What makes you nervous?

You know, that fluttery tummy sensation that makes you feel light, hungry and thirsty all at the same time.

For me it’s about 10 minutes before I get up to speak. And this weeks talk at Hot Source in Norwich was no different.

Now I love giving talks, I could talk for my country in the Olympics, as long as the subject was related to the Internet! In those moments beforehand my mind always goes blank, the presentation slips from view and self-doubt kicks in.

I don’t practise my talks much, just checking for pace and length, as I am always talking around something I am familiar with, Social Media, Online Marketing, Blogging or E-commerce. Slide preparation is where I imprint the presentation on my brain like a virtual tattoo.

So for those few moments I focus on my opening line, get this right and you capture your audience…“I’d like to welcome our next speaker, Sean Clark”…and I am up on stage; the next 30 minutes are a blur, and I am soon enjoying drinks in the bar, expanding on points from the talk with attendees.

Like the opening line from a talk, use your 140 characters well and you can captivate your audience on Twitter. So here are 5 of my picks, that grabbed my attention for Sean’s Week On Twitter.

69% of UK businesses plan to appoint social media managers this year

No surprise as businesses start to realise the value of Social Media, see the impact it’s having on the market and the audiences it attracts. If won’t be long before quality Social Media Managers are as valuable as Java programmers of the late 90’s.

The Web & Business Tools Startups Use Most

We use most of these and our company is 150 yrs old! This tool box contains everything any new, or old business, could need to run their operation. Quite a few are free!

4 Tips to Supercharge Call-To-Action Buttons

Call to action is the secret source to online conversion. It usually takes bold changes to improve your conversion rates and getting it right means lots of testing. Here are some practical tips to get your conversions going in the right direction.

How the BBC lost 60,000 Twitter followers

An interesting post on the ownership of a Twitter handle. Which raises the question of, when you use Twitter not only to promote yourself but your also your company, do you forgo ownership of that account? What do you think?

Please add your favourite Tweets in the comments below.