marketing and audience engagement
journalism is useless if you have no one to spread the news to
Building relationships and connections with audiences is far and away one of the most important parts of developing a following and creating an impact with a brand or project. For each public speaking engagement, I consider the audience I’m speaking to and always tailor the content and style of my talk to what I think will resonate most with listeners. Whether that means including more stories about people, altering the language of the opening and closing remarks, or presenting more photographs, no two talks are the same.
For instance, when I spoke to an audience of artists and fellow storytellers, I focused more on the abstract value of visual exploration and the development of my craft. On the other hand, when I spoke to a room full of CEOs, I made sure my talk included more verbal storytelling and ended with the lessons I learned from my travels.
My estimated public speaking audience engagement data:
My three TEDx talks on TED.com: 10,000 views
TEDxPlano (Plano, TX): 500 audience members; 5,300 YouTube views
TEDxSMUkids (Dallas, TX): 500 audience members; 2,000 YouTube views
TEDxTAMU (College Station, TX): 500 audience members; 1,000 YouTube views
STORY2019 (Nashville, TN): 1,500 audience members; 2000 online engagement
Escuela Verde High School (Milwaukee, WI): 100 audience members
University Interscholastic League (Austin, TX): 100 online engagement
Toastmasters Inc. (Dallas, TX): 100 audience members
Marquette University (Chicago, IL): 100 audience members; 500 online engagement
National Youth Leadership Council: 500 audience members; 4,000 online engagement
National Storytelling Network: 100 audience members; 6,500 online engagement
The article I wrote for the World Border Congress Security Report reached 20,000 border security agencies all over the world. The article/lesson I contributed to for Junior Scholastic reached thousands of American classrooms.
In addition to public speaking and writing, I present my images from world borders through various local and national galleries. I see these as opportunities to further build rapport and connection with viewers. Often, I exhibit my images at the venues of my speaking engagements, so that audience members from my talk are able to leave the auditorium and immediately view more photographs that I was unable to include in my talk. My photos have been exhibited at the following locations and have subsequently reached tens of thousands in total. See list below.
National Border Patrol Museum, auxiliary exhibit (El Paso, TX)
AddisonArt Program (Addison, TX)
Plano Courtyard Theater (Plano, TX)
Schermerhorn Symphony Center (Nashville, TX)
University of Texas at Arlington (Arlington, TX)
Texas A&M (College Station, TX)
My column in the ReMarker had a total circulation of about 4,000 copies and, in total, my backpage work for the ReMarker has had about 20,000 in circulation.
Finally, I see third-party media coverage of my work as just another way to get the word out and educate even more people about world borders. It is a great way to reach an even wider audience and create broader impact. Below is a list of media recognition that my journalism has received. In all, these sources have a subscriber/reader total of over 300,000.
WFAA Channel 8 News (Dallas-Fort Worth)
People Newspapers, Preston Hollow People (article 1, article 2)
The Pride
National Youth Leadership Council Newsletter
marketing
I marketed my book, The Great Divide, across a plethora of platforms. At each art gallery I exhibited my images at, I also added the option of purchasing a copy. At public speaking venues, I gave audiences the opportunity to obtain a signed copy after my talk. I donated hundreds of copies to the National Border Patrol Museum (NBPM) where they are sold in the gift store. All sales benefited the NBPM; STORY2019, a gathering of creatives; and the purchase of textbooks for a high school in Terlingua at the Texas-Mexico border.
Last summer, I was awarded the Power of Children Award by the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis for my work highlighting the humanitarian crises unfolding all over the world and promoting diversity and inclusion. The Award was accompanied by a $2500 grant which I plan to use to purchase fire extinguishers for the northern Iraqi refugee camp depicted earlier. Receiving the award allowed me to reach a much wider audience base and market my project to more diverse crowds, while expanding it considerably.