/Learning

7 ways speakers can use transmedia to grow and engage their audience

avatarTechnology offers speakers, authors and experts an opportunity to spread their messages across multiple media channels.  A skillful pairing of content with a virtual platform can unfold your story further and create a unique experience for your audience. I described the concept of transmedia that uses technology and community engagement to create multi-dimensional stories in my previous blog post.

Speakers can leverage cross-media platforms to increase the impact of their narratives. Here are 7 ways you can use transmedia to grow and engage your audience:

1. Create a series of comics with the main characters of your story that expand on the material in your presentation.  For example, if you chose to edit out certain parts of your presentation, you can bring them back in the comics format. Invite your audience to subscribe to your virtual comics series to call back to and further unfold your presentation ideas so that your audience could continue learning from you through the comics updates.

2. Develop an assessment based on your expert content that allows your audience to identify their avatar, or type, and guide them to the content that is custom-designed for their specific avatars.  Your audience will be more likely to engage with the material that they find relevant to their needs. You can generate a QR code that will take your audience to the assessment and include it in your printed materials to distribute during live presentations.

3. Create an animation or a scenario-based video to illustrate one of the main points in your presentation. Check out this beautifully animated RSA Short, in which Dr. Brené Brown explains empathy. You can use such animations in workshops, webinars and your own marketing.

4. Use art, illustrations, and props to present your ideas. Here is how Brad Heckman used his own drawing during his TEDx Talk on Mindfulness in the Midst of Conflict at Columbia Teachers College, which is now available in the video format.

5. Develop a blog series based on your expert content. Such blog series can include the background information about your characters, visual representations of the scenes from your stories, audience surveys, puzzles and other game elements, quests and challenges that encourage your audience to participate and offer rewards to active community members.  You can invite the audience to apply the strategies you share to various scenarios introduced through such blog series.

6. Design physical artifacts based on your presentation content, such as postcards, bookmarks, stickers, pins, and calendars with your quotes. You can distribute them at your live presentations or include them with your speaker package for event planners.  You can invite your audience to recreate unique elements of your expert content as drawings, clay figures or origami during your workshops and use them as anchors to improve the recall of the material.

bookmarks

7. Collect brief opinions, testimonials or comments from your audience by using video-sharing applications, such as Instagram or Vine. Feature them with the participants’ permission on your blog as a way to promote your presentations and workshops or generate a discussion about a particular topic.

These are just some possibilities of how your story can be told in different formats across multiple platforms.  We can help you bring your own transmedia project to reality through Bookphoria multimedia solutions. Apply for our free exploratory session to learn more at
http://bookphoria.com/register-for-your-complimentary-consultation/

consultationad

By | 2014-02-03T19:15:12+00:00 February 3rd, 2014|Learning, Public Speaking|1 Comment

How to create your multimedia author or speaker bio

Media Impact QuotientOur goal at Bookphoria is to entice more authors, speakers and experts to explore the world of multimedia as a gateway to more dynamic and engaging presentations, growing readership and audience, greater impact and multiple income streams for your business. We want to give you practical tips and tools to start using multimedia in your book promotions and your business.

Bookphoria is all about learning and implementing your ideas.  To infuse your multimedia journey with some extra motivation, we are introducing a game (and reward) element to our Bookphoria blog series.  Watch the video and stay tuned to find out more.

First, let me ask you: “How do you buy books?” Chances are that you go online or to your local book store already with a book title in mind because somebody told you about the book or you read and enjoyed other books by the same author.  Fewer people nowadays have the luxury of wondering into a bookstore, browsing the shelves and finding something new to read.  Most people buy when they already have their next book in mind.  What does it mean to you as an author? You want to be that author that other people heard about from their friends and colleagues, in radio and TV interviews, on social media. In other words, you want to stand out from the crowd of other authors in similar genres and industries. You want your future readers know who you are, what books you have written and why. Before they learn from you, they need to learn about you.

This brings me to the topic of today’s video: the author bio (and if you are a speaker, it also applies to your speaker bio or speaker reel.)  Where do you usually find an author bio? On the book cover, that’s where! I am holding the book “Golden Climate in Distance Learning” co-authored by Dr. Marina Kostina and see her bio on the cover. But didn’t I just say a few seconds ago that your prospective readers should already know about you before they even see your book cover? If you are a speaker, you bio is typically read by event organizers, and as you probably agree, it rarely has en effect of a red carpet introduction.  So, what do you do? I challenge you to think about creating your own unique, exciting, dynamic, multimedia author or speaker bio in the video format. Your multimedia bio can include:

  • Video and audio clips from your book signings and speaking engagements;
  • Video testimonials from your readers;
  • You own narration of your bio and your mission;
  • Photos from various events;
  • Slides with pertinent information about your business.

Before you start pulling all these pieces of information together, however, I want you to come up with the main theme of your bio.

  • How do you want your readers to remember you?
  • What are the main attributes of you brand that you want to convey to your readership and audience?
  • Why should people care to read your books or listen to your presentations?
  • What do you stand for as an author or speaker?

As you ponder these questions, distill your ideas into a crisp and catchy statement that is memorable and shareable. It can become a theme for your video bio that will help you create a compelling story in in a digital format.

For example, as The Brain Alchemist and a certified World Class Speaking coach, I show presenters how to “Link and sync brains through storytelling.”  This is one of my themes. I also use the metaphor “Melt the ICE” to create Impact, Connection and Engagement (ICE is an acronym that is easy to remember).

It is now your turn to come up with your multimedia author bio theme. Share your ideas in the comments below. As promised, here is the game plan. Your catchy theme submissions will qualify you to receive our Bookphoria reward points, otherwise known as “bookmarks.” 1 theme submission = 1 bookmark. You have to email your submissions to info@bookphoria.com. As you accumulate your bookmarks for doing the fun work (more challenges to come in our future blog posts), you become eligible to get special discounts and gifts from Bookphoria, and most importantly, you start developing your own invaluable content for your bright multimedia future. Are you game?

Author Bio

 

By | 2014-01-16T13:45:11+00:00 January 16th, 2014|Books, Learning, Public Speaking|0 Comments

5 Steps to Build Virtual Presence Through Multimedia

VALVEMarketing experts, like Seth Godin and others, predict that books and expert content have to move more and more into the digital realm to adapt to how people interact with information. We already saw it when Oprah and Brené Brown launched an e-course based on Brené Brown’s book “The Gifts of Imperfection.” That is going to be a big trend in the years to come. However, for many authors, speakers and experts, it is still an enigma how to successfully utilize multimedia without wasting a lot of time and money and how to ensure their story is unified across various platforms rather than presenting a series of fragmented messages.

This video will demonstrate a 5- step system for creating successful virtual presence through mutlimedia that my business partner and I developed for our Bookphoria project. Enjoy!

By | 2014-01-14T22:19:55+00:00 January 14th, 2014|Communication, Learning|0 Comments

Storytelling 2.0: a mystery singer, a shoe and a conflict.

Happy New Year!

What is your most daring business-related vision for 2014 and beyond? I will share one of mine with you. I just submitted a book chapter on transmedia storytelling for speakers. Transmedia storytelling is a novel concept for many.  Here is a short video that explains it:


Having worked in the peacemaking and conflict management field, I would love to generate projects that can teach conflict management skills through transmedia. I plan to develop transmedia content myself as a speaker and trainer.  Through Bookphoria, we work with authors to bring their expert content into multimedia.

What if we could create a transmedia narrative that is not about a mystery singer and a shoe, but rather about a conflict?  Every good story has a conflict. We all have seen enough of venting about conflicts on social media. In contrast, our “caught-in-conflict” transmedia story can engage the audience members to solve a conflict by using their existing skills and extra help they may get along their journey from skillful professionals. The transmedia story may  include videos and narratives of effecting peacemaking, as well as different scenarios to explore. The audience members become active participants and digital storytellers themselves. People can play and learn!

OK, this is an example of my vision of the future of conflict management training. How can digital storytelling become part of your vision?

Share your daring vision in the comments below!

P.S. Bookphoria offers a free PDF of my ebook “FANology Playbook: 27 Brain-Friendly Activities to Turn Virtual Friends and Foes into Fans.” Get it HERE.

Multiply Your Impact & Income Through Packaging Your Brand Online (The Right Way)

MYI1

A few years ago, I conducted a teleseminar titled “Leveraging the Web to Grow Your Dispute Resolution Practice” for the New York State Dispute Resolution Association.  Its premise was that conflict resolution professionals loved their work but often struggled when it came to marketing their services.  In that teleseminar, I discussed how no-cost to low-cost technology could help conflict resolution professionals build long-term trusting relationships with their clients and prospects and even create passive income streams while they shared their expertise and valuable experience with a wider audience.

The topic of information products is even hotter these days when so much of our knowledge is acquired online. That is why I am especially honored to share the work of Dr. Marina Kostina, founder and CEO of Wired@Heart, who is an expert in transcending distances online and helping business owners leverage their time and expertise through online courses and products.  Maybe, now is the time to package all your experience and wisdom into a product that can make you extra income around the clock. Find out how you can do it in today’s post.

The author of today’s post is our guest blogger Dr. Marina Kostina, founder and CEO of Wired@Heart.

 Why go online?

You love your clients.

You love connecting and engaging with them.

And you’d love being able to make a difference on a larger scale.

But there is only one of you! And that means that no matter what, your impact (and income) will always be limited.

We live in a very exciting time, as there are literally billions of online businesses nowadays.

However, 95% of online businesses fail and they fail in a matter of months!

These statistics tell us two very important things:

1) Small business owners finally realize that the online environment has tremendous potential for impact, profitability, and building the lifestyle of their dreams.

2) Most online businesses fail, and fail super-fast because they do not know how to bring their brand online in an effective way.

Many “business gurus” promise that designing an info product will solve all your financial frustrations, magically attract lots of clients, and ultimately will help you build a lifestyle of your dreams. I strongly believe that most info products experts are missing the KEY ingredient: building connection and engagement in cyberspace.

How to make your brand shine online the right way:

After 10 years of working online and conducting research on online interactions for my doctorate dissertation, I know one thing for sure: connection and engagement is THE KEY to success in cyberspace! I believe that an engaged client is a happy client. It is a client who will keep on buying your products, develop a sense of identity with your brand, will produce great results that he will gladly share with others, and will become your biggest fan and an advocate for your business!

There are 5 types of connection that businesses need to foster while bringing their brand online:

Strategy # 1: Building Client-Client Connection

The client-client type of engagement is where clients engage with each other, creating an online community. Often, such communities are considered to be a “bonus” to an online product. I argue that developing such communities is a MUST. You can easily create a community of like-minded individuals even with self-paced, downloadable products by providing an opportunity to access an online forum, or maybe creating a private Facebook group where your clients can interact and share their experiences, questions, and success stories.

Strategy # 2: Building Client-Mentor Connection

The secret of engagement is this: you need to find a way of making your trainees feel that they are involved in a learning process that they own, one that they have helped to construct, and that they are working on a piece of work that is relevant to their lives and interests.  They are searching for information and finding in it what is of most interest and relevance for their piece of work, reporting the progress of their work to others, and benefiting from the feedback.  They are giving constructive input that can help fellow participants clarify concepts and arguments in their work, being producers of knowledge rather than consumers of it, and having a hand in their destiny and living creatively as they progress through the program.

Strategy # 3: Building Client-Content Connection

Client-content engagement refers to the client’s accessing the content of the course or a program. You have to consciously and continuously facilitate discussions, and guide your clients toward the program goals. Remember, this is not a mentorship approach in which you tell your clients where to go to find answers; rather, you encourage them to explore the parameters of an issue, raise questions, and go to the program content and other valid sources of information to find their own answers.

Strategy #4: Building Client-Platform Connection

A Learning Management System (LMS), an interactive video, or a downloadable PDF series – are all important in the learning process: it is a part of the learning community, as your clients must engage with the technical platform that delivers your product. As the mentor, your responsibility is to facilitate interaction between the platform and the client. In order to minimize early dropouts because of technology, you should help your clients with navigation tools by creating a short video or a detailed PDF cheat sheet that explains how to interact with the platform, download a product or post a comment in a discussion forum. You can also develop problem solving queries in which you can invite clients’ comments on the culture of online learning, its strengths and its limitations, and ask for suggestions on how their current learning experience might be improved.

Strategy #5: Building Client-Learning Process Connection

Clients need to feel that the learning process respects their needs and that they are trusted to have a say in what they learn and how: they need to feel that they have agency and that you are fostering their autonomy. Explain to the clients the basics of the online interactions, where each participant creates a new identity and information might be miscommunicated more easily than in face-to-face interactions. Delayed response and technology might create a sense of isolation. When the clients are aware of the challenges of the online environment and have the tools to deal with these challenges, they will less likely become frustrated with the program and will not lose their motivation.

In conclusion, if you want to multiply your impact and income, you MUST bring your brand online! Imagine not having to worry about attracting new clients. Imagine creating a referral powerhouse where your satisfied clients spread the word about you! (Remember, people would more likely buy a product recommended by their friends).

I know that the process might sound scary for many of you.

I created a FREE training session: “Multiply Your Impact and Income Online” that will be held online on April 4, 2013 @ 7:30 pm.

In this training you will discover 3 simple steps to:

  1. Big Idea: Finding your product’s main idea that will instantly connect with your clients
  1. Design: Weaving connection and engagement into the design of your product
  1. Delivery: Building connection and engagement during delivery of your product

Sound interesting? You will find more information here:

Register Here

I cannot wait to see you!

MYI3

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which I receive a commission if you make purchases.

 

By | 2013-03-28T19:02:39+00:00 March 28th, 2013|Communication, Conflict Management, Learning|0 Comments