Below we’ve listed some key tips to breathe some energy into your online presentations and make people sit up and listen. These tips are tried and true practices done by some of the top speakers in the industry.
Use slides as a presentation aid. Your slides should be a supporting piece of your presentation, not the whole webcast word for word. Not using your slides correctly for the presentation can have a huge impact on your audience maintaining their interest and communicating the main ideas of your presentation.
Incorporate images and graphics that help explain your points – avoid making slides too text heavy
Highlight the specific area on the slide that you are talking about. You can do this with animations or with the use of the highlighter or pointer tool in the webcast console you are using.
Don’t show slides too quickly. Give attendees some time to absorb the material on the slide before moving on.
Use animations, but use them sparingly. Having tons of animations on one slide can get cluttered and distract from your message. Keep things simple.
Use bullets or numbers for text to keep things organized
Don’t just read the Slides. Instead, have an outline of your speaking points. Reading a script will be obvious to your audience, and will not be as engaging. You may worry that you’ll forget something if you don’t have a script. If you use an outline, then you will have noted the important points. Specific facts and figures should also be written out. Very important points should also be on slides. If, however, you do forget something, it is not something that the audience would realize anyway. Preparation is the key.
Use Humor (where appropriate). Integrating a little bit of humor into your presentation is a great way to connect to your audience and capture their attention.
Smile! Even if you are not seen on the webcast people will be able to tell if you are smiling. Smiling makes us speak better.
Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse. Practice makes perfect! Do a mock presentation and record yourself, even if it is just the audio portion, to see where you can improve your delivery and slides.
Speaking on a webcast can be a rewarding experience for you and for your audience. Take the time to jazz up your presentation using the tips that have been given here. The more care you take in your preparation and attention to detail the more you will get out of your presentation, be it audience engagement, ROI, or leads.
Jessica Bradford
V2 | Virtual Event Manager