Social Media Tips and Techniques -- By Jessica Miller

When Jon McBride started a Facebook page for Weber State University in 2009, the page had over 7,000 fans in the first year. In just two years, the number of ‘fans’ the page has had nearly doubled, with over 12,000 fans of the page, coming from 18 different countries, and speak 19 different languages.

McBride, who works within the University Communications department, said he never thought the page would take off like it did. Initially, he spent about a tenth of his day on various social media tasks. In 2011, he said nearly half of his working hours are spent related in some way to WSU’s social media outlets, which now include YouTube and Twitter accounts.

The key to WSU’s success? McBride said it has everything to do with the idea of “user-generated content.”

“It’s not about me creating the funniest and catchiest posts on our page that people are going to love,” he said. “It’s more about creating content on our page that teases out this user-generated content, creates dialogue, a conversation, gets people to answer questions.”

One of the features that generate some of the most interaction on WSU’s Facebook page is a question of the day. This ranges from where the best spots to hang out on campus are to what students think about controversial smoking policies being discussed in student senate. The questions get the users talking to the university, about the university, and to each other.

And this, McBride said, is another benefit to social media. He calls this sort of user-generated content the 2011 version of a paid testimonial, but the difference is, Facebook users aren’t being paid to give their opinion.

Good or bad, a raw opinion about a company can speak volumes to users who may be looking into whether they would like to do business with that company. Even if some of the posts are negative about the company or organization, McBride said that’s alright too.

“Even that negative stuff brings to your page credibility,” he said. “Users see that people are being open and that this isn’t some super-filtered forum with fake people. Those negative comments make the positive ones shine out even more.”

So how do you get started in social media? Setting up the actual account may be the easiest part about social media – most homepages will give you a guided form.

After the set-up, comes the execution. This is where your adventure in trial and error begin. Social media can be a delicate balance. Post too little, and your audience will forget you even exist. Post too much, and you might as well guarantee an ‘unfollow.’

Rules for social media often vary depending on the type of platform being used. On Youtube, for instance, one could post several videos in one day because many of those who view the video will most likely not ‘follow’ them and be notified, and subsequently annoyed, when a video is posted.

However, take your Facebook account and post more than three times in one day, and a drop in ‘friends’ is almost a guarantee. Most Facebook users find an excess of posts to be just that – excess. To them, your business shout-outs are clogging up their newsfeed that could be used by other friends and businesses.

But take Twitter, for instance. The social media service is presented in an entirely different format. Short, timely tweets are thrown up quickly, are viewed quickly, and are most likely, moved away from quickly. The fast pace of Twitter allows users to post much more frequently.

After deciding to jump on the social media shift, many questions will rise: When do I post? What do I post? How do I get people to pay attention to me? What if I mess it all up?

First of all, the time you send your posts may reflect on how many people read them. Internet marketer Gary McCaffrey shared on his website his own web traffic from his Twitter account. He said, for his personal account, he received the best Twitter responses between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. Pacific Time Zone. His data also showed that any posting between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. gave a tweet more exposure.

As for what to post on your page, that is a little less number crunching and a little more feeling. No one approach to social media is going to work for every business. Many businesses trying to gain more foot traffic find posting coupons exclusive to a certain social media platform successful. Others may find this a wash. Either way, every business just has to experiment what works best for them. The most important thing to remember is to maintain a consistent feed that has a genuine feel.

Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling you are talking out to no one, especially when you are talking business and wanting more customers. Once you create that account, how are you supposed to garner followers, anyway?

First of all, get the people who know you personally or work for you follow your page. They will be the most supportive of your social media cause.

As far as reaching those who are outside of your social circle, that’s trickier. It used to be the norm for businesses to search for keywords, like “tires,” “phone service,” etc., and send out a private message or link the second someone had anything to say about anything that in any way scarcely related to their business. That formula has begun to fail after people grew tired of what appeared to be spam appearing in their accounts. Businesses still do it, but it is not nearly as effective as it once was.

The best way to garner follows is to gain them organically. Post your social media information on your contact page on your website, put it on your business cards, in your newsletter, on the bottom of email messages. This allows people who have already showed some interest in your company the opportunity to connect to you in social media land.

If you are really looking for a way to get a high volume of followers quickly, host a giveaway. Nothing draws people when a free product or service is being given away in exchange for a mere “Like” on Facebook or “Follow” on Twitter.

But what do you do if you screw up big time? A misfired tweet, YouTube video, or Facebook post can spread quickly, becoming viral in a matter of hours. The thing to remember is such social media scandals are often short-lived.

Take for instance a 2011 mis-tweet from clothing designer Kenneth Cole. With headlines buzzing about violent and deadly riots in Egypt, Cole took to Twitter and posted this tweet along with a link to his website:

“Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection in now available online.”

Talk about bad timing and bad Tweet behavior. People were outraged that the designer would joke about such a sensitive subject. Within an hour, Cole tweeted an apology:

“We weren’t intending to make light of a serious situation. We understand the sensitivity of this historic moment.”

And, somehow, despite the uproar, the company’s stock managed to jump 1.8 percent by the end of the day.

Not every fiasco will have such a neat ending. Sometimes when you mess up in social media, there’s nothing you can do but apologize and take your bruises from the public. Granted, most new users in social media won't be managing a campaign as large as, say, Kenneth Cole, so don't be overly concerned with misfiring a social media message. Just take a moment before hitting that “send” button to think about the message you are conveying, and if it is the message that you, in fact, want conveyed.

Another example to note: even if you don’t get on the social media bandwagon, it doesn’t mean you still can’t find yourself in the middle of a social media meltdown.

Take for instance the 2009 social media fiasco of “Nikon hates babies.” Talk about bad branding.

In 2009, Nikon hosted an after-party during the BlogHer conference in Chicago. (BlogHer is a popular network of blogs written for and by women.) One mom was preparing to board a limo to go the party, when she was informed she couldn’t bring her baby with her to the event. She tweeted:

“I just got kicked out of the Nikon party because I have a BABY & no babies are allowed #blogher09 #nikonhatesbabies”

Soon enough, the searchable hashtag #nikonhatesbabies spread like wildfire throughout the Twitterverse, and Nikon was gaining the reputation of a company who hates babies – not a good marketing point.

Nikon took to their blog and explained:

“Due to the time of the event, the noise level, the availability of alcohol and the proximity to water, we determined that from a safety perspective, children should not attend.”

Nikon successfully killed the fire after explaining their reasons for keeping the event adult-only. Like most social media scandals, eventually Nikon’s also died out as well. In 2011, most of the general public would not think Nikon and think of baby-haters.

But the biggest reason that many people choose to stay out of the social media arena is because they feel that social media is a passing fad that requires too much time and effort.

McBride put it best when he said:

“This isn't a slap watch that kids are going to think is cool for a few days, weeks or years and then move on to the next toy. This is a fundamental shift in how people communicate — interpersonally, yes, but also with businesses. People have never been able to interact with big business the way that they can through Facebook. That provides a phenomenal customer service opportunity for businesses.”

Interacting through the Internet is never going to go away. This is not a fad that will fade like the eight-track – this is changing the game in the way we communicate.

Not to say that the services that are being used today may not evolve into something else, such as MySpace became irrelevant and Facebook taking over as king of social networking. There will always be this evolution of how we communicate using technology, but what medium that is in will undoubtedly change.

So why put all the effort into learning some new technological world if its just going to be dumped for something else in the next year or so?

Simply put: That’s where your customers are.

According to Twitter, 200 million people have registered accounts as of January 2011, with 100 million of those accounts added in 2010 alone. YouTube garners 200 million views every day solely on mobile devices. Every month, Facebook users share 30 billion pieces of content on their pages.

Social media is simply where the customers are. Not only are the services offering you a hotbed of people eager to share information about their hobbies, where they live, and what they love, it’s free too.

Granted, it takes your time. Time equals money. But for many businesses, the time (or money used to pay someone else to do it) was worth it.

Katie Delahaye Paine wrote an article that was published in the January 2011 edition of “Communication World” that proved just that point.

Paine wrote of several businesses who successfully used social media to garner an incredible return on investment. She wrote of the food service company Sodexho, who hired 50 recruiters (and spent about $50,000) to search Twitter to find tweets about food, cooking, and job searching. They then would engage those users in conversation and eventually referred them to the Sodexo recruitment web page.

In six months, the Twitter approach filled enough open spots to cancel the $350,000 they had been spending maintaining a Monster.com account. That means Sodexo saved $300,000 – or received a net return on investment of 6,000 percent.

Paine also detailed another similar story where the Humane Society of the United States used the photo-sharing site Flickr. Anyone was able to upload a picture of his or her own pet for a “Spay Day Pet Photo Contest.” Each upload cost the user $1. After six weeks, the Humane Society had received $650,000 in donations. And setting up that Flickr account? It was free.

The big picture here is that if you don’t use social media – or are making a lackluster attempt at doing such – you are doing nothing but hurting yourself. This is no passing trend and is no longer exclusive to a certain crowd or age group. Social media has taken off, and has become the norm. If you want to compete in business, you’ll need to utilize these new forms of communication to garner attention.

Top 5 Tips to Remember with Social Media

1. Be a human. Sounds silly, but many businesses attempting social media are unsuccessful because they let a computer do all the work for them by sending spam to followers or using automatic links. After awhile, people just move over links with gazed eyes. There has to be some kind of interaction with the public, some real words that a real person has written.
2. Don’t spam after an immediate follow. So, someone just followed you back on Twitter or ‘liked’ you on Facebook? One of the quickest ways to get an unfollow is to put a message in their inbox – especially a generic message that is clearlycomputer-generated – about how great your company is. If you insist on sending a message at first encounter, perhaps find something interesting they have put online and mention it. Such as, “I see you are an avid mountain biker. Glad we connected, I love mountain biking as well. Let us know if you ever need anything from (the business.)” But don’t make up your love of mountain bikes. People can see through phoniness and insincerity, even in a digital medium.
3. Remember everything you post is public and is being archived. It’s not difficult to pull up a misguided tweet someone posted in the past. Remember that you are representing a brand, even if that brand is your personal self. If you use Twitter to promote your business self, but use Facebook for personal friends and family, make sure your Facebook settings are ultra-private. Nothing is more embarrassing than a potential business partner stumbling over photos from your boozy Cancun cruise.
4. Remember the key to social media is social. Nothing is more irritating than when a business uses social media to talk about nothing more than their company in a one-sided format. Social media users need to talk to their audience, not at their audience. Address feedback (both negative and positive) that users may share, ask them what specials they would like to see with the business, ask them trivia questions – anything to create a conversation between followers and the business.
5. Don’t get overwhelmed. Admittedly, wading through the do’s and don’ts of social media can be overwhelming and tedious. Find what works best for you. Sometimes what one person says is best, isn’t always going to work for your type of brand. Not everyone is automatically perfect at crafting an attention-grabbing tweet or awe-inspiring Facebook post. It’s OK. Just start something. Having a way to connect with potential customers is worth it.

Interview with a social media professional: Ben Winslow

Ben Winslow, a reporter for Fox 13 in Salt Lake City, Utah, is not who you would consider a social media expert in normal terms. He has not profited from his social media ventures, he is not selling a product, but has managed to garner 3,308 followers who hear everything from him: from the latest news, his song choice for the day, or where he’s getting his caffeine fix.

For many who follow him, he is the go-to when it comes to news and happenings within the state. He was voted as “Best Person to Follow on Twitter” in 2011 by the readers of the Salt Lake City Weekly, and placed second in the same category in 2010.

Winslow is obviously doing something right with social media, and has shared some of his secrets to his success.

He said he started his Twitter account (@BenWinslow) in 2009, and initially kept it private and didn’t tweet news or much of anything that was relevant to more than a few family friends.

He started going public, he said, after he had seen how other journalists were using their accounts to assist them in their reporting. So he took to his account and started sharing his behind-the-scenes views he was experiencing while reporting the news. And people responded.

Winslow said he liked this aspect of social media because it broke down a sort of wall that separated the media and the public.

“People do a lot more interacting,” he said. “There was always this kind of wall. Now, there’s no separation. There’s this instant feedback.”

Winslow said his top tips for being a social media success include being genuine and who you really are, and of course, making sure to interact with others.

“There’s a reason why it’s called social media,” he said.

He said to make sure to provide content that is original and will be new to most people who view it – nothing is more uninteresting than a person who just relinks other people’s web articles or news stories.

He also advised users to make sure users are accessible, and to make sure to play nice and not create “flame wars” online by throwing offensive or inflammatory comments towards someone else.

Winslow said he has not hard and fasts rules on when and what he tweets. He said some days he may tweet more because of the nature of the issue he is covering, but he generally just goes by the rule that if he thinks it’s interesting, other people probably will too.

He said he’s not sure anyone really has a certain formula for that works the best in the social media world.

“We’re still trying to solve that great equation,” he said. “How to use it, how to monetize , etc.”

But he said there’s no doubt about it: social media is here to stay. He said he doesn’t see the online interactions as a fad, but rather a shift in the way people communicate.

“I think it has staying power,” he said. “People thought TV was a fad, or the radio. I see it as another platform. It’s a whole new world within a world.”

Resources

1. The New Rules of Marketing and PR, by David Meerman Scott, is a book that provides a great look at how to use social media to reach buyers directly.
2. Measuring the real ROI of Social Media, by Katie Delahaye Paine, is an article printed in the January edition of Communication World. This article discussed the examples of Sodexo and The Humane Society’s success with social media, along with other examples.
3. 25 Ways to Get More Social Media Followers, by Diana Freedman, is a blog post on HubSpot Blog that shares 25 interesting ways to gain more followers from a business perspective: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/7512/25-Ways-to-Get-More-Social-Media-Followers.aspx
4. Let’s Talk: Social Media for Small Business, is a PDF file created by ducttapemarketing.com that provides an in-depth look at the importance of social media and how to use it for small business: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/7512/25-Ways-to-Get-More-Social-Media-Followers.aspx
5. Social Networking for Promoting you as a Brand, by Brian Solis, is an excerpt published by FT Press from his book “Putting the Public Back into Public Relations. It is a great and informative resource to social networking and branding.

How to Write an Effective Presentation

How to Write an Effective Presentation

(And Avoid Killing your Audience with Bullet Points)

By Tammy Eppens

Introduction

The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public. ~~George Jessel

Why is it that fear of public speaking ranks right up there with death and flying on the list of common phobias? After all, we are all born with a deep-seated desire to communicate. Isn’t a presentation just another means of communication? What is it about standing in front of an audience, large or small, that paralyzes every speaker on some level?

Harken back to first grade. Think about show and tell. It was the best part of the week. You got to bring in your favorite doll, a truck, a bird’s nest. Maybe you showed a ball, or a book, or a bumblebee.

You stood in front of your class and you talked about your treasure. The words came naturally. You weren’t afraid because you A) knew your subject, B) cared about your subject, and C) told a story. Sometimes you even made your friends laugh and you laughed with them.

Now think about speech class in junior high school. It’s a different feeling, isn’t it? You lost sleep the night before. You dreaded going to class. You were terrified you would stumble over your words. You were absolutely, positively convinced you would embarrass yourself beyond repair.

Then your worst nightmare came true. The teacher stood against the wall with a tin coffee can and a quarter. You began your speech just as you had eloquently rehearsed it a hundred times the night before. But now, every time you say, “Um,” or “You know,” or stutter or stammer in some way, that quarter gets flung into the coffee can and you about jump out of your well-pressed dress pants.

Who can blame you for hating the very thought of giving a presentation?

Fast forward to your professional life. You have a myriad of electronic gizmos and gadgets at your disposal. You can fill fifty PowerPoint slides with data, clip art, and copy. You may still be terrified, but darn it, you will be heard. You have information to relay and will not stop until the final slide has slithered on to the screen.

Pat yourself on the back. You have just killed your audience with bullet points.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can write an effective presentation without leaving victims in your wake. It starts with going back to how you felt in first grade show and tell.

Begin With the End in Mind

It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. ~~Mark Twain

The first thing you need to ask yourself is, “What is the purpose of my presentation and what do I want the outcome to be?” Purpose is about you, what you want to accomplish; outcome is about your audience, what you want your audience to do with your information.

You should be able to answer those questions in a paragraph or two. If you can’t, start over.

Remember, you are taking your audience on a journey. You can’t get to your destination without a map.

Follow these directions, and you will get to where you want to go:

1) Know your audience.

2) Brainstorm ideas.

3) Write an outline.

4) Write a script.

5) Edit.

6) Edit.

7) Edit.

8) Rehearse.

9) Develop your slides.

10) Present.

Did you see that? The media development comes after you have written your presentation. PowerPoint (or Keynote or Prezi) isn’t the star of the show. It’s best actor in a supporting role. Never start with media. It will lead you down the wrong path.

In his article Presentation Zen: How to Design and Deliver Presentations Like a Pro, Garr Reynolds says “…the slides are supposed to support/supplement the narration of the speaker, not make the speaker superfluous.” He goes on to say he has often been asked for his PowerPoint slides by colleagues who have missed one of his presentations. His response: “If they are good slides, they may be of little use.”

Which leads to the next point.

Words Matter

Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent.
~~Dionysius Of Halicarnassus

Your presentation is a necklace of words. Often times the most beautiful necklace is the most simple. Choose your words judiciously.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke directly to the American people in what is commonly known as his Infamy Speech. It was a terse six-and-a-half minutes long.

But what if he had kept the original draft? “Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a day which will live in world history…” doesn’t have the same impact (ah, yes, FDR’s famous World History Speech).

At the last minute, he crossed out world history and inserted infamy. And now the speech lives in, well, infamy.

The right words are important. Peggy Noonan, author and presidential speechwriter, says in her book What I Saw at the Revolution, “A speech is poetry: cadence, rhythm, imagery, sweep! A speech reminds us that words, like children, have the power to make dance the dullest beanbag of a heart.”

She writes in Simply Speaking, “Never strain for a long or demanding word if it does not present itself naturally. If a plain word presents itself first, take that.”

Here are some tips for choosing the right words:

1) Don’t use a big word just to use a big word. You’ll stumble over it if it’s not already part of your vocabulary.

2) Don’t use jargon or slang (unless it’s appropriate for your audience).

3) Don’t speak in acronyms. If you must, explain them.

4) Speak in active voice.

5) Use short sentences.

6) Cut out all the unnecessary adjectives and adverbs.

7) Subscribe to a word of the day website like www.dictionary.com

8) Use analogies appropriate for your audience; look beyond football and basketball.

9) Say it out loud. If the word doesn’t sound right, find another one.

10) Use alliteration to link your points.

Now that you’ve got a map and the right words, don’t fizzle like a dud bottle rocket on your entrance. Read on.

Grab Their Attention

You had me at hello.

~~Dorothy to Jerry Maguire in the movie of the same name

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” As trite as the old saying is, it’s true.

Some research says we humans make a decision about another person in 60 seconds; other research says it’s more like two or three. Not to put the pressure on, but Princeton psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov have found “that all it takes is a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger from their face.”

Yikes!

What that means is, you need to discard the old “tell them what you’re gonna tell them; tell them; tell them what you told them” rule. Opening with “Today I’m going to talk about XYZ” won’t cut it.

In his article 10 Tips for More Effective PowerPoint Presentations, Dustin Wax says, “Like the best writing, the best presentations shake their audiences early and then reel them in. Open with something surprising or intriguing, something that will get your audience to sit up and take notice.”

Inspirational speaker and trainer Lacy Matthews, opens her presentations in the middle of a story. She says, “I make them want to keep listening.” You can’t do that if you have to spend the first two minutes of your presentation introducing yourself and outlining your credentials.

So how do you open with a bang instead of a fizzle? Try one of these:

1) Ask a question. Provoke thought.

2) Use humor, but use it well. Don’t tell a joke if you can’t deliver it. Instead, share a cartoon that speaks for itself.

3) Share a quote. www.brainyquote.com www.thinkexist.com or www.quotegarden.com are all great resources. Better yet, keep a file of great quotes from your own reading; it will be more meaningful.

4) Give your audience a shocking statistic.

5) Show something unusual--a unique image or a visual aid that seems out of place with your presentation.

6) Engage the audience. Have them do something unexpected.

7) Tell a story.

8) Get your audience moving.

9) Don’t introduce yourself. Let someone else introduce you.

10) In the words of Julia Child, “NEVER apologize!” (Well, almost never. See Lacy Matthews’ tips below.) You may be nervous or unprepared, but the audience may never know if you don’t tell them.

Garr Reynolds, in his book The naked presenter: Delivering Powerful Presentations With or Without Slides, writes, “There are many ways to strike quickly, start with punch, and make a strong initial connection. Conveniently, at least five proven ways to begin a talk form the acronym PUNCH: Personal, Unexpected, Novel, Challenging, or Humorous.”

Put on your boxing gloves and give them a left jab!

Now that they have your attention…

Be a Storyteller

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.

~~Robert McKee

Think about the last presentation you heard. What do you remember? If it was a fifty-slide PowerPoint presentation, probably not much.

Wait. You said it was memorable? What made it memorable?

Let’s pretend last week’s sermon was on Jabez’ prayer (it was). If you were part of the audience, do you remember the bullet points?

• Jabez was a very honorable man.
• Jabez was able to rise above the prophetic doom of his name.
• Oh, that you would bless me.
• Enlarge my border.
• That your hand may be upon me.
• God, keep me from evil.

Chances are, unless you have a photographic memory, you may have recalled that the sermon was about Jabez, but nothing much specific after that--except the pastor’s story, which went something like this:

If you were to go talk to my high school buddies and happen to mention you saw me in Utah and that I’m a pastor and that I’ve started a Christian academy right next to my church, they would probably say, ‘Huh? He’s sober enough? He’s not high?’ You see, miracles are relative. That some guy started a church and an academy are not miracles. That I started a church and an academy in light of my checkered past is nothing short of miraculous.

Voilá. Memorable.

Scott Schwertly underscores the importance of using stories in his book How to be a Presentation GOD: “Our job when presenting is to magically transform outwardly boring subject matter into inwardly fulfilling action…If we can’t find a compelling story in the information we’re sharing, why bother to share it? If it doesn’t somehow relate to some element of the human experience, why should your audience do anything other than play Pong on their smartphones until you’re done prattling on?”

Here are some tips for great storytelling:

1) Weave personal experience into your presentation.

2) Paraphrase a fable, fairy tale or parable to punctuate your point.

3) Make sure your story has a plot.

4) Tell only the necessary details or you’ll get bogged down in the telling.

5) Use the five senses: hearing, sight, touch, smell, taste.

6) Be sincere and relevant.

7) Insert a video clip.

8) Look for stories around all around you.

9) Don’t try to pass off someone else’s story as your own.

10) Illustrate every bullet point with a story.

If you’ve mapped the course, picked just the right words, opened with a bang and kept them hanging on your every story, there’s only one thing left to do.

Close.

Leave Them Wanting More

Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening.

~~Dorothy Sarnoff

You’ve been there. You’re twenty minutes past your attention span and you need a bathroom break. You’re doodling, passing notes, checking email, anything to stay awake. The speaker promised she had only one more point to make two points ago.

You are in presentation purgatory.

As Kenny Rogers sang, “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.” Now is the time to make a lasting impression.

Listen to what Scott Schwertly has to say about closing: “Closing is all about filling people with purpose: your purpose, their purpose, and the reason for the meeting, product, or events being discussed. By planning your presentation well, you should be able to deliver a solid climax to a story that has built throughout the entire talk.”

Garr Reynolds says to make the ending “sticky.” In other words, the ending should make all the points of your points stick. The audience should leave with your ideas firmly embedded in their brains.

However you choose to end your presentation, avoid at all costs the words “in conclusion,” “to summarize,” or “thank you for your attention.” It’s like putting mustard on filet mignon.

Remember how Lacy Matthews opens her presentations? She jumps right in the middle of a story then goes on to weave her message. As she’s wrapping up, she finishes the story. Most of the time you can’t hear a pin drop.

Here are some tips for ending your presentation with pizzaz:

1) If it’s appropriate, leave them laughing.

2) Ask your audience to DO something as a result of your presentation.

3) Tell a story.

4) Reveal your one most important take-away: “If you remember one thing from my presentation, remember this: X.” And sit down.

5) If you’ve had them laughing, end on a serious note.

6) Use a video.

7) Get your audience moving, physically moving.

8) End with a thought-provoking quote.

9) Paint a verbal picture.

10) Go back to your introduction and take a page from Paul Harvey: “And now you know the REST of the story.”

If you don’t have a second chance to make a first impression, the same can be said for your closing. A memorable closing will anchor your entire presentation; a not-so-memorable closing can erase all your best efforts.

Stick it like Mary Lou.

Conclusion

According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy. ~~Jerry Seinfeld

Forget about your junior high school speech class. Never again subject an audience to death by bullet points. Go back to first grade show and tell:

1) Begin with the end in mind: “I’m going to show my class the glow stick I got at the circus so they’ll want to go see the elephants before they leave town.”

2) Words matter: “Look at this cool glow stick! It’s green. It lights up. You can wave it around.”

3) Grab their attention: “The acrobat fell into the net. The lion got out of his cage. The elephants sprayed water on me. I love the circus!”

4) Be a storyteller: “I went to the circus with my dad. I didn’t think he was going to be home from his trip. He was at a meeting all week. But he surprised me. And he bought me this great glow stick.”

5) Leave them wanting more: “I got this great glow stick. Wait until you see what else I got. I’ll bring it for next show and tell.”

Thoughts from a Pro: Lacy Matthews

Lacy Matthews is an inspirational speaker and trainer. She is the founder and owner of Glass Half Full Enterprises.

Visit her website at www.glasshalffullenterprises.com

Lacy’s Top 10 Tips for Effective Presentations:

1) Don’t talk in words; talk in stories.

If words are our tools, then stories are our power tools. The biggest mistake most people make when presenting is talking in generalities. Not only does it take longer to make a point, it isn’t memorable.

Human beings think in terms of pictures, not words. I can say, “I ate breakfast this morning,” and you won’t remember what I’ve said. Speaking in generalities does not leave an impression. All you will understand is that I took in some form of nourishment.

Or I can tell you, “ Breakfast this morning felt like a gift I gave myself! From the crisp, thick Belgian waffles, topped with fresh strawberries and fluffy, sweet whipped cream, to the coffee beans I ground for my coffee and the sweet smell of the oranges I squeezed for my juice, the whole house was consumed in the aromas from my kitchen. I just love slow mornings.”

When you speak in pictures, your audience is A) more likely to remember your point and B) more likely to transport themselves into how they can relate to you. The purpose is not to incorporate all five senses into your stories. The purpose is to create a picture—and sometimes you will use all five senses.

Your stories don’t have to be grandiose. Look at Seinfeld. He talks about everyday moments. People can relate so it gets a laugh. You want your audience thinking, “Oh yeah! That’s just like when…” You want them going back and forth between your stories and their own stories. Your moments can be their moments.

2) Don’t put in too many details; choose the right details.

You’ve been there. Someone starts telling you a story and it catches your interest. But then come the details: “then this happened, then that happened, then the other thing happened, and the weather was, and the colors were…” Before long you’re thinking about the menu for dinner tonight, how much laundry you have to do and the book you’d rather be reading.

Here is an assignment I often give my audiences: “In two minutes, tell me about a moment that has shaped your life.” With that time constraint, the important details naturally emerge. You can’t put in a lot of fluff when you only have two minutes to tell your story.

Another tip: write out the story, then whittle it down, keeping only the most essential details.

3) Don’t speak in laundry lists.

You’ve been there: endless PowerPoint slides with bullet point after bullet point of text. Each point needs to have a story attached to it. I never “show” my points with written material of any kind. I only give out written materials when my presentation is over, if then. If you’ve done a good job, your audience will remember the point you wanted to make—even quote you or paraphrase you.

One of the worst mistakes you can make is to put a slide up and leave it there. People will be reading your slide and waiting for you to catch up. You’ll be like Charlie Brown’s teacher, some wordless voice in the background intoning “Wah, wah WAH wah.”

4) Open with impact.

Let someone else introduce you so you can get right into your presentation. You don’t want to spend those crucial “first impression” moments credentialing yourself or warming up an audience. Write your own introduction and give it to the person who will be introducing you.

Open your presentation with a moment that has the audience intrigued or on the edge of their seats. Make them want to keep listening. When I talk about the day my dad died, I don’t start by saying I was eight years old and it was a hot August day. I often start with the statement, “His hands were cold and blue and made me nervous.” This captures my audience’s attention so they won’t want to go refill their coffee.

5) End memorably.

End where you started. Go back to the beginning and tell the rest of the story. Or add another tidbit to it. People like you to wrap it up, but you don’t retell everything.

I end my keynotes with another, important tidbit about how my dad’s death impacted my life.

Another tip: end with a question that challenges the audience to do something. I will often ask, “Think of one thing you will do differently in your life based on what I shared today.” I then ask everyone to write it down, even if only in bullet points. I ask them to please stand when they have their idea written down. Now I have the option of surveying the audience, knowing they are prepared to give an answer.

6) Pick the right topic.

You can’t be effective unless you’ve earned the right to talk about something, until you’ve been there, done that, lived through it. If you’re in the middle of something, you haven’t earned the right to talk about it.

You can’t teach us what you’ve learned until you are on the other side of it. Don’t talk about working through a divorce until you’re well on the other side of your divorce decree. You risk depressing people instead of inspiring them. It may well be therapy for you, but it won’t make an impact with your audience.

In business, you can’t talk about selling something until you’ve sold something. You can’t talk about leadership until you’ve been a leader.

7) Use visual aids effectively.

Ask yourself if they are truly necessary or just a crutch.

Visual aids are OK if they draw interest. I prefer to use tangible items. For example, I use a hammer when illustrating how our words, like a hammer, can be used to build something. But both a hammer and our words can also be very destructive. Then I ask, “Do you build people up, or break them down?” while holding up the hammer.

In an upcoming keynote, the organizer is going to hand attendees little mini hammers on their way out so they remember to choose words wisely. I think it’s a great reinforcement.

8) Care about your delivery.

No matter how good you are, or how often you give your presentation, you owe it to your audience to be prepared.

Reviewing your material, well in advance, makes sure you have the time to customize it to your specific audience, when appropriate. Never quit asking yourself if you can improve on the delivery. If you feel part of your presentation is getting stale to you, it’s probably getting stale to those listening.

Getting there early allows you to get focused and mentally ready to present at a high level. A good speaker puts their audience first and finds a way to let go of life’s distractions well in advance of presenting to the group. Nothing is more of a turn off than someone bumbling in, obviously in a frenzy, due to lack of planning.

Get there a minimum of an hour before you present to ensure the room is ready, the sound system is ready, the person introducing you is ready and most importantly, you’re ready. I liken it to professional athletes. No matter how good, they warm up before EVERY game.

You can’t be effective unless you have a point to make. Consider a series of envelopes: regular, FedEx, and padded.

If you have a bill or letter to mail, you’ll use a regular old envelope. If you need something to get there fast, you’ll use a FedEx envelope. If you care about the condition of the contents, you’ll use a padded envelope.

Consider your talk to be one of these envelopes. Think about what you’re going to say before you say it.

9) Remember, it’s not about you.

Make certain every point you want to make within a presentation, has attached a benefit to your audience.

For example, after sharing about a particularly difficult time in my life when I took charge and prevailed, I end with, “No matter what each of us are going through at this very moment in our lives, we must remember we are the authors of our life stories. Are we letting someone else write the script? We can’t let others decide how it’s going to be written.”

A simple but important lesson for all speakers: Say “ we” not “you.” Those who say “you” can come across as talking down to their audience. While it may be true a speaker has gone through something no one else has, we all have our stories. We are there to inspire them, not to preach to them. In my opinion they are very different and set the good speakers apart from the great speakers.

This comes down to knowing your audience. You have to get to know people, make a connection.

When I’m teaching about effective presentation skills I’ll often ask, “Does anyone want free James Taylor music (dates me, right?)?” Then I hand them an 8-track tape.

When they tell me they don’t have an 8-track player, I’ll hand them a cassette. Then a CD. Now it’s all iTunes.

My point is we keep trying to make a point using the same old ways. The old way was to write down a presentation and read it. The new way is to think about what you want to say, write a few points, then deliver your stories. Practice your transitions to lead from point to point.

10) Don’t take yourself too seriously.

No one loves a stuffy presenter who is trying to come off as perfect. Who can relate to perfect? People prefer the humanness of the presenter. If I make an obvious mistake, I sometimes just call attention to it by poking fun at it. People don’t care that I make mistakes and sometimes it might even make them feel more connected to me. Using humor ensures people laughing with me instead of at me.

If you fall, you curtsy.

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