The Effectiveness in Using Slides to Present Ideas
Using slides to present your ideas to an audience can be an extremely effective medium for your business content. It is a very different way of presenting your content and you can really wow your audience.
A cautionary tale: Make sure that your target audience focuses on your concepts, not the slides themselves
It is very important that you understand that slides are a tool (a launching point, of sorts) that should help you to keep your ideas organized and not allow you to deviate from the intended path. From one concept to the next (and from one slide to the next), you will want to make sure that your transitions are strong and smooth at the same time.
Tweet ThisThe human reaction to your slide deck is that the people viewing (or reading) the slides will read one after another. That means that they will not necessarily get the full benefit of what you are trying to present. Anyone can read words on a slide, which seems as though you are not essential. But the truth is that you should be giving them so much more than just those words on the slide. You should be giving them the benefit of your expertise and experience.
Managing slide transitions
After you have finished discussing the concepts of one slide and transitioning to the next slide, there will be some time in between where nothing is being said. So, what do you do with those seconds of silence? As ridiculous as it sounds, you don’t want to give your audience too much time to formulate their own ideas about your content. You also don’t want to do anything to lose them during that time. That is not to say that if your target audience formulates ideas that they will necessarily negatively impact your presentation.
However, why would you want to take that chance? On the other hand, if you can work it in as a natural pause between ideas, there is no risk that anything bad will possibly happen.
There are certain slides that don’t have anything that you need to say. In that case, the silence is no way oppressive or potentially destructive. It is expected and understood. At the same time, those slides should not in any way interfere with your slides that are rich in concepts and that have valuable information that you wish to share with your target audience members.
Variety is the spice of life
If you choose to work with slides as (one) of your preferred media, you will definitely want to make sure that your slides don’t sound exactly alike each time. Otherwise, you run the risk of boring your target audience members and that might be the kiss of death for your business. If you can introduce variety and novel approaches to your slide presentations, you will most likely get to hold the audience’s attention indefinitely. In fact, they will be hungry for more and more from you.
Each slide presentation (including the transitions between slides) can be unique and interesting in its own way. One example of a unique transition is to start a concept on one slide and finish it on the next slide. That will certainly capture your audience’s attention. If you feel as though you have too many time gaps in your slides, you can add some of your own insight that may not necessarily be reflected on the slides.
Conclusion
Slides are a very effective way to share your information in an innovative, valuable way. Your slides should not be copy heavy and they should contain a few simple concepts each. You certainly do not want your slides to appear cluttered or inconsistent. Of course, they should also be aesthetically pleasing. Your presentation skills may be effective but there is always room for improvement so it behooves you to consider broadening your portfolio when it comes to presenting your content and concepts.
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