Do your online presentations seem blah? Would you like your presentations to pack a punch to keep your audience engaged?
Here is my reality of our new Zoom, Google Meet, Skype normal. When I deliver a presentation online:
- It’s hard to read the room
- I talk and no one says anything
- I’m never sure how the presentation landed
- I feel like I am talking to my computer, not a room full of people
It is easy to lose that sense of connection when you are presenting online. So, it feels much harder to have an impact.
Do you want to know how to make sure your online presentations pack a punch?
There are three things you can do starting NOW.
- Know your goal and know your audience
- Use visuals that bring your material to life
- Engage your audience early and often
Know Your Goal and Know Your Audience
Stay focused on what you are trying to achieve. When I am working with someone, I typically ask what they want to get out of the presentation. You would be surprised how few people know. If you don’t know your goal, it is challenging to create content that has an impact. Additionally, it is easy to wander or cover topics that may confuse your audience.
And speaking of the audience, make sure you know who will be in the room and what they care about. Therefore, if you don’t feel you know enough about the audience to create a relevant presentation, use a poll or a show of hands at the beginning to get a better sense of who they are and what they care about.
Use Visuals that Bring your Material to Life
Visuals can help increase your impact, or they can let you down; some of the “Do’s” include using:
- As few words as possible
- Graphs that are easy to read
- Photo/illustrations that reinforce your points and make your presentation more interesting
Every time you show a complicated or word-laden slide, you lose your audience as they read or wonder what it means. So, fewer words keep the audience focused on you, the speaker. Even with highly technical topics, it’s more important to get the high-level concepts across first. You can then refer the audience to detailed documents and specs later. Keep your audience focused on you and your message.
Engage Your Audience Early and Often
Engagement makes the most significant difference in creating a successful online presentation. In addition, it is harder to establish that close connection with your audience when online, so I advise thinking through an engagement plan in advance.
An engagement plan should include multiple tactics so your audience feels like they are part of the presentation. Some of the best engagement techniques include
- Polls: Create a few polls in advance that you can use to get people to feel involved and for you to get a sense of where they are at. Make sure to show the results and comment on them. Tie the results back to your goal and where you are going.
- Breakouts: Think about how you can use breakouts to allow smaller groups to talk together, perhaps create a few slides of their own and share with the group. This kind of personal involvement goes a long way to people feeling engaged.
- Address Individual Attendees: Make the session as personable as possible. Ask someone a question or to comment. Or mention someone and their contribution.
Want to learn more? Join me for a workshop on Delivering Online Presentations With Impact.
Learn more at www.talkshopworkshops.com or send me a message on LinkedIn.
