Whether you are a business owner, a freelance worker, a blogger or a manager working for a company chances are that you are familiar with presentations. You may be watching them or giving them at times and you will probably already know what a good presentation looks like against a bad one.
If there ever comes a time for you to give your own presentation then you will want to make use of these top tips:
Don’t Over Complicate your Visual Aids
When giving a presentation it’s commonly known that you will have several visual aids to hand. They may be simple such as vision boards, charts, handouts or need more work such as using a Powerpoint presentation, make sure you put in some time to find the perfect presentation software for visualizing ideas in order to ensure a smooth and effective delivery. Try not to put too many words or images on your presentation and keep it simple. Remember that your audience is there to listen to you not read. You may find that if you over complicate things the attention is taken away from the important things you have to say.
Pay Attention To your Audience
If you’ve ever been unsure of where you should be looking during a presentation the answer is at your audience not at your visual aids. Try not to single out one person, spread your gaze across everyone and at times make eye contact in order to keep their attention on you. By doing this you are engaging your audience, so the delivery and receipt of your hard work will go down much better and most likely be remembered. If you don’t pay attention to your audience and show that you’re aware they’re there then you risk losing their focus.
Use Your Personality
Whether you’re presenting to a group of children or a corporate body you still need to let your personality through and show some character when presenting. If you don;t then you risk sounding robotic and boring which will, in turn, lose the attention of your audience. We’re not saying that you shouldn’t act as though you’re unprofessional though, make sure you get a good balance, you just want to make sure you don’t seem nervous or untrustworthy which can sometimes be the case if you’re very robotic and too still.
Make Them Laugh
Yes, you wan to educate your target audience and make sure they understand the importance behind your presentation but laughter is the best medicine as they say. Think about when people are making speeches, they always try to include a good laugh or just something thrown in to make the audience smile. It goes a long way with any presentation to include something they can laugh at, it just makes you more relatable.
Talk To Them Not At Them
Don;t you just hate it when you feel like you’re been spoken at rather than having an engaging conversation? Well, this is exactly how you should treat your audience. Don’t speak at them and bombard them with information instead include them and speak to them as people. Try to create a conversation and interact with your audience, try asking them questions and allow some specific time for questions during your presentation. Try to create a to and from.
Honesty Is Important
You will find that a lot of people present to the audience with only what they think they want to hear. Avoid what they need to hear is one of the biggest mistakes you can make when it comes to a successful presentation. Even if they don’t want to hear it, it’s important to make sure they hear the truth, in turn, they will respect you for it and appreciate it.
Don’t Be Too Prepared
Like we touched before, you don’t want to sound robotic. If you practice and practice your presentation yes, you’re bound to learn it off by heart but you risk sounds very robotic and not very human. This can be extremily off putting for an audience. You should make sure you are prepared enough to know what you will be talking about but just to level that you know it’s going to flow well. It could be worth practising in front of a few people and gather feedback as this way you may be prepared for any questions that could arise too.
These are only a few of the ways that you can give the ultimate presentation, there will be more and they will often depend on your audience. Do you have any tips that you c
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