Are you looking to add more speaking bookings to your calendar this year?

If you take a look at Tony Robbins’ event calendar, for example, you’re probably thinking: “I want that!”

But if your schedule is not that full yet, maybe you’re not targeting the right audience?

Improve your chances of reaching the right people by going where the majority of business people already are — the world’s biggest business-oriented social network, LinkedIn.

These important tips and how-tos will help you reach the B2B market.

Step 1: Improve your LinkedIn page

“LinkedIn measures how complete your profile is and tells you what you should keep working on. I highly suggest that solopreneur speakers pay attention to all their details. If someone is hiring you to motivate or train their employees, they want to know with whom they are doing business. The profile needs content in every single section.”

-Milena Albright, Brill Assignment

When you’re targeting businesses, you should consider LinkedIn as a major source of prospects.

Before you start to use LinkedIn to establish good connections, you should first work on your profile to ensure it is in tip-top shape.

Try to find a captivating way to write about yourself on yourprofile.

Here are some suggestions:

Start by ensuring you’ve got all the basics covered:

• Choose a good headshot
• Get a customized URL
• Write a great headline
• Craft an impactful summary.
• Share some history, specifically information about the events you’ve spoken at. Include numbers and stats, and whereever possible, ask business owners you’ve worked with to review you on LinkedIn; they can make a positive impact.

Want to go deeper into this topic? Read some of the articles below:

• Build confidence & get hired: use testimonials to get more speaking opportunities

• How to create your elevator pitch and define your “Why choose me” statement

• Self-promotion without narcissism

Step 2: Publish content

LinkedIn gives an important recommendation for best practices: post good content.

Those that post on a weekly basis double the engagement with their content. Use these posts wisely.

When you’re trying to target businesses, you have to find your niche to write about.

Even if your talks are more general and relatable to any professional (like “motivation”), it’s still important to find a focus (for example: “How to find and maintain motivation in your daily life.”)  

Creating online content requires similar efforts to creating your talks, including research, figuring out the main points, writing them out, and reviewing how the content flows.  

LinkedIn will even give you content suggestions for the audience you target. When you see what’s trending, you can get inspired by the topics, but you can also share some of those articles to maintain your activity on the platform.

Want to find out more about creating great content? Explore these articles

• How to build your reputation through influence and thought leadership

• Reach more people: cut the jargon and speak for a broader audience

• Build your speaker business: 5 ways to monetize beyond your talk

Step 3: Use LinkedIn Groups like a pro

LinkedIn is just like a big networking room, only better. You can choose who's going to be in that networking room and you can choose what you're going to say to those people by using LinkedIn Groups.

Focusing on your niche can help you harness the power of LinkedIn groups.

You won’t be able to become part of industry-specific LinkedIn groups if your profile has nothing to do with the particular industry, so only attempt to join the groups that are related to your niche.  

When you specify your targeted niche topic, make sure to mention it on your profile and show how your speeches are related to it.

You can choose one or a few industries and start joining relevant LinkedIn Groups.

There you can read and join discussions between the members. It’s a nice way to get noticed, and with patience and grace, you can start connecting with the members.

To get started, join us (and 23K+ speakers) on our LinkedIn Group? Check out “Need A Speaker / Be A Speaker”

Step 4: Grow your list of connections

So far we’ve talked a lot about engagement: you need a great profile, engaging content, and you should join and get active in the groups relevant to your niche.

You want people to trust you as an expert at what you do, so that when it comes time to start reaching out, and people click on your profile, you will be set to impress.

Another important way to grow that trust is by building a lot of relevant connections via LinkedIn.  

There are a few benefits to having many connections:

1. When someone within a specific industry sees that you have multiple respected, shared connections from within the industry, it builds your credibility in their eyes.
    
2. While the hallowed “500+” connections isn’t obligatory, you do want to have over 100. A profile with only a small handful of connection may make you seem like a novice. This being said, it can still build a lot of credibility if you have a number of influential connections, even if this number isn’ grand.
    
3. The more connections, the more people you can message with.

Of course, reaching out is not the only way to grow your base of connections.

You can also attract people to reach out to you.

Think about targeting members through sponsored content, text ads, and sponsored InMail on the LinkedIn platform.

Step 5: Message event organizers

In the same way you wouldn’t go to a networking event and introduce yourself by saying. "Hi, My name's John. Do you want me to speak at your event?" you don’t want your first message to someone on LinkedIn to be a hard sell.

Instead, start by genuinely wanting to connect with them: tell them a bit about yourself, give them something of value, and try to find out more about what they are looking for.

Then try and take the relationship offline as soon as possible. Offer to call them. If you live in the same locality, ask to meet them—this will help you quickly establish a stronger relationship with them.

Put in the effort to reap the benefits of LinkedIn

If you’re a new to mid-level speaker, you’re likely going to be the only person responsible for promoting your brand.

You will probably need to invest a fair bit of time and effort into growing your LinkedIn presence at first, but you might be surprised at how fast your presence will grow, and the rewarding connections you will begin to make.  

When you do it well, the results are worth the effort.   

We’d like to invite you to join the 23K+ speakers on our LinkedIn Group “Need A Speaker / Be A Speaker”. Find out more here.

About the Authors:

Esther Snippe is an imaginative futurist who tells new kinds of stories about the implications of emerging technologies. She has presented and performed at TED, the World Future Society Conference, Autodesk University, Merging Media, DIY Days, TEDx OCADU, and the CBC. 

Alexandra Reay is a journalist, passionate writer, and editor at AssignmentGeek. She is also a professional content writer who enjoys researching and writing on the topics of self-improvement, technology innovations, and global education development.

Disclaimer: this article includes a paid product promotion.