Professional speaking has helped me in many areas of my business including marketing, business development and improving my overall communication skills. While not everyone is meant to be a Professional Speaker for a living it is highly advantageous to have the ability to speak professionally in your area of expertise. I shared in an earlier post tips on how to grow your business through professional speaking.

I’ve also given you tools on optimizing your speaking engagements with 10 Social Media Tips for Professional Speakers. Now I’m giving you an opportunity to take action and begin your speaking career or add another speaking gig to your resume with my call for speakers! This year I began educating my way to success by teaching a Marketing and Communication course at Platt College San Diego. I’ve already completed two terms and my next class begins next week. To enhance my course material I use videos, real life examples and invite industry leaders to speak.

Guest Speaker at Platt College MJD Interactive

Having guest speakers has been very educational, entertaining and informative for my class because students are learning from people who are working in the careers they aspire to. My class is every Tuesday and Thursday from 6-8:30pm. The next term is June 3rd to July 21st. I’m currently seeking speakers to present 1-2 hour presentations on the following topics (I have listed suggested speaking points but am open to other ideas):

• Mobile Marketing- Mobile websites, Mobile applications, growth of mobile usage, text message campaigns
• SEO- What factors are considered SEO?, How Social Media plays a role in SEO?, keywords, linking
• Web Development and Design- Website usability, building a website that’s SEO friendly, incorporating Social Media elements into a website, design elements, etc
• Many of the students are Entrepreneurs and interested in starting their own business so anyone who also runs their own company (especially if it’s on topics relating to marketing and technology) is a great candidate to speak in my class.

Guest Speaker at Platt College Michael Martin

If you’re interested in speaking for my class at Platt College, please email: Melodie at MarketingMelodie dot com with the following information:

1. Name
2. Company & Title
3. Website URL
4. Social Media URLs
5. Topic
6. Brief description of presentation
7. Additional comments or information

I realize as a working professional your time is extremely valuable. I would like to make this experience mutually beneficial. This is an unpaid speaking opportunity but I’m happy to provide follow up recommendations, testimonials, take photos/video during your talk and promote your business through my own social networks.  You’re also welcome to share opportunities with the students such as job openings or internships. I look forward to hearing you speak soon!

The Month of May started off with some exciting news for BlackBerry lovers.  During the first quarter of 2009 BlackBerry became the top-selling consumer smartphone. As a loyal BlackBerry user I was ecstatic to learn the great news. I hear so many Apple device users discrediting the BlackBerry and all of its awesome features and functions. I’d like to give credit back to my BlackBerry friends with this post.

We love the tactile feel of a QWERTY keyboard (Typing QWERTY was fun I just had to do it again!).  When we’re on our phones we’re not shaking it frantically so a light saber can flash or dice can roll, we’re actually getting real work done. Our battery life is strong like the engergizer bunny (I’ve had my BlackBerry for 2 years, use it all day, every day and have never had it die on me) and if it does die down we can pop a spare in or recharge the original one back to full power rather than being forced to buy a brand new phone because the battery is no longer capable of being fully charged. Oh and three more words that have made it necessary for other devices to catch up on: CUT AND PASTE!

BlackBerry 8800

Let’s get into some useful tips that will significantly increase your productivity. I realized many BlackBerry users love their BlackBerry but don’t even know how it can be such an efficient tool. These tips will add value to your every use and give you a few more reasons to love your BlackBerry:

1. Chat With BlackBerry Messenger- I’m very surprised at how many peoeple don’t know about this function. It’s one of my favorite!  BlackBerry users get the familiar look and feel of desktop instant messaging right their phone. It supports group chat, tracks message delivery and provide status availability. This is the most efficient way for me to communicate with BlackBerry users. Some ask why it’s any different than a text message? There are no lag times, service charges or character limits that come with SMS. If you’re familiar with PIN messaging on BlackBerry this application will expand on that functionality and make your communication even quicker!

2. Retrieve Your PIN Instantly- Your BlackBerry PIN (Personal Identification Number) distinguishes your unique BlackBerry from all the others. You’ll need it for adding others to you BlackBerry Messenger list. Many of us have no idea how or where to retrieve our PIN. We can go through a list of steps to find this OR we can simply open up a blank message (SMS, email, messenger will all work) and type: “Mypin” then hit [Space] and your PIN will magically appear in the message. No need to waste time fumbling around to find it. Try it! You’ll be sending your PIN to everyone in your contacts!

3. Capitalize With One Key-  Need to capitalize a letter mid-sentence? Simply hold the letter key down for an extra second and it automatically turns to upper case. There is no need to push alt or any other button. This saves a lot of time if you type as much as I do on a BlackBerry and makes your grammar look proper!

4.  Quickly Enter Email Addresses: Typing email addresses slows us down as we have to use multiple keys for the [@] and the dot[.]  With BlackBerry you can easily avoid this hassle. When you’re in the email address field hit [space] when you need the [@] and [space]  again when you need the [.] BlackBerry automatically converts this into email address form. For example: melodietao[space]gmail[space]com.

5.  Filter Your Inbox: The BlackBerry inbox captures all of your activity which is great because you have one spot where you can find everything but when you have  tons of emails, text messages and phone logs it can get a bit overwhelming to scroll through it all.  When you’re in your inbox use simple commands for filtering.  [Alt] [S] lets you see your text messages [Alt] [O] takes you to your outgoing messages, [Alt] [I] takes you to incoming messages and the back arrow will always bring you back to your main inbox.

So what do you think? Do you already use these tips? If you have any other BlackBerry tips and tricks, please share them in the comments below. Let’s all work together to optimize the power of the BlackBerry!