1. SEO
2. PPC
3. Facebook

So, lets just jump right in and review the last four.

4.  Twitter

In simple terms Twitter is a social networking and micro blogging service which allows its users to send cryptic messages known at tweets. When one Twitter user subscribes to another Twitter user, this is known as followers.

Twitter is a very young company which got underway in March of 2006. It was the brainchild of young Jack Dorsey, an entrepreneur and software designer. At the 2007 Austin music festival known as South by Southwest (SXBW), the Twitter people placed plasma screens in the hallways that streamed Twitter messages. It was an instant success and was touted by bloggers, and the panelists and speakers in attendance. Instantly Twitter messages tripled from 20,000 per day to 60,000 per day.

What does this mean for a business?  This small messaging service (SMS) gives every business the opportunity to send newsy updates along with a link to their main website. Or to their FaceBook fan page. A following on Twitter can be considered an extension of other strategies listed here. This is not a venue to be taken lightly since new users are signing up at the rate of 300,000 per day. And over 30% are Tweeting on mobile devices.

How can you make the best use of Twitter?

1. Get Good Followers. You will gain Twitter followers in the same way you build like fans for your FB fan page. Build relationships, offer value, and maintain integrity. Do that and you will gain respect and people will follow you on Twitter.
2. Get Re-Tweeted. A re-tweet is when you find a tweet that you feel has good information and you send it to your followers. This is great for the original Twitterer, but also sets you up as one who offers value-laden Tweets and not just the ordinary drivel. Likewise, when your original Tweets are content-rich and offer value, your followers may send your tweets to their followers.  How do you get re-tweets?  Ask for them. Just as you ask your FB fans to refer you to others, encourage your Twitter followers to do the same.

5.  Link Building

Yet another way to dominate your market in the coming year is to utilize a system of link building. Search engines recognize a link from other sites to your site as a vote of confidence in who you are and what you offer. The trick is to make sure those links are reputable sites from reputable companies and that it matches the theme of your own business. Hopefully, the linking site will be one that is ranked highly in Google.

Before the 2000’s, link exchanges were a way of life on the Internet. When the importance of search engine optimization came into play, link building took a new turn. Because high rankings directly related to links, link building became a business and also a technique for Spam. Links were connected with sites that had no relationship with one another – all for the prize of a high SE ranking.

The process has gone through a number of stages of refinement until it has come back to the original process when related businesses, organizations and individuals exchange links for the betterment of all concerned.

Links are still very important in the scheme of SEO. Here are a couple of pointers on how to do it well.

1. Get relevant links. Links to your website that are in no way related to your theme or business can be counter-productive. Some link-building strategies can be harmful to your SEO campaign. This is an area in which it’s important to tread softly.
2. Use article and press release marketing to gain links. A great way to attain viral growth, gain exposure, and bring outside links to your website is to write and publish articles and press releases. Both of these venues allow for contact information to be added.

Readers who are seeking further information will then link to your website. The more links the higher your SE ranking. With the recent “Panda” update the usefulness of this strategy could be short lived in the future.We are not talking about the article marketing that uses software to change a few words and then shoot it out to hundreds of sites. This is spam. What we are talking about is writing quality content for legitimate sites. Using only one article on one website.

6.  Social Book Marking

You may have noticed icons on web pages – some are easily recognizable such as Twitter and FaceBook. The others, the ones not so familiar are social bookmarking widgets. If you like the site, or an article or blog, you click on the icon. This publishes a backlink to your site which designates it as a popular social media site. That, in turn, increases search engine rankings.

Social Bookmarking first started in 1996 with a site known as itLists.com. This was the first site to offer the idea of shared bookmarks.  Several others followed; however none were able to make headway before the dot com crash of 2001. It was not until 2003 that del.icio.us launched a social bookmarking site which expanded quickly. Soon other companies followed such as Digg and Stumbleupon.

The major benefit of social bookmarking is that it allows your visitors to promote your site for you. Your job is to provide your site visitors with value-laden content. Let them do the rest.

1. Bookmark sites you like. Don’t just wait for others to find you. Interact with other sites and bookmark those you “connect with.”  Leave comments and make your presence known.
2. Share with clients and friend using bookmarking services. There are many bookmarking services available on the Net. It’s easy enough to search terms such as “Social Bookmarking” or “Social Networks” in order to find the one that best suits you and your needs. Some sites have these services rated so you can choose the ones that are the most effective.

7.  Email Marketing

Direct marketing has been around since the 1960s. Email direct marketing is a much younger marketing strategy. Marketing on the internet, especially via email first got underway in the mid-nineties. Marketers quickly saw this as an easy way to assess a growing audience without the massive expense of postage.

Fast forward a few years when “spam filters” greatly slowed the process. The high amount of bounces and mail not even opened has discouraged many marketers causing them to avoid this marketing strategy altogether. This is sad, because email is still one of the more effective ways of communicating with customers and potential customers. After all, it is free.

The key is to understand the changes that are coming about in technology and use these to your advantage and still make email marketing work for you. Below are a couple of tips:

1. Integrate Email with Social Media. Yes, everyone is Tweeting. Yes, everyone is dialoging on FaceBook. And through these mediums a business might be able to offer a coupon or a quick glance at their benefits. However, a business can use these as a bridge or connection, to bring those potential customers to an email. In the full scope of things, an email is the only online method of delivering more detailed information and offers. A newsletter, for example. Or educational information about your products or services. Email messages can also lead readers to your social sites thus further integrating the two.
2. Be Personable. One of the greatest advantages of social media is it allows you to become a real person or entity online. Transfer this over to email marketing. Let your personality, or the personality (brand) of your business, come through loud and clear. People want to do business with people they know, like and trust. That can happen through consistent sending of content-rich, value-laden, personable emails.

There you have it – seven strategies for powerful online marketing.  Use them and you can dominate your niche.  Ignore them, and you’ll be no different than the company who continued to manufacture buggy whips while cars were chugging down the street. The choice is yours.

What do you think – agree or disagree – would you add more to the list? Let me know.

It’s a similar scenario today. There are businesses that have everything going for them – or so it seems – but they’ve failed to get a grasp… on the changes that technology is bringing to the world of marketing. Will your business be left in the dust as venues such Social Media and Search Engine Optimization go zooming past?

There are a number of areas of online marketing that demand your attention in order for you to dominate your market. You may not use all of these at the outset, but the following list may trigger ideas of where you can begin.

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Anyone out there remember Alta Vista?  How about Excite?  Or HotBot?  Those are search engines that were once at the forefront of the known search engines in the mid-to-late nineties. Just as with any emerging industry, some fell by the wayside and new more successful ones emerged. Now Google and Yahoo! are the two most accepted search engines.

The practice of optimizing a search engine came into play even in those early days. The term “search engine optimization” was used as early as 1997. Marketers quickly learned that high rankings on search engines meant they were at the top of the page where they would be found quickly! Those who failed to grasp this concept might find their listings buried on page 50!

The importance of high rankings has not diminished. This in spite of the newer technology strategies such as FaceBook and Twitter. People are still searching the web (now in record numbers), and the strategy to be listed high on a Google search page is still vital for a business to gain needed exposure.

Two basic strategies for increasing the SEO of your site:

• Select the right keywords. Keyword selection cannot be chosen haphazardly and still be effective. It requires a knowledge of what terms and phrases are most commonly searched for. Past that, it requires a knowledge of how to place the key words in the copy. Stuffing copy full of keywords, to the point that it makes no sense, is a sure way to lose customer confidence.
• Use correct title tags. The title tag is an HTML tag that describes a specific web page – but is not visible on the actual page. Why is this little bit of text important?  Because it usually becomes the text link to the page found in search engine listings. Additionally, the title text is recognized by the search engine when indexing pages. This is a great place to use keywords and phrases.

2.  PPC (Pay-Per-Click)

We here at RevBuilders find that one of the online strategies least understood by the businesses we serve is the use of Pay Per Click, or PPC advertising. PPC is used on websites where the advertiser pays the host only when their ad is clicked. It is also used on search engines where keywords and phrases are used in an ad that is relevant to their selected market.

The idea of paying for keywords and phrases first came about in 1998. Yahoo offered such services when they purchased Overture Services, Inc. (formerly GoTo.com). GoTo.com was actually the original company that proved such a concept would truly work. Later the name Overture was dropped and it became Yahoo Search Marketing. Google quickly entered the arena with their version called AdWords.

While there is a cost involved, when used correctly PPC can precisely aim at target markets and create a great draw to a website. The uninitiated, however, can run through a pile of money very quickly with little or no profitable results. The following tips may help guide you in the right direction.

• Write Grabber Ads. Writing effective ads for PPC is a learned art. You won’t start off writing the best ad. It takes time and patience. The good thing is, you can change the wording of your ads on an ongoing basis. PPC advertisers have discovered that sometimes the change of one word can make a vast difference in number of clicks. Mention benefits in your ad as opposed to simply telling what your product or service is. People want to know what’s in it for them.
• Have Relevant Landing Pages. Do your landing pages serve up what your ad promised?  If not, say good-bye to your visitors. You did well with the ad. The searcher clicked. Now they are at your landing page. You have only a few seconds to grab their attention and hold them there. It’s a good idea to create the pages titles and the web copy to include the key phrase used in the ad. This allows your searcher to make a connection between why they clicked your ad, and what you offer on the landing page. When the landing page is heavy with copy that doesn’t seem to match the PPC ad, you’ve just wasted your advertising dollars.

3.  FaceBook

The social media site of FaceBook was first started by a group of Harvard dorm roommates in 2004. From there it expanded to other colleges as a means for young people to communicate with one another. Within a few years it has grown to the most-visited sites on the Internet, crowding out Google.

In the beginning it was merely a way to socialize, meet new people, and contact old friends. However, it is quickly becoming an important aspect of online marketing for all types of businesses.

FaceBook offers the ability to advertise with precise niche target marketing. This is because people offer much of their personal information on their profiles, thus allowing the demographics to be easily de-coded and used by advertisers.
Any business not considering how to best use FaceBook as part of their online marketing strategy is definitely still in the buggy whip mindset. Rather than a profile page, a business creates a FaceBook fan page. Nike has a fan page, as does Ford and General Motors. This is the tip of the iceberg of what’s happening in this venue. Here are tips to get started:

• Get Likes. The official FaceBook Nike fan page has over three million likes. While your business may never reach that number, still you can build a close following by using this strategy. It’s possible to incentivize the likes on your fan page by offering a free report or coupons. Be creative here. This is all about building relationships.
• Have Power Fans. Your FB fan page may draw many visitors, but the most valuable ones will be those who actually interact with you. These are your power fans. They may leave a comment, or add your link to their page, or refer your page to all of their friends and business acquaintances. There are many ways to develop your power fans. The most obvious will be your satisfied clients who have used your products or services. Next might be complementary business entities that are not in direct competition with you.

There you have it 3 of the 7 strategies to help you dominate your market. Next post will reveal the final 4 strategies. Any thoughts? Do you have any input on where businesses should be investing their time and money? Can you guess what the next four will be?

The RevMan

Are Forums Only for the Geeks?
One of the more interesting and intriguing aspects of online marketing is forums.  For a long time, most companies – both large and small – looked with distain at the world of forums.  Forums were viewed as a place where computer geeks hung out after dark.

If that were ever true – no proof that it ever was – it certainly is not now.  But as long as that opinion exists, it gives the business owner an excuse to ignore them.  Consider the fact that next to watching videos, reading forums is the #2 online activity.  Also consider the fact that more people in the U.S. read online forums than visit social networking sites.

Hidden Goldmines
This should sound the clarion that forums are like hidden goldmines, full of potential customers chatting and asking questions. They have no qualms about speaking their minds and many are there to take part in the virtual community feel that can be established.
The business owner who is looking to become that “go-to” expert in a specific niche could easily (and at no cost) develop an online presence within those specific forums.  Look for the questions and begin answering them.

Establish Your Presence and Identity
As with articles and blogs, this is not the place to sell.  While there can be a website link as part of the signature, that’s not the reason for taking part.  Forums offer an unequaled opportunity to make your presence known and to build your online brand and identity.

No need to be overwhelmed.  Seek out two or three key forums within your particular industry.  (Check how long they have been in existence, and if they have a vast following.) Next, set a time once or twice a week to read the newest posts.  Add your own post to identify yourself.  Watch for specific questions that, because of your expertise, you can answer.  Do this consistently and watch your following grow.

Regardless of how you set it up, there has to be a feedback method. Readers and viewers have to have a way to reply to what they have seen. This is part of what makes the page a blog rather than an article. It is interactive and people respond to that.

The ability to interact on a personal level is a big contributor to the trust and connection that blogs can create. So it is important that your company blog doesn’t forgo this component.

Of course you must also have a system for monitoring the feedback and removing any that would actually harm your marketing campaign.

You also have to decide which media form your online journal will take. Or maybe you will tackle all three. I would start with one first.

Any of the three can be effective and you will have to determine which one best suits your audience. Is your target market likely to own an ipod? If not then perhaps podcasts are not the right option for you. You would opt for a blog or vlog instead.

But you aren’t limited to just one.

Finally, remember that the blog will not deliver the message unless people read it, watch it, or listen to it. If no one comes to your blog or is interested, it won’t be able to create the desired connection.

Next: Promoting your Blog

Then the momentum started to pick up. More people posted their own blogs, software was developed to facilitate the postings, people became interested and loyal readership developed. Innovation occurred, and vlogging and podcasts were born.

Now blogging is an internet industry unto itself.

And we all know that where there is a popular commodity there is a marketing opportunity.

Anything that people pay attention to can serve as a vehicle for marketing. Sports have sponsors, TV shows have commercials, pregnant women have built in billboards.

Blogs reach the public. People are paying attention to them and businesses can use that to connect with their market.

Blogs

A web-log, or blog as we mostly call it, is a written journal that is posted to a user’s website. The content of a blog is completely user-specific. Some blog sites contain commentaries and reviews on places or people. Others give recaps and insights into news events. Some are educational in nature to showcase the thought leadership of the writer.

Some still retain the original journal purpose and function as personal diaries where people write their innermost thoughts and then publish them to the world.

Just as the theme of the blog is specific to the writer, so are any special features. Many times you will find that blogs contain pictures and other images, links to other sites or other blogs, and even more advanced features like audio files or videos.

But the hallmark feature of a blog is that the message is delivered as written communication.

VLog

Vlog’s, or video-logs are very similar to blogs in that they serve the same purpose. People use them to convey their thoughts and opinions.

The distinction between a blog with video stream and a vlog is that in the blog, the video will be what the commentary is written about, whereas in the vlog the video will actually be the commentary itself.

It’s similar to the difference between a newspaper and the six o’clock news – one you read, and the other you watch.

Vlogs really started to gain their popularly in just the past couple of years, so they and their technology are still relatively new. As digital video cameras have become more affordable and accessible, vlogs have become more common and I think that we are going to see a really big jump in the ways that vlogs are used. It is possible that they will replace blogs as the most common form.

Podcast

Going even further, a podcast is a little more complicated of an idea. Unlike the blogs or vlogs, a podcast is meant to be downloaded directly onto an i-pod – although it can be experienced through the website as well.

Basically, a user downloads a feed that will provide them with updated podcasts on their portable entertainment unit. And for as long as they subscribe to the podcast they will continue to receive the updated feed.

Originally, the podcasts were audio only, but now that we have the ipod video, podcasts can be digital images as well. One of the greatest advantages of podcasts is that they are transportable. You don’t need to be at the computer anymore.

Blogging, vlogging and podcasts all welcome user comments. They invite interaction, and that attracts visitors.

These three methods are here to stay, and they can help your business a great deal. If you are not incorporating these methods into your marketing campaign, you are missing out on a great opportunity.

Companies and marketers are understanding that the use of blogs, vlogs, and podcasts can generate a lot of buzz around their products and services if used correctly.

Let us know how you are using these online tools to help grow your business.

Myrtle Beach woman gets $4050 for advertising space on pregnant belly

Really, where won’t we advertise? As marketers we are always looking for the next big innovative way to reach our client base. It can be advertisements in washrooms, company logos on athlete’s uniforms, slogans across the miracle of life – whatever we can do to expose ourselves to our target market in a creative and innovative way – we want to do it.

When it comes to marketing we know that in order to sell someone a product or service you have to first form a connection with them. The customer has to believe that they need the item and they have to believe that you are provider who will best meet their needs.

That is what successful advertising does. It creates the demand and then markets the solution. And the company that is most successful at doing this, the one that best targets their perspective customer base, is the one who gets the biggest market share.

So we are always looking for the edge that will put our marketing strategy above everyone else’s.

Now I don’t know about advertising on the prenatal, but there are definitely exciting new ways of marketing on the web.

The internet provides the platforms that create marketing advantages and this is because it is still relatively untouched. It hasn’t been completely exploited and overdone yet. There are plenty of advertising opportunities available now that the market will still respond to and there is the promise of many more to come.

Unfortunately this isn’t the case off-line. Television, radio, direct mailings, print ads. None of these work like they used to. There’s too much clutter. They have been over done and used up. People just don’t respond to them in the same way and they do not create the same connections that they once did.

That is why we are purchasing space on people’s stomachs.

Internet marketing is still fresh enough to create the connections. People haven’t been desensitized to it yet because they haven’t been inundated with it since before they were born.

Of course. Like everything, there are still challenges to internet marketing. Nothing comes that easy.

Enter blogs, vlogs, and podcasts. These are tools that can take create the connection and deliver your message because they are an online platform that has the public’s trust.

So what are they? How are they being used? And most importantly how can you use them to promote your business

During these post I will be explaining the concepts behind these tools and we’ll take a look at how others are using them. Then we will discuss the principles and some dangers that marketers need to consider before diving into this realm. And finally, we’ll look at how these tools can be used by you and whether or not they should be.

I have been going to a few “live networking” meetings lately and I have discovered something – many business folks still have no idea what a blog, vlog or podcast is – can you believe that? They are much like the deer in the picture – stuck with no where to go.

Because I am so caught up in this online world it has become second nature to me – I made the fatal mistake of assuming that everyone knew what they were and how to use them. Well, they don’t.

So over the next few posts I am going to talk basic’s about how you might join in on the fun.

Read, learn, enjoy. Here is what we will be covering…

1. Introduction
2. What are they?
3. How are they used?
4. Should you use them?
5. What you need to know before you start
6. How to promote

1. Headline Is Everything
   Imagine, while standing in line at your local movie theater, you see a film poster with this tag line, “Movie created by Universal Studios has many special effects.” If you saw this poster, would you even bother finding out more about the film, let alone actually seeing it?

   However, if you saw this same poster with the tagline, “17 year old Marty McFly got home early last night. 30 years early.” your interest would be piqued and you’d probably find yourself attempting to find out more about the film and eventually seeing it.

   Your headline is no different. First impressions are the key and your headline is your first impression. Make it snappy, compelling, and interesting. Grab the reader with your headline and your foot is in the door.

2. Focus on Your Target Market
   In order to know how to market, you must understand to whom you are marketing. If your target market is the dog grooming industry, you cannot suddenly take a left turn in the middle of your piece and begin chatting about how your product or service will help those in the medical field.

   Remember who your audience is and address their needs and concerns specifically.

3. Make an Emotional Connection; Keep Them Interested
   Now that you’ve got their attention, you have to keep it. The thing you need to remember when writing is that you’re not writing about or for yourself.

   You’re writing for your audience. Microsoft is famous for saying, “Your Potential, Our Passion.” In order to grip your reader and make a true connection with them, you have to understand their basic needs and desires.

   The most common mistake marketers make when writing a marketing piece is thinking about their product, their needs and themselves. After all, shouldn’t a marketing piece showcase your product and you? You are marketing your service with the piece, right? So, why shouldn’t the piece be all about you?

   As you begin along this train of thought, remember back to the last time your most distant family member sent you a letter detailing their present day life. You may recall how they went on about your seventh cousin’s new baby or how that twelfth cousin by marriage, whom you’ve never heard of, just got a promotion. You may also recall how you could have cared less.

   When you send your clients, potential or existing, the equivalent of your distant family member’s letter detailing the boring details of your company, you’ve already lost the battle.  Instead of telling your audience how your company is number one and how fantastic you are, use your marketing piece to answer the burning question that is on their mind…

4. Answer the Question, “What’s In It For Me?”
   How can you help this person who is reading your piece? Can you make their life easier? Save them time and money? Can you help them expand their business or better automate their services? What’s keeping your clients and potential clients up at night?

   Once you answer these questions yourself, you will be better able to answer their questions and your marketing piece will more likely avoid their trash bin.

5. Fully Explain the Benefits of What You Have to Offer
   Now that you’ve answered the questions in tip number five, it’s time to explain how you can make their life easier by explaining the benefits of your offering. Make it easy for them to understand.

   Don’t make your potential or existing clients think. Do the thinking for them. Avoid using long sentences and paragraphs as you lay out the benefits. Break up your paragraphs. Use bullets and lists where appropriate. Do everything you can to keep your reader from giving up and moving on.

6. Call To Action
   Once you’ve established a connection with your target and have explained the benefits of your offering, it’s time to call them to action. Fully explain the next step they should take in accepting your offer. If you fail to suggest a next step, your target will do nothing.

   Make sure to determine what action you desire from your marketing piece and fully instruct your reader on how to do so. Again, don’t make your target think. Do the thinking for them and spell out how to take action. Make doing so easy enough that it requires little to no thought on their part.

   Words are the most powerful weapon we have as inhabitants of the earth and when you’re marketing, they’re THE weapon. With a well-written marketing piece, you can grow your business by earning new clients and keeping existing ones.

Ultimately, there are cases where the former will be the best option, and other cases where it will be the latter option: it all comes down to the particular circumstances of the company at hand.

For example, a company that has a solid and long-standing in-house marketing staff—with more than sufficient resources to make convincing press releases, handle customers’ queries, and so forth—will probably choose to hire an exclusively SEO company.  That’s because they probably don’t have the in-house expertise to launch and manage an effective search engine optimization campaign, but have got pretty much every other aspect of marketing down to a T.

Surely a company that neither has a good marketing staff (in the traditional sense) nor any qualified SEO staff will be inclined to go the route of the full-service marketing firm.  Such a company has nothing to lose and everything to gain from following this path.

Some companies simply have no need for many traditional marketing techniques, and prefer to practically exclusively focus on online marketing initiatives.  This is the case for specific companies with even more specific target audiences: for example, a company specializing in hi-tech gadgetry aimed at computer experts is likely to get their message across more than effectively enough with e-advertising, as the intended customers are highly connected by default.  To reiterate, only companies in a very few niches can afford to make this call, and only if they are ready to pour lots of effort into the SEO side of things.

For most run of the mill companies, there really is no substitute for a comprehensive marketing firm that can tackle all their needs and produce one consolidated bill.  The more impressive such specimens can house an incredibly diverse set of skills under one roof, and that is a major asset for any company in need of marketing assistance.  Such firms will not only be able to tackle your SEO work, but they will tackle the copywriting work that complements and fills out said work.  Furthermore, as most companies cannot afford to abandon traditional avenues of marketing, such firms can help in the drafting of press releases and reaching strategic decisions on message content.

Furthermore, these kinds of broad, inclusive marketing firms can help you land new online revenue opportunities such as pay per click advertisements.  The money garnered from these channels, though on a minor scale at least to begin with, can end up subsidizing a good portion of online marketing initiatives in the future, and is one thing that you won’t find any exclusively-SEO company offering to do for you.

“Picture them Naked”

This is definitely a trick. Picturing their audience naked, or in their underwear will stop many presenters from feeling nervous.

First, let’s understand why it works. It is actually not because it makes the audience less intimidating. Trust me, your boss or a big client would be just as intimidating in their nickers as they are in a suit – and maybe even a little more so!

In reality, you aren’t actually scared of those you are presenting to, you are nervous because you’re scared of yourself. Nervous speakers are worried that they will make a mistake, not say the right thing, do something goofy, or otherwise not get their message across. They are worried, and worrying is a mental activity.

Picturing the audience naked works because it too is a mental activity. You are using your imagination, which distracts your brain from its worrying.

So if picturing the audience naked distracts you, then it is a great trick to use, but any form of mental activity can work just as well. Counting window panes or repeating a tongue twister can also work. I once had a client for whom I would provide a simple puzzle – It would only take a minute or two and if he was successful, I bought the coffee after the speech.

The key to this trick is that your brain has a job to do, other than worry.

“Find a Friendly Face”

Myth. And a bad idea at that. The concept behind this advice is that by finding a friendly face to keep coming back to, you will provide yourself with a place to gain encouragment. Humans are very social; we continually seek cues from our environment, and adjust according to them.

In a conversation, the person we are speaking to provides these cues through their interaction with us, but during a presentation these cues are removed because we are speaking in an endless stream without response. This is a challenge that a lot of presenters have difficulty with; it feels very unnatural to speak without receiving assurances that we are saying the right thing.

If you go into a presentation with the intention of finding a friendly face to gain your encouragement, then you are setting yourself up for a potential failure. Most people in the audience are looking at their papers, or staring back at the speaker with a  blank expression. This doesn’t mean that they dislike what the speaker is saying, but if the speaker is looking for a friendly face and doesn’t find one, they can become nervous and self-conscious.

Instead, I recommend that you create the assurances that you need. The first step is to identify the cues that you use to tell others that you are interested in what they are saying. Do you step closer to them, smile slightly, or nod your head? Do you furrow your eyebrows to show that you deeply considering their point? These are the body language cues that mean “interest” to you.

Now use them to encourage yourself. During your presentation nod as you say something that you expect others to agree with or smile slightly if you are making a great point. This will do two things, first just performing the action yourself will bolster your confidence. And second, several members of your audience will mimic your behavior and nod along with you or smile back. Now you will have the friendly face you are looking for.

“Bring a Glass of Water”

This is one of my favorite tricks. But, like picturing the audience naked, it doesn’t work for the reason that most people think. The water is not for dry mouth – it’s a prop.

Taking a sip of water provides you with an acceptable excuse to take a pause.

If you are distracted during your presentation then you will need a chance to gather your thoughts, regain your composure, and find your place in your notes. By taking a quick drink, you are not only able to regroup mentally, but you also create an acceptable excuse to take a moment to flip through your notes upon returning to your presentation.

The danger of the water is that you will compulsively sip on it when you’re nervous. This is not only very distracting to the audience, it also carries the risk of a full bladder – which will be distracting to you.

To prevent this, I always put a little salt in the glass. Not enough that it tastes bad, but just enough that it doesn’t taste great. That prevents compulsive sipping.

And if you actually do get dry mouth, gently place the sides of your tongue between your molars and chew once or twice. This will get your salvatory glands going again, which is much more effective than any beverage.