Keep the Audience Engaged

  

Let me share with you nine tips to keep the audience engaged and energized to your presentation:

1. Grab your audience using eye contact to draw people in. Make an activity and involve the audience where they can offer suggestions or comments about the presentation.
2. If it is a possibility for you, offer treats or beverages to stimulate the audience to keep alert.
3. Ask a question at the beginning of the presentation and wait until the end to answer it. This will encourage the audience to keep listening.
4. Put some humour in your presentation, tell a joke or experience related your topic. Maintain a dynamic presentation.
5. Do some role playing to attract the audience attention. Stimulate creative thinking.
6. Visuals are very useful. Make your point clear using different graphics or illustrations.
7. You can start the presentation stating an impressive fact about your topic.
8. Give credit to sources where you got the information. Let know the audience you are an honest person.
9. Good ending means not to be redundant. Go straight to your point and congratulations.

Keep the audience's attention

A Good Way to Gain the Audience Attention

Capturing the Audience Attention:

I know that often times the presenter has difficulty gaining the attention of the audience during a presentation. However, that is completely normal. Gaining the attention of the audience is the beginning, the presenter needs to keep that attention and increase it during the entire presentation.

The presenter should try to bring the speech to the audience, breaking distances. This helps to capture the attention and positively predispose to the presenter's views.

- The audience is gained with kindness and sympathy.

- Show a friendly or useful image.

- Looking at the audience can strengthen the communication.

- As I said before, tell stories.

- Fill in the presentation with fine touches of humour. It also helps to make some drama.

- The presenter must constantly watch the audience’s reaction. It will help to detect immediately any signs of loss of attention and determine a new way to gain the attention.

- If the presenter loses the audience’s attention at the beginning of the presentations it will become more difficult to recapture their attention. The presenter must capture the attention of the audience while he is opening the speech. If this fails the presenter should play with the voice, make gestures, gaze, tell anecdotes.
- Quotes. When you use quotes appropriately in a presentation, this can motivate the audience to listen. In this way you will keep their attention because they will want to know more.

You should click these 6 extra suggestions to gain the audience's attention...

Speaking to your Audience

When the presenter speaks to the audience the first thing to do is to capture interest and attention in order to have an effective communication.

Speaking to an audience that is uninterested is a waste of time. If an audience attends the presentation is because they are interested, and they hope to get something from it, like learning, see points of view, have fun or just understand a topic. That is why the presenter should try not to disappoint the audience.

The presenter must choose a topic that interests himself or the audience. It also has to use appropriate and understandable language.

We must consider the audience’s knowledge and see how the topic can be addressed to the presentation.

One technique that will also influence in the speech is if the speaker knows to the audience. For instance if the presenter has participated in past presentations, study in the same school or work in the same company. Try to anticipate some questions that the audience might ask and prepare for them.

In order for the presenter to be less challenging here are a few tips to follow before a presentation:

•        The presentation’s day, the speaker should be in a good shape.
•        The presenter should rest enough the night before in order to give a fresh presentation and have a 100% clear mind.
•         It should be a relaxing day. Avoid activities that will make the presenter lose energy; otherwise, it may cause nervousness.
•         The presenter should not rehearse hours before the presentation, otherwise it would get confused due to the nerves and it would be harder to gain the audience attention.
•         The presenter should eat light food to keep the stomach in control. Avoid caffeine because increases nervousness, avoid alcohol and tranquillizers.

Extra Tips to Gain an Audience’s Attention

The technique the presenter uses to deliver the message to the audience in a presentation is made up of three components. The visual, vocal, and verbal. These components determine the posture, gesture, eyes, and facial expressions of the presenter.

Posture and Gestures:

The posture is relevant to gain the attention of the audience. The way you act and behave on the platform is an important part of your presentation. The idea is to be relaxed and comfortable during the presentation. The goal is to make the audience believe you have the control of the presentation.

It is necessary to stand up straight and face the audience. Maintaining the posture with palms facing towards your body is recommended. Hold your head up with the chin up gives the appearance of having control over yourself.

Gestures are hands, arms, and head movements and can improve your presentation. The idea of having good gestures during presentation is to gain the audience and keep it interest in the topic. The presenter needs to communicate with honesty and authenticity.

Some gestures to avoid in a presentation are putting hands in the pockets. Nervous speakers do this without realizing they are doing it.

Avoid crossing your arms. This gesture focuses your energy in your body instead of releasing it. It makes harder being able to reach the audience.

Gestures help you to highlight important facts during a presentation. The most effective gestures are the spontaneous ones.

Good Posture and Gestures

Bad Posture and Gestures

Eyes and Facial Expressions:

Make eye contact with the audience, the way they look at you during a presentation will help to perform as a presenter. When making eye contact, you are involving the audience, which will help get the message transmitted.

Your facial expressions are important. It is helpful to smile during a presentation in order to keep the audience. In a presentation remember that you never get a second opportunity to make a first impression.

Good Facial Expressions will make you gain and keep an audience

Posted by Marjorie Brody, 2010 from “Presentation Pointers”

Summarized by Francisco Guevara.

Starting a Presentation With a Story

Starting a presentation with an opening story sounds simpler than it looks. The reason is because many presenters do not have the experience or knowledge of how to do an academic presentation.

Let me share a short video as an example of how to open a presentation with a story identifying techniques to gain and keep the audience attention.

In this TED video we can see how the presenter opens the presentation introducing the topic and telling a short story about it. He also asks rhetorical questions and at the same time he is answering the questions. The presenter puts some humour to the story to gain the audience attention.

The presenter uses good resources of visuals creating a scene for the topic. In addition, introduces the characters of the story and at the end resolves the story and make his point.

   kirk Citron

REMEMBER: A story will keep the audience attention, because they will want to know what happens next.

How Fear Affects in Gaining and Keeping an audience's attention

From personal experiences I have found some mistakes that students do in presentations:

• Students should put themselves in the audience position and imagine the student is also a listener.
• The visuals are confusing and disorganized and many times to much information on slides.
• Often times students pick topics they do not find interesting because it would be less challenging for them to present it.
• Poor knowledge of the story, including details, pronunciation or terminology.
• Students tend not to practice the presentation with enough time.
• Fear plays an important role in gaining and keeping the audience attention.

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      What you want during a presentation is the public’s attention; therefore everything you do and say has to be about gaining that attention, and then keeping it.
The audience is not the enemy, on the contrary, audience are people who believe the presenter can bring something they do not know and something’s worth to listen.

It is natural to be afraid before a presentation, and the presenter should not be a tough critic with himself for what happens in the presentation, it should not be considered weak or insecure for an error. The presenter can analyze the fear and try to discover the cause that originates it.

The fear can be irrational, and it is not based on logical terms. For instance being afraid of making a fool of yourself. This situation is unlikely to occur and therefore this fear must be rejected as absurd.

Another type of fear itself can be rational due to adverse situations that may occur. For instance staying blank during a presentation or not knowing the answer of a question. A way to avoid this issue is to prepare the speech and often times holding a prop up would not be a bad idea.

CLICK ME IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW A FEW MORE TIPS ABOUT HOW TO OVERCOME YOUR FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING

The best way to combat fear is with adequate preparation, When the presentation is controlled it can reduce the chances of making mistakes and build confidence in the presenter. Also is very important to think positive and if the presenter is very nervous it would help some physical activity to burn energy and calm the nerves. 


Remember: If you prepare yourself for the presentation it will be less challenging for you to gain and keep the audience's attention.

The Presenter's Job

Being a presenter is not only "drop" a speech, the presenter’s job is to communicate effectively a topic in which one is able to convey his ideas.

Being the presenter is an opportunity to be able to take advantage of the audience and explain them something you know about or something you believe in.

A group of people will be listening to the speaker and this one has a unique opportunity to convey his ideas and try to convince the audience. To catch the audience attention the presenter has to get the public interested in what he will say and this requires having knowledge of the techniques to gain and keep the audience attention.

Knowing the subject is necessary but not enough , the presenter must know to expose the topic in an attractive manner, managed to capture the audience’s attention and not to talk uninteresting topics, it has to be interesting, inspiring, and compelling.

When the presenter prepares a speech, he must consider:

First, the audience:

The presentation must be appropriate for the public who will be attending. You have to see what issues may be of interest, the level of knowledge the audience has, the use of appropriate language. The presentation should be to inform, motivate, entertain, give advises, etc. And accordingly will have to adapt the same style: formal or informal, serious or entertaining, close or distant.

And second, the topic to be discussed:

According to the subject being treated the style of the topic may be radically different. The presenter must know what is he going to talk about.

Nine Basic Techniques to Gain and Keep an Audience's Attention

According to the authors of the text “Business Communication process and product” skilled presenters know how to gain an audience’s attention and how to keep it during a presentation. Here are nine verified techniques that have helped a large number of people.

A promise:

Start with a promise that will maintain the listeners expectant. For instance you can say that by the end of your speech you will prove your point clearly.

Eye contact:

When you start your presentation make sure you grasp every individual’s attention by making eye contact with each and everyone of them. Give yourself enough time to convince your audience to listen.

      

Drama:

Open your presentation telling a short story. Make an extended pause after key statements in your the story and try to change your voice inflection, such as your tone, this will give some dramatic elements to your story.

Steve Jobs shocked thousands of people with his life story.

Questions:

Maintain an active audience with some questions. Ask for opinions and never tell the audience they are wrong, give the answer of your question without offending the listeners.

Involved your audience with rhetorical questions...

   

Movement:

Do not stay in one place. Walk around the presentation circumference and do not give your back at them.

Moving is essential to capture the audience's attention

Samples:

If your presentation is related to advertise a product, it would not be a bad idea to give items related to the product or award people who contributes in your presentation. Be cautious to keep order though.

If you give samples make sure you do not lose the attention of the listener

Demonstrations:

It would be a good idea to involve a member of the audience to participate in a demonstration.

As the presenter keep your audience involved

Self-interest:

Review the presentation and make sure you give the audience a reason of why your presentation benefits them.

Visuals:

Slides or short videos can help you in the presentation. Give the listeners something to look at besides yourself to keep them interest in your topic.

Authors of the text:

- Mary Ellen Guffey

- Kathleen Rhodes

- Patricia Rogin

Summarized by Francisco Guevara.

Keeping and Capturing your Audience Attention

Posted by Liam on October 13^th, 2011 from “Presentation Expressions”.

He walks us through nine basic steps to keep and capture the audience’s attention. I thought this might be helpful for presentations in your future. It is highly recommended to tell an interesting story. I also posted a video of him that will help clarify the points.

The nine basic steps are:

1. Create the scene
2. Introduce the characters
3. Journey (Task or objective)
4. Obstacle
5. Overcome
6. Resolve the story
7. Make your point
8. Ask your audience the question
9. Repeat the point

                                     How to get the attention of your audience

For more information check Liam's website by clicking this

Remember that if you open your presentation with a story, you WILL capture your audience's attention.

Mantain your Audience Attention

Have you ever asked yourself:

What can I do to keep the audience’s attention on a speech or during a presentation? There are always people who seem not to be paying attention or listening. Keeping audience attention is more important and more difficult than gaining audience attention. 

From the author of Speaking about Presenting by Olivia Mitchell these are four ways to keep the audience’s attention during a presentation or meeting:

1.Tell them a reason why they should listen

If the audience does not have a reason to be interested in what you are about to say, tell them why they should bother in paying attention to you. This can be defiant. As the presenter you can give examples or handouts to the listeners about the topic you are about to talk, if they don’t have interest in the topic the solution is to tell them why they should care about your topic. It doesn’t matter the topic you can break the ice telling a short story about what you are going to talk. If you cannot find a reason why they should listen, do not give the presentation.

 2. Talk about a topic your audience is interested in

The presenter might think this is very obvious and that you would never make this mistake. However, there are many people who talks about their own interests rather than what the audience is interested in.

3. Do not make it too easy or too hard for the audience

The concept flow developed by Csikszentmihalyi a Hungarian psychology professor is a state of being completely engaged and pleased in what you are doing. The presenter loses track of time because you are entirely focused on what you are saying. As well as the audience and it is there when the audience probably is in state of flow.

There is only one rule to succeed in having a flow and that occurs in the act of don’t be too easy or too hard with the audience. When the audience is listening to a presentation, the key is to think. The thinking task that you set has to be exciting for your audience to make them keep interest in your topic.
When you listen to someone talking through a series of bullet points it is important to make exciting thinking, if you don’t do that your point gets boring very quickly.

4. Keep your ideas short
The best way to keep your audience’s attention is not to ramble on.

Gaining your Audience Attention

To begin with gaining an audience's attention, the presenter of the speech will have to find out what the audience is interested in, the level of experience they have or the previously acquired knowledge. 

One of the most imperative questions to ask before starting a presentation is: "What do I want my audience to do and how do I persuade them to do it?" Some tips to do this are:

•   Ask an opening question, give the audience a hook.

•   You could start telling a short story (it could make them laugh and be interested in what you are about to say).

•   Move around the room, try hand gestures to make it easier for the audience.

•   Show a creative and interest visual to gain attention.

•   If you wish you could hold up a prop.

•   Increase your voice inflection.

                                        Get Their Attention Every Time You Speak