Craig Valentine, 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking, has traveled the world and trained thousands of presenters on developing world class speaking skills. He continues to help entrepreneurs develop powerful presentations that quickly generate leads, customers and vast profits.

Craig and I are starting our next 12 week World Class Speaking Coach Certification Program on June 13. Get the full story here.

What is the number one reason people will do business with you over others? Is it price? Is it quality? Is it convenience? The answer might surprise you because it is none of these three.

In fact, the number one reason people will do business with you is confidence. They must have confidence that what you say is true and what you offer will help them reach or exceed their goals.

The six communication keys below will help you build a loyal following and earn the kind of confidence that can grow a lucrative business:

Key #1: Give a Glimpse into Your life

One of the biggest mistakes new social media users make is trying to take old-time marketing methods into this new social media world. Many of them look at social media as a place to market with sales letters and traditional “build your list” strategies. There is just one problem. They are not being social! If you expect to profit from social media without being social, you can forget it. It is called social media for a reason. It is not enough to show your products. You must also let people get to know you.

Key# 2: Use Stories to Stand out from the Clutter

Seth Godin wrote, “You’re either remarkable or invisible.” It is very easy to become invisible on social media because there is so much clutter and so many messages flying around various platforms. Being remarkable

simply means having something on which people can remark. The most effective way to be remarkable is to tell your story and share your message. This is how you build the buzz about what you have to offer.

Key # 3: Start Juicy Conversations

Social media is not a monologue, it’s a group discussion. Doing drive-by sales letters or giving hit-and-run messages will not work. It’s important to become part of the conversation and that means often times starting the conversation.

Key # 4: Deepen their Involvement by Offering a Next Step

Unfortunately, far too many social media users give their prospects too many options for next steps. I have seen blog entries that have four or five different links at the bottom with the hopes that the readers will choose one.

The Problem with Giving Multiple Options

When you give several options for next steps, it not only confuses your audience but also dilutes your message. If you want your readers or viewers to act on one of your messages, then that entire message should be developed to get them to take one specific next step. That is impossible to do if you have several steps. The key is to be clear in telling them what to do. People have enough choices to make in their lives. Make it easy on them by choosing for them.

Key # 5: Build Trust by Linking to Other Experts

You influence others when they feel you have their best interest in mind. One of the most effective ways to demonstrate your interest in their success is to link them to other people who can help them. Too many marketers damage the trust of their followers by always putting themselves as the logical next step. Social media superstars mix it up by highlighting other people who can help.

Key # 6: Break Through the Clutter by Coming Out with a Bang

How do most presenters open their presentations? Usually they say something like, “Thank you for having me here. It is so great to be among such honored guests. This is a great day for me.” At that point the audience thinks, “Who cares?” What we have to understand about online and offline communicating is that the first 30 seconds is critical to our success. Within the first 30 seconds of a speech, your audience realizes whether or not they want to hear more. In social media circles, you actually have less time because your audience members have more choices available at their fingertips. Within the first few sentences of text or the first few seconds of your video, your prospects will decide whether or not they want more. The key to your success is to come out with a bang.

Here are some ways you can come out with a bang using social media:

• With blogs your bang is often your provocative title for the post. Your titles should be like the headline in a newspaper that lures your readers into your first line of text. This is why questions make great titles. Your readers will want to know the answer.

• With videos and audio clips, immediately jump into a story. Once people get mentally into a story, it is in their DNA to stick around to see how it ends. Most marketers take way too long to begin their story. That is a costly mistake. You come out with a bang when you tell your story from your very first words.

The bottom line in social media is all about building the confidence others place in you.

These six keys will help you do that. When people get to know, like, and trust you, you automatically cut through the clutter of information they receive and stand out as someone they want to follow. Bringing old, outdated marketing techniques into the new social media world is a recipe for disaster. Instead, join the conversation that is already taking place, and add value to it. Social media is the wave of the present and the future, so do more than dip your toes in it. Jump in fully and immerse yourself. When you emerge as the go-to person in your field of expertise, you can enjoy the lucrative business that is sure to come.

Craig and I co-present the World Class Speaking Coach Certification Program once a year. Learn more about this 12 week course here and grab your free speaking toolkit while you are there

Every now and then it is important to remind ourselves of some of the principles that can lift us to great heights in speaking. World Champion speaker Craig Valentine compiled 25 keys to becoming a much better public speaker. I think you will find them very useful.

Craig and I are starting our next 12 week World Class Speaking Coach Certification Program September 20. Get the full story here.

• Speak to one but look to all

• When you lift yourself up you let your audience down

• What gets recorded gets rewarded

• Don’t add humor to a speech; uncover humor within it

• What’s loose is lost

• When you squeeze your information in, you squeeze your audience out (this one is not mine. It’s an old speaker proverb).

• You master what you measure

• Conflict is the hook and Dialogue is the heart

• Put the process, not the person, on a pedestal

• The phrase determines what stays

• To be a great speaker you must be a great tease

• Be a similar person with a special process

• Never sell a product, always sell a result

• Let your story lead to their story

• Never end with the Q&A

• People remember best what they hear first and what they hear last

• Don’t tell; ask

• You can’t affect if they don’t reflect

• Become niche and famous (If you try to speak to everyone you will end up speaking to no one)

• A confused mind says no but a clear mind says go

• Give the visual before the verbal

• Give the look that goes with the line

• Reactions tell the story (Darren LaCroix)

• Too many speakers try to get across too much information in too little time

• Don’t speak for standing ovations, speak for standing invitations

To get a better understanding of what these phrases mean and how life-changing they can be for your speaking, see the World Class Speaking book.

If you want to drastically improve your very next presentation, it is important to understand 4 of the pitfalls that keep most speakers in a ditch out of which they can never seem to climb. If you see where these traps are, you can easily avoid them. As a result, you will clear your pathway to a powerful and persuasive speech.

Here are the 4 costly mistakes:

They close their speech with the question and answer session

Never close your speech with the Q&A session, because people remember best what they hear first and what they hear last. If you end with the Q&A, you lose control over the last message your audience receives and much of your hard work is undone. It is still a good idea to have a Q&A session, but it is not a good idea to end your presentation with it. Instead, hold the session about 80-90% into your speech and then close the speech in your own powerful way.

They open their speech with a whimper

Most speakers open with statements like, “I’m so glad to be here. Thank you for inviting me to speak at this prestigious occasion. First I’d like to thank Bob…” What is wrong with that kind of opening? Frankly, it’s boring. It’s boring because it’s expected. Instead, come out in an unexpected way by jumping right into your message. Take the “sitcom” approach and start the show first and then transition to the opening theme song.

One good way to do this is to immediately dive into a story. That will catch your audience off guard and you will have their attention. Another effective way is to ask a question. For example, I start some speeches with the following question: “What do you think is the number one thing that stands in the way of most people living their dreams?” This immediately gets my audience’s attention and prompts them to think and to get involved with the speech. Questions work extremely well because they take your audience members from passive spectators to active participants and that definitely raises the energy. Once you finish your planned opening, it is then fine to go back and thank the people who brought you there.

They lip-synch

I once had a CFO of a biotech company say, “Craig, we need you to coach us with our presentation. We already have the presentation, but we just need to know what to say.” That might seem confusing but I knew exactly what he meant. He meant that the company already had a slide presentation but they needed to know what to say between those slides. Once I worked with them, they came to realize that they had to look at their major points first and then determine if slides were even needed to reinforce them.

Most presenters who use slides simply verbalize the same points that are made on the slide. The key to understand is this; if you say the same thing as your slides, then one of you is not needed! You are doing the equivalent of lip-synching your presentation. The best time to use slides is for real visuals such as charts, graphs, and diagrams that help clarify what you say verbally.

They don’t master the essence of public speaking

Bill Gove, the first President of the National Speakers Association, once said that public speaking is being able to “tell a story and make a point.” That indeed is the essence of public speaking. If you want to become the kind of speaker others line up and sign up to see, then make an effort to master storytelling. People make decisions with their emotions backed up by logic. Stories reach those emotions and get people in a frame of mind to take action. When you become a master storyteller, you help other people see new stories unfold for their own lives. Like the old saying goes, “Facts tell and stories sell.”

If you avoid the 4 pitfalls that trap most speakers and you work on the suggestions above, you will find yourself far ahead of most of the people who ever stood up to say anything.

Craig Valentine is starting a brand new Coach Certification Program for Speakers and Entrepreneurs September 21 For the Full Story–> World Class Speaking Coach Certification Progran