Presentations

Self-assessment on today’s social media presentation

May 20, 2014 by Peter Fletcher

Today I presented a social media marketing course to around 120 members of the Peard Real Estate group. As a group they’re well disciplined and professional and come across as more serious and earnest than some of the other groups in the industry. This was my first social media marketing presentation in over 3 years. In that time I’ve been presenting courses on social media policy so this was a welcome return to where it all began.

Here’s my assessment of my performance.

Tell more stories

Whenever I tell stories I can feel the crowd leaning in. Some smile, others nod. The room is always quite. Sometimes there’s laughter, at other times gasps of fear. That’s when I know the message is getting through. But I don’t do enough of it. Every point I make should be accompanied by a story. My job is to find stories that make a point.

Change the way I explain the content quadrant

I created a quadrant that shows how content affects thought leadership. It’s a great model but it’s far too theoretical. Maybe I could turn it into four different stories that are much more visual. The stories I told to demonstrate the four quadrant positions worked quite well. With more thought that quadrant could make a deep impact.

Add more content

From the outset I was worried that I didn’t have enough content. In the first 1.5 hours I covered 41 of 98 slides. In the final 90 minutes I covered the remaining 57 slides. Toward the end I was pushing to get it all covered but I finished spot on time.

Include a section about Facebook advertising

I made the point that social media should be used to create advocates pretty well but this audience is real estate agents and they’re very pragmatic. It would’ve been helpful to include a section about Facebook ads to show agents how they can use Facebook to build their profile. I should also make the point that advocacy influences the advocate as well as much as those who they influence. Creating advocates has a useful byproduct of producing prospects from those advocates.

Drop the section on Twitter

I started the day with a session designed to get people on Twitter. It came across as disorganised and the fact that so many people tweeted that it was confusing showed that it was. I’ll drop this section for next time.

Be less idealistic

I could’ve shown people ways to make their social media maintenance more efficient by using software such as Hootsuite.

Tighten the group interactions, have less Q&A

Q&A is great in a small group but doesn’t work so well in a big group. I got away with it today but there were times that the room got a bit loose.

Overall I give myself a 6.7/10.

5 rules for a great presentation

February 14, 2014 by Peter Fletcher

Great presentations take planning and practice. Image: Jonny Goldstein http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnygoldstein/

On Wednesday I presented to an audience of 30 real estate agents. The course was about social media policy and email marketing.

I rate myself as an OK presenter. I’m passionate but sometimes that passion leads to a lack of cohesion in the presentation. At other times I get overly technical and bore people with the nitty gritty.

There are times in my presentation where I feel a closeness and connection with the audience. It’s usually when I’m telling a story and I’ll often have people come up to me after the presentation and comment about those parts.

That said I’m keen to improve my presentation skills so when I came across these tips from Inc. magazine I thought they were too good not to share.

Be yourself. Don’t try to be what’s on your business card or pretend that you know more than you know. In the main I do this but sometimes I can feel myself trying to muscle my way through a point, especially if the audience interaction (which I love) gets a bit heated. At that point I can tell (usually later) that I sound a bit shrill.
Tell stories. Whether it’s presenting, selling or writing this is great advice. Stories are what create emotional connection and gives people access to the meaning behind the data. It’s something I need to do more of.
Practice. According to Inc. “even charismatic speakers are tedious when they wing it.” By contrast, great speakers practice until their ideas pop with freshness. Practising a full day workshop is challenging but it’s something I need to do more.
Socialise. Speak to people in person, not as a gigantic collection of faces. Get intimate with a few members of the audience and talk directly to them. That connection with a few will translate into connection with many.
Brevity. Keep to the time allowed. At no time should the presentation run over time. Avoid cramming too much content into the presentation. Keeping to time involves doing lots of Step 3, practice.

With my next presentation – a keynote – in just over 2 weeks it’s time for me to start practicing.

5 rules for a great presentation

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