STC Summit Chicago - Summary of Sessions III

This is the third in a series of three posts about sessions I attended at the recent Society for Technical Communication (STC) Summit. In Part I of this series I reviewed presentations by David Sommer, Lisa Pietrangeli and Bruce Poropat. Part II covered presentations by Michael Fritz, John Kohl and myself. This post summarizes sessions related to freelancing/consulting.

• Transform a Prospect Meeting Into a Signed Contract by Teresa Stover
• Building Your Professional Network - Beyond the Social Media Maze by Jenna Moore
• SMM101: 5 Cs of Managing Your Presence by Louellen Coker
• Building the New Resume by Brenda Huettner

Teresa Stover of Stover Writing Services explained how to Transform a Prospect Meeting Into a Signed Contract. Translators working through agencies will probably not go through the more traditional multi-step sales process for a project. But the insights provided by Ms. Stover may be helpful when trying to acquire long-term direct clients.

Jenna Moore of SAS Institute spoke about Building Your Professional Network - Beyond the Social Media Maze. Networking is certainly one marketing tactic all independent workers need to master. In this mini-workshop Ms. Moore guided the audience through creating individual lists of specific networking possibilities and addressed how to follow up on that list.

Louellen Coker of Content Solutions provided advice on social media marketing in SMM101: 5 Cs of Managing Your Presence. Since I am active on several social media platforms (blog, Twitter, LinkedIn), I was particularly interested in this presentation. The 5Cs are: clarity - concise - cohesive - consistent - connected, and they all apply to developing and communicating one's brand.

Brenda Huettner of P-N Designs, Inc., explained how to become known as an expert on various platforms in Building the New Resume. Her advice was to participate in LinkedIn and Facebook groups and to write regular blog posts showcasing one's knowledge. She also advised freelancers to highlight how easy they are to work with.

Next week: My entire presentation on "Writing for Global Audiences".