I love Mexican food. If I could eat it every day, I would. I used to try to limit it to once a month, but I decided a couple of years ago, I exercise enough, I can eat it once a week.
When I’m in a new city or we want to try a new Mexican restaurant, I judge the place by their chile con queso.
I realize a “real” Mexican place this does not make, but I love me some chili con queso. If a restaurant doesn’t have chili con queso on the menu, I won’t eat there. If it’s not spicy, creamy, sit on the table for 15 minutes and not congeal, I won’t be back.
But if the chili con queso has just the right amount of spice and the chips are warm and salty, the restaurant is a winner in my book. An extra gold star if the entrees are as delicious and the margaritas have a kick.
Like the chili con queso test, we judge content with the same lassez faire attitude. It doesn’t matter if you’re the smartest person in the industry or the very best at what you do, if you can’t effectively express yourself in words, audio, video, or images, we judge you.
Have a crappy headline, an ugly image, or a crappy first paragraph and most of us won’t spend time with you. But if your content is spicy, teaches us a thing or two, and doesn’t fizz out by the end, we’ll gladly comment, share, and spread the word.
The same goes for speaking engagements. I recently was at a conference where I had carefully planned the breakout sessions I was going to attend. While it’s not typical of me to plan attendance in that way (I’m not very good at sitting in a room for hours listening to anyone talk ab
out anything), I decided to go with a different attitude. My goal was to get at least one blog post idea from every session. That would be a win for me.
The first day, I attended six sessions. I came away with two blog post ideas. The second day, I decided to skip a couple of sessions and attended only four. I came away with one blog post idea. Ten sessions, three blog post ideas. It didn’t even come close to my measure of success. Their chili con queso sucked.
It was pretty disappointing. The first day, I thought I was going to learn how to white label a mobile marketing program, gain new ideas to monetize content, and figure out which strategic hires to make next and how to invest into the business.
After all, that’s what the descriptions of each of those sessions promised.
Instead, the mobile marketing program was an ad for AT&T (I left after 10 minutes), in the second, the presenter read slides with bullet points with stats about content marketing (I left after 20 minutes), and the last was a panel discussion that meandered into only three questions and never got to what the session description promised. I stayed for that one, but only because lunch was included.
The new black is to get yourself on the speaking circuit. Even better if you have a book (Andy Crestodina has Content Chemistry; I co-authored Marketing in the Round with Geoff Livingston) because it allows you to increase your fee.
If you’re lucky enough to be invited to pack your clothes into a suitcase, fight the lines in security at the airport, fly for hours without any food or water, land in an exotic location like Fargo or Omaha at midnight, go on stage at 7 a.m. the next day, and then fly home, there are certain things you should remember as you plan what you’ll say for that hour you’re on stage.
Public speaking isn’t the delicious, creamy, cheesy chili con queso we get in Mexican restaurants, but you can apply the test to both the sessions you conduct and those you attend.
Do they pass?
Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a Chicago-based integrated marketing communications firm. She is the lead blogger at PR and marketing blog, Spin Sucks, co-author of Marketing In the Round, and co-host of Inside PR, a weekly podcast about communications and social media. Her second book, Spin Sucks, is due out in November 2013. Connect with her on Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
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@SocialMediaDDS LOL! I love you so much!
@sayahillman THAT is awesome! Congratulations!!
@ginidietrich I did, it went better than I ever could have imagined! My first keynote. It was an intimate room of 300 event professionals in New York.
Felt like a rockstar the rest of the day, with so many conference attendees coming up to me to share how much they loved the talk and that they want to get involved in Mac & Cheese Productions (my business).
Thanks again for the valuable insight!
@ginidietrich I had a blast! AND, I’m pretty sure that they got just the right amount of spice and the chips were warm and salty!
@SocialMediaDDS You’ll have to let me know! Are you serving queso at the end?
Awesome! Just in time for my presentation to a dental supply company’s sales team meeting on social media tomorrow! I’m pretty sure I’ve got your 6 points covered!!
xoxo
Claudia
@blfarris I would love some Chili Con Queso and chips for lunch! lol
Great post! Thanks for the insight!
@crestodina I just watched the webinar for Spin Sucks Pro we’re giving this week. At the very end, the presenter gives the audience three tweets they can send. I’m interested to see if it works!
@RobBiesenbach I always feel rude getting up and walking out, but time is a commodity for all of us. I’d rather have a conversation in the hallway and get something out of that than sit in a painful presentation.
@blfarris It’s cycling season. I blame Pete the Tapeworm.
@sayahillman Did you give your presentation? How did it go?
@KyleAkerman That is what we call, “Let me find a keyword that will drive traffic” instead of writing for human beings.
@blfarris hahah we are ordering pizza today! I’m already working on a new post about it…
You nailed it, Gini!
Regarding written content, I really hate blogs with titles that grab your attention and then don’t deliver.
Just this week I read a guest post on a very well respected and highly ranked social media blog. The title was “How to Uncover Meaningful Social Data.” Because the blog is frequently filled with great insight I thought I might learn something new and useful.
You know what the post kinda sorta did not really discuss? How to Uncover Meaningful Social Data.
It was still a decent post, but the body and the title were not well aligned so I left without having my expectations met. But I know writing good headlines (and content) is hard so I’m able to quickly forgive 🙂
Wonderful post Gini!! Very helpful. Giving a presentation next week that I’m nervous about and these tips are really good to keep in mind.
@blfarris Andy IS known as kind of a tyrant. Wouldn’t be surprised if withholding food was part of the Orbit MO.
Anyone else notice there’s a bit of a food theme on this blog of late? What if your blog was a beer? What if your talk was chili-con-queso… Doesn’t anyone feed you folks at Orbit?
Hi, Gini, fancy running into you here! Love #2 — write the description after the content. You can’t know what it’s really about until you’ve actually put it all together. You may think you know what it’s about before you start, but that almost always changes as you get into it.
Also, so many people are such bad presenters that it’s actually painful to sit through. (And this includes a lot of people who should know better — like PR people and marketers.) I need to get better at the getting up and walking out instead of just reading my phone screen.
Thanks for the delicious post, Gini! It both made me want to upgrade my presentation visuals and order some taquitos. One of the best tips here is to “Think in tweets.” Yes, this is a way to make sure the content is shareable. But if things are bite sized (like those taquitos) you’re more likely to keep your audience with you. They won’t get bored and they won’t miss the point.
So great to see you here on the Orbit blog! Next we’ll have to collaborate on an event together…and I have one in mind. 🙂