At one point in our lives, we will surely be given the task to present in front of everyone else. It can be at school or work. We will surely not be spared from giving a presentation. It is an art that we must cultivate in our lifetime because it will not just cast the spotlight on us. It can also provide a spotlight for noble causes that we care about, products and services that we promote, or simply a personal story that we wish people to listen to for inspiration. It can be nerve-wracking, but we should not give in to the fear of speaking in front.
Many people have already done a great job making and delivering their presentations. And all we have to do is to replicate what they have been doing for us also to provide a stellar presentation like them. So here are some tips that you can also follow to do just that.
Create A Structure
Guide your audience by guiding yourself first. This can be done by creating a simple structure for your presentation. Always remember that your presentation must have an introduction, body, and conclusion.
The introduction must present a summary of what the audience can expect from your presentation and what is in it for them. The body is where you provide the facts, evidence, and quotes to your audience. This part has all the main points that you must talk about. The conclusion gives the viewer the key takeaways discussed and how they can use it after your talk.
Limit The Content Of The Slide
The emotional impact can only be attained if your audience is listening to what you are saying instead of reading a massive block of paragraphs in the slide. As a rule of thumb, it is best to limit the copy to less than 6 words each slide. Hence, careful use of words and continuous rewriting is needed to achieve this. Also, bite-size information must always be your priority in making the presentation. If you want to make it better, you can use videos instead. Studies have shown that using a video instead of text is 95% more compelling to the audience.
Focus Also In Designs
The design of your presentation can either make or break it if you have a budget to hire a designer, then better. If you don't, no need to worry. Nowadays, there are numerous free tools that you can use that can deliver excellent designs. Some of these include Canva and Visme in making exciting slides. If you are looking for noteworthy royalty-free photos, you can check Unsplash and Pexels.
Polish And Proofread Until You Are Satisfied
You may find your presentation visually-appealing, but it does not mean that it is automatically perfect. As mentioned earlier, it is best to limited copy to only 6 words. So editing it continuously and checking for other errors will save you from seeing all the mistakes by the time that you are already presenting.
It is also an excellent practice to let someone check it for you. A fresh pair of eyes can see other things that you may not have seen at first in polishing your presentation. It can be a colleague or a mentor that you can ask for help to assist you in polishing and to proofread your work. If this is not possible, worry not.
You can use writing assistance tools such as Grammarly to save you so much time in checking errors when it comes to grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. You do not want to see these errors when you are already finished with the presentation and delivering it to your audience, right?
Do you have any other tips that you used to hold your best presantation? Don't hesitate to write them down in the comments!