How Public Speaking Made Me Better at Social Media

Growing up, I was always the shy quiet kid, who sat at the back of the classroom, and only had one or two close friends. I felt like as long as I liked myself, I did not need anyone else in my life. This all changed when I decided to join my local Speech and Debate club.

Lessons from Debate Club

My local debate club taught me two things, which has helped to define who I am as a marketer, and as a social media content creator. First, debate helped me to be confident in my beliefs, and to make strong assumptions about them when talking to other people. When working in marketing, you have the chance to meet a lot of really great clients and people. Those clients have the option of working with over a dozen different marketing agencies, all across the state, yet they chose to come and speak with you. Now that you have a lead, it is up to you to then go and convince them why they should hire you. This is where public speaking comes into play. You can only show the potential client so many pieces of marketing you have done for other clients, before it starts to get repetitive. You need to be able to convince that person that not only do you have their best interests at heart, but you are able to talk in a way that would not only be persuasive to them, but if you were to jump on a conference call, be persuasive to that company's investor or board of directors.

There is a popular saying, "You may be able to talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?" This saying makes it appear as if walking the walk is the most important aspect of a job, and in a lot of positions it is. But in marketing, being able to do the job, and being able to communicate why you did it the way you did, and what changes you made, are equally important. If the client does not understand why you changed their style of social media, they may fire you as a consultant. But if you can show and tell them why this new way of doing things is better than what they were doing before, not only will they keep you, but they may also give you a raise, or recommend you to potential new clients.

Lesson Number Two

The second thing speech and debate taught me, was how to be creative. There is only so many ways you can argue increasing spending for one area, or abolishing another, before you run out of easy ideas. And in debate, those easy ideas are the most easy to counter. So in order to have the best chance of success, we would divide into two teams. One team would analyze the problem from a straightforward perspective, thinking of the easy answers. The other team would focus on the more creative side of things, fielding any and all out of the box answers or solutions. This is the team I liked to be on. Not only was my creativity free to improve something that on its surface was not supposed to be creative, but these solutions, more often than not, would end up winning us the debate, simply because, while logical, it was not something the other team would have thought of.

Then, I was able to apply what I had learned into my marketing life. If you do the same type of marketing as everyone else, you will only be as good as your competitors, not better. But, if you choose to do something that your competitors either won't, or have not thought of yet, you will not only get similar levels of engagement as them, but you may be able to surpass them.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I am not saying you need to go out and join a debate team to get better at marketing, but rather, you need to use what makes you unique and allow it to help you make unique pieces of marketing. Only by drawing on what makes you unique can you let your light shine, and create something truly remarkable.

What have you done that helps make your marketing unique? Share in the comments below!