Many business owners and managers find that creating engaging presentations can be a real challenge. It can be incredibly difficult to not only develop a presentation that hits on all the important points, but also attracts and retains your audience’s attention. Throw in the fact that many presentations are now being made over the Internet to remote audiences or employees and inspiring that necessary engagement becomes even tougher.
If you are creating an online presentation to a remote audience there are a number of factors you should keep in mind if you want to grab your audience’s attention and keep them following and paying attention. Here are five of the most important tips:
1. Make It Visual
For the most part, visual presentations have a higher chance of success – that is, the message being grasped by the audience. This is especially true for online and remote presentations, largely because when more people are on a computer, partaking in a presentation, they will often be multi-tasking.
If you have a ton of text there is a good chance you will lose your audience within the first couple of slides. Instead aim for a presentation that is heavy on graphics and visually appealing. Using bright or contrasting colors will draw the eye and will increase the time you have your audience’s attention.
If your presentation is about a product create picture slides with a minimal amount of text; let the product speak for itself. For presentations involving graphs and charts, include these graphics and a couple of key points. The rest you can fill in with spoken narrative.
2. Focus On The Audience
Online presentations and those using meeting software should be audience-friendly. This means making it easy for them to join and partake in the presentation by sharing slides, and also asking if anyone has any points to add or even expand upon with an interactive presentation element.
While presenting, there will be slides and points that are more important than others. To highlight this you can ‘sign-post’ the salient points. Make these visually larger if they are text, and pause to point this out with the script by telling your audience: “This is the most important point”; essentially demanding they pay attention.
Finally, try to limit technical glitches. This can be the quickest way to lose engagement if your Internet cuts out or the computer crashes. Try to present at a time when you know connection will be strong and stable and have a backup in place in case something goes wrong.
3. Adapt To Different Audiences
Every person in the audience will have different expectations of your presentation. Some will want just the facts, while others might be looking to be convinced by an opinion or argument expressed in the presentation. You should take the time to get to know your audience and what they expect and then develop the presentation around this idea.
If you do your homework and know a bit about your audience, you can take steps to connect with them early in the presentation, if not before, and drive engagement.
4. Create, Edit, Practice, Edit, Practice, Edit, Practice, Present
It may sound a bit redundant to edit and practice multiple times, but it really will help when leading an online presentation. First you should create your presentation, then edit it. You are looking to keep your slides as short as possible – no more than four points and two minutes spent talking for each slide.
Really the first edit should be about content, grammar and spelling. Once this is done, practice presenting as you would on the actual presentation day. Start with a blank desktop screen, log into the software/site you will be using, load the presentation, share it, and then actually present. Time yourself and note any issues.
Next, go back and edit the presentation some more, making sure you aren’t spending too much time on one slide or that each of the slides does not have too many confusing points, etc. Keep practicing and editing until you are not only comfortable, but know the content inside and out.
You could also try recording your voice. This will allow you to hear where you need to work on inflection and overall style. If you find that you are tuning yourself out when you listen to the presentation, you may want to practice some more and try to inject some extra interest, whether through humor or engaging facts and ideas. This is really vital is you won’t have that face-to-face contact with a physical presentation where you are present. If you sound engaging, the audience are more likely to connect with you.
5. Develop Your Own Style
No one likes a dull presentation where you just talk about what’s on the slides. Try to give your presentation a narrative arc and structure. Where possible include personal experiences or even tell a relevant joke from time to time. If you are passionate and show that you are trying to connect your audience will likely not click away from the presentation or drift off to other work or simply to surf the Internet and Facebook.
If you are looking to learn more about presentations and how to use software for expert presentations, or even how to conduct your next remote presentation, contact us today to see how we can help.
Published on 20th February 2014 by Jeanne DeWitt.
