In this video, we're going to look at how you can engage your audience in your
presentation. The first step, of course, is to create your content and know what you
want to share. And then the second step is to figure out how to maximize the
engagement and interaction between you and your listeners. And we're going to
look at six strategies to help move you in that direction.
Hello there and welcome back.
If this is your first time tuning into Communication Coach, this
channel is here to help people probably like you, rising leaders who want to
increase your impact so you can lead the people around you to higher levels of
excellence. We're doing a two-part series and how to engage your audience. In this
video we're gonna look at six quick tips. And, in the next video, we're going to
look at Learning Styles. So make sure that you look for that video. Either I'll
link it to a card above and I'll also put it in the description below. So in
this video I want you to look at these six strategies for engaging your
audience. Think about which one would be the easiest one for you to use in your
very next presentation. So tip number one ask more questions. Instead of just
talking at your audience, you want to create a feeling of a discussion. You
can ask what they call rhetorical questions, that you don't need anybody to
answer. You just ask the question and they think about it during your pause. Or
you can actually ask them to respond. But make sure you ask them a nice easy
question something light. All they have to do is maybe raise their hands or
shout out a one or two word response. Nothing too complicated. You want to keep
it nice and easy. Another thing that you can do is ask your listeners to do
something physical. This is tip number two. Ask them to do something like say
I'd like you to take an object out of your pockets or I would like you to open
or flip through a book that you might be looking at. I once saw a speaker for
example ask everybody to cross their arms and then once we all had our arms
crossed they talked about comfort and comfort zone a little bit then I said
okay now cross your arms in the opposite direction. And it really helped the
speaker make the point because there was a bit of discomfort when you star,t and
you can try it right now, when you switch your arms the opposite way that you're
used to folding them. It is a little bit uncomfortable. It really drove home the
speaker point, but by having us do something
physical it made it that much more powerful. The third tip is to give your
listeners something to react to. So it's not just you as a speaker and your
listeners maybe you put up a relevant quotation or image on a slide and then
you ask them to react to it in some way, like by asking them a question or in
some other way that is much more dynamic than just you and your listeners, now
it's a third part of the puzzle that they reacted to. Stimulus. Response. That
will usually get people thinking and get people talking.
The fourth way to get people more engaged is to ask a volunteer from your
audience to come up on the platform or the stage up to the front and do
something with you, demonstrate something with you.
And what happens when you bring
a volunteer up is that the other listeners put themselves in the
volunteers place. And so they're much more likely to relate to it and they
find it much more engaging and entertaining. For example, I teach college
and at the beginning of every semester in almost every course, I teach students how
to shake hands professionally and I bring up a volunteer and listeners are
laughing they're engaging because they can see themselves in the volunteer's
spot. And they all get better handshakes and they do a better job. And then we
have them practice it more as a group as well you can ask them again to do
something physically later. But just bringing the volunteer up is another
technique that you can use to get people more engaged. The fifth tip is to use a
real object, some kind of prop instead of just simply the PowerPoint slide. So for
example if I'm talking about camera lenses, I want to have a real object a
real prop real camera lens is way more engaging than a picture for example of a
camera lens up on the PowerPoint. And if you've ever flown on a plane you know
this when the flight attendant is demonstrating how to buckle the seat
belts, they use the actual object which is much more interesting to look at then
let's say that little pamphlet they put about the seat belts in the seat pocket
in front of you. I don't look at that pamphlet but I do look at the person
with the object and I always find a little interesting how they handle that
seat belt because it's a real object. Much more realistic and
interesting then a simple image. And the last tip the sixth tip is that you can
be the prop. Your physical body can be a way to engage your listeners. So the way
you gesture the way you come alive the way you move around your speaking area
you might even go a little bit into your audience like up an aisle for a little
bit. That's way more engaging than just standing still in one place the whole
time now you have to be careful. You don't want to move for no reason. You
don't want a pace like you're nervous. You have to move with a purpose but when
you move with a purpose it's much more likely to bring people into the
interaction, get them much more excited. So those are my six quick tips on how to
engage your audiences more effectively in a presentation. Just wanted to remind
you there is another video right after this and the card above here or in a
link in the description below about how to use learning styles as a schema for
interacting with your audience in a more dynamic way.
So thanks. God bless and I
will see you in the next video.