Presentations often come in extremes: they are either inspiring or dull. Thankfully Fiverr® has come up with 10 tips to make sure your presentations, both offline and online, are excellent.
1. Tell a good story
Instead of approaching a presentation as a lecture, think of it as an informed conversation with a friend. Your audience will be much more engaged. Use anecdotes and stories as much as you can to demonstrate the messages you want to convey.
Similarly, every good story has structure: a beginning, middle, and end. Craft your presentation with this intuitive structure and your audience will more likely remember the gems you try to impart upon them.
2. State the key point of your presentation
Among the various bits of information you want to express, have one clear message you want your audience to remember. A good way to make sure you’re clear enough is to try to explain the point of your lecture in 15 words. If you can do that, great, and if not, you’ll need to do more work. At the minimum, make sure to state your key point at the beginning and the end.
3. Be entertaining
Yes, this point is similar to “tell a good story,” but it’s so important it needs emphasis. Make them laugh! Be enthusiastic! The more energy you have, the better storyteller you will be. Don’t act too crazy, but really, amp it up.
4. Be visual more than wordy
As they say, pictures are worth a thousand words. One of the worst things is a powerpoint presentation with someone literally reading off the slide. Don’t be this person. The less text, the better. Replace this extraneous text with visuals and off-screen anecdotes.
5. Have clear takeaways at the end of the presentation
Make sure to conclude the presentation with what you hope they learned. If there are any additional steps they can do after the presentation, outline these at the end.
6. Follow the 10-20-30 rule
The basic logic is that any presentation should have only 10 slides, be 20 minutes long in total, and have 30-point size font. After 20 minutes at this speed, most people start to tune out. So if you have presentations longer than 20 minutes, put breaks after each 20-minute segment. Let the audience ask questions. Start a discussion. Let them stretch: whatever method will ensure they get an appropriate breather.
7. Master your software
It’s extremely annoying for a presentation to be wasted on technological difficulties. Practice beforehand so that you are completely comfortable with your online tool of choice. Also, take advantage of new collaborative platforms out there, such as join.me or Go-To-Meeting.
8. Encourage conversation
Even though you’re doing an online presentation, you can still encourage conversation from the audience. It’s important to integrate this into your talk: otherwise you’ll have no pulse on the crowd. Thankfully, collaborative software enables audience participation.
9. Look into the camera
Sounds simple, but you’d be surprised how many people unconsciously zone out while they’re giving online presentations. Look into the camera as if you were talking to a friend, and don’t forget that.
10. Be still, or gesture with confidence
Although you may talk on the phone to your mother while pacing across your living room, that’s a really bad way to give a presentation. Either sit or stand still, and when you move, gesture with purpose. Otherwise, you’ll distract the audience.
What do you think makes a great presentation? Share with us in the comments below.
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