Public Speaking: PowerPoint Do’s & Don’ts
How do you give a great PowerPoint presentation in your public speaking? PowerPoint is a great tool. It’s great for audiences. It’s great for speakers. Except for when it’s abused and misused and you know the result.
The result is you fall asleep, everyone falls asleep. Many people misuse PowerPoint but it doesn’t mean PowerPoint is bad. PowerPoint can be extraordinarily effective for you.
I’ll share with you some simple tips that will help you succeed you public speaking, connect with your audience and get them to engage with your presentation.
PowerPoint DON’TS For Public Speaking
Reading Bullet Points
Reading the bullet points while standing from the screen behind you as your notes is not what the presentation has been designed for. It’s there to help you enforce your messages and to give the audience the key points that they are there to take away, not to be used as a script.
Keep it simple
If you start to put rimes and rimes of text onto your slides your audience will try and read it, so as soon as you flip to the new slide you loss the focus from you. As a result, people will try and read all the information that you put on the screen behind you.
Try keep it simple, three bullet points per slide, that’s plenty! Use three to five words per bullet point and don’t over complicate things, leave people with the key messages.
PowerPoint DO’S For Public Speaking
Picture Usage
I really encourage you to use pictures and images as they stay in the audience’s minds much more powerfully. If we associate what you are saying with the image that you put on the screen, they are more likely to remember what are you talking about.
Use PowerPoint as a Backdrop
Use your presentation as your backdrop. Don’t make people remember the PowerPoint, make them remember you and what you said. So, use your PowerPoint to enhance your public speaking.
In short, remember that PowerPoint isn’t your presentation, you are your presentation and the words you speak are the connection that you make with your audience.
Conclusion
Finally, you’re now well on your way to becoming an influential public speaker. Learn a few more tricks to keeping the audience happy with PowerPoint over at our blog.
Want to ditch your boring slides? Hire a PowerPoint expert now!