's guest lecture during my Content Marketing Master Class

The Myhr Family, Piteå, Sweden, KNTNT, Niklas Myhr — The Myhr Family back in the Piteå days (me with blue pants)

With KNTNT team Thomas Barregren, Pia Tegborg, Fabian Sörqvist — Thanks to the KNTNT team of Thomas Barregren, Pia Tegborg, and Fabian Sörqvist

4 Keys to Preparing a Successful Keynote Presentation

March 7, 2015 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Niklas Myhr The Social Media Professor Professional Speaker In recent years, I have been invited to speak on developments in social media and digital marketing in front of many audiences outside my regular classrooms. I very much enjoy these opportunities and it also forces me to stay up-to-date to be relevant out there in the “real world” which I believe benefits my regular students as well. By interacting with audiences not only during a talk but also before and after taking the stage, I develop new relationships and get a chance to learn from their experiences and insights in their industries and professions.

One of the keys to a successful keynote presentation is obviously how you prepare before the actual event and so far I have been fortunate to rate amongst the best speakers at various events and even as the best one out of 75 speakers at the Swedish Web Days in 2013. In this blog post, I will highlight a few pointers that have worked out for me:

Interview the organizers in depth. The first step is to schedule a session with the organizers to ask them about their agenda and their objectives with the event to ensure that your talk falls in line with the overall theme and their possible change agenda if it is a company-specific event. During this conversation you should also take the opportunity to ask as many questions as you can about the expected audience such as where they come from, what companies they work for, what headaches they have, how old they are, what they are likely familiar with related to your topic, etc. One of the easiest things which is yet appreciated is to customize your presentation to at least talk about the location or the company you're at, such as if you have any prior experiences with them. This can often be light-hearted and you can reference events such as when I went to Gothenburg to attend a David Bowie concert.
Learn about the industry and context of the audience on your own via contacts and online research. I have been exposed to a big variety of contexts as I have spoken for companies big and small, to for-profit companies, to non-profit organizations, to government agencies, to city governments, to executives, to marketing professionals, to small business owners, to Swedish moms, etc. While audiences share some characteristics across the board in terms of what they want out of a keynote presentation, they can also vary widely in some respects.
Learn about the other speakers. Another thing that you can do is to ask and inquire about the other speakers on the program to understand more than what is often publicly available on an event website. Then you can learn how your presentation fits in the overall scheme of things. You can check out the other speakers on YouTube, their blogs, books, etc., in order to ensure that you maximize the value that you provide in your part while building upon what the participants will learn from the others. You can also ask the organizers if they have seeded any particular talking points to the other speakers that may be different from the ones that you have been assigned.
Network with the other speakers. Potentially you could also reach out to the other speakers beforehand and express an interest in seeing them in connection with the event. You could simply network with them beforehand via social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Also, some organizers of big events invite speakers to informal dinners or get-togethers the night before the event and this is usually both enjoyable and a great opportunity to network with professional speakers that may help you land your next gig. Just remember to try to help them first 🙂 This can also make you relax a little bit because the next day when you get up on stage, you could have some new friends on your side that could have been more intimidating to have in the room had you not gotten a chance to speak with them beforehand.

Good luck with your own speaking and please let me know if you have any other tips!

7 Secrets to the Socratic Method in an MBA Case Class

March 6, 2015 by Niklas Myhr 1 Comment

For quite some time, I have been trying to adopt Socratic teaching in my MBA classes by asking questions rather than lecturing so that students can learn more by gradually coming up with insights themselves.

I got my Ph.D. at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, where basically 100% of MBA classes are based on the case study methodology which is consistent with the Socratic method that the university's founder Thomas Jefferson in turn learned from his mentor William Small at the College of William & Mary.
I also wrote a case study Henk Learns to Swim about my self-lived experiences using the Socratic method in an Executive Education setting.
I have participated in numerous teaching seminars with Socratic teaching as an important area such as at Babson College Executive Education and while teaching at Tulane University, some Harvard professor I don't remember the name of came down to New Orleans to profess the virtues of the Harvard Case Method based on Socratic teaching.

So, do I feel that I master the art of asking questions to foster learning? No, not by a long shot. Yet, I believe that my best classes are those when the Socratic magic happens and everything just works the way they should. That is also why I am forever trying to improve in this area and would love it if Socrates were to come by and sit in on one of my MBA classes to give me some pointers.

In the meantime, here are some “secrets” that I have learned so far that are critical for a successful case discussion to take place:

Identify 3 or 4 key learning points that I have printed out in large capital letters in front of me so that I ensure that I cover each one of those before classtime is over.
Be flexible in terms of the order by which the learning points are covered. The responses you get from students may take you in an unexpected direction and cover an area that you perhaps had planned to discuss much later.
Be patient waiting for a response and stare people down. When you feel that the silence is becoming almost unbearable, then be quiet for five more seconds. This is very difficult and I still fail to adhere to this principle many times as it is very tempting to kill such a silence with “the answer” even when those seconds represented the time students perhaps needed to come up with their own conclusion.
Talk to students who tend to talk without getting called upon and explain to them that it is important that they allow others to think before they start offering their views.
Call on everybody, not just the ones who raise their hands. The bigger the diversity of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences, the richer and better the discussions.
Encourage opposing views yet strive to foster and maintain a respectful tone in the classroom to encourage broad participation.
Provoke students who have very strong opinions with sharp questions to probe deeper into their rationales so that they and others better can understand where their opinions came from.

Perhaps, another point could be added which is to be curious and enjoy learning yourself! So, what do you think? What have you learned from your favorite professors when it comes to teaching style that I and others can learn from?

Picture: “David – The Death of Socrates detail” by Tableau de Charles Matthew Griego, “La mort de Socrate”. – détail dérivé de (detail from) : David_-_The_Death_of_Socrates.jpg. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Speaking on Social Media in Gothenburg and Prague Book Raffle

March 3, 2015 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

In January, I very much enjoyed the honor of making a keynote presentation on Trends in Digital Marketing and Social Media in Gothenburg, Sweden. The event was professionally organized and promoted by the leading-edge content marketing agency KNTNT and the Marketing Association of Gothenburg (pic credit!) and I got to speak to a full house of 185 very engaged attendees in a large movie theater.

While speaking, I promised a signed copy of Jonah Berger's excellent book Contagious: Why Things Catch On to someone signing up for my email newsletter that day. Below you can see the video of how I determined the winner a couple of days later in a hailstorm on Prague's Charles Bridge! I was in Prague to teach in Chapman University's Prague MBA program run in collaboration with Anglo-American University. If you are the lucky winner revealed in the video, please shoot me an email with your address unless I manage to find you first, at least I should have your email address somewhere 🙂

Disclosure: Some of the links on this website are so-called “affiliate links” but please note that I only recommend products or services that I either use to satisfaction personally or am confident will add value to my readers based on endorsements by people I trust.

On Stage with Gary Vaynerchuk

May 11, 2012 by Niklas Myhr 4 Comments

At the Nordic eCommerce Summit 2012 in Stockholm, Sweden, I served on a panel interviewing Gary Vaynerchuk on his take on the value of social media for ecommerce with subtopics such as social commerce, the dying middleman, and personal branding. Please check out the video!