Impact – Measure and Increase Your Presentation’s Impact on Your Audience |

We are competing for relevance. – Brian Solis

Award-winning author and presentation expert Nancy Duarte has a new book out: HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations. This is the final part of a series outlining of each of the book’s sections as well as zeroing in on a specific topic.

Section 7: Impact

Build relationships through social media – engage with users so they’ll engage fully and fairly with your ideas
Spread your ideas with social media – facilitate the online conversation
Gauge whether you’ve connected with people – gather feedback in real-time and after your talk
Follow up after your talk – make it easier for people to put your ideas into action

As a visual learner, I have images and objects around my office that help me keep things top of mind. One very prominent image is a diagram from Bert Decker’s book You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard. It shows a presenter’s journey from information (focusing on education) to influence (focusing on motivation). If you are not urging your audience to do something, to take action, you should have just sent a memo.

The final section of Duarte’s book challenges you to do just that. All the ideas above are great, but here’s a little more about one that many presenters would run from:

Spread Your Ideas with Social Media

Use social media content the way you use stories, visuals, and sound bites: to reinforce and spread your message.

Social media activity usually spikes during a presentation, with moderate chatter beforehand and afterward. Facilitate the conversation at its peak by:

Streaming your presentation – post a live video stream of your talk so people can attend remotely
Time-releasing message and slides – use technology to automatically push key messages out at key moments during the presentation
Select a moderator – enlist a colleague to keep the social media thread constructive
Repeating audience sentiment – use the moderator to repeat and validate what live audience members are saying
Post photos of your talk – enlist someone to photograph your presentation and post online
Encourage blogging – invite bloggers, journalists, and social media specialists to attend and cover your presentation

If it’s worth speaking about the first time, it’s worth doing all you can to keep people talking about it.

This is the final part of a series looking at Nancy Duarte’s new book HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations, highly recommended for all leaders.

When audiences see that you’ve prepared – that you care about their needs and value your time – they’ll want to connect with you and support you. You’ll get people to adopt your ideas, and you’ll win the resources to carry them out.