You will be surprised when you find out how long it takes a person to appreciate the attractiveness and usefulness of the incoming information. Wait, couldn’t “hook” the audience? Mission failed! People will immerse themselves in gadgets, love experiences, or dreams of an upcoming vacation. Their thoughts will be preoccupied with anything but your performance. Want to keep your audience’s attention? Be confident and keep your personality up. If you have free time then try to check which personality is similar to you with an online personality generator tool.
1. Advertise the benefits
Start by communicating how people will benefit from your presentation. “Today you will learn 5 methods of …” or “By the end of my speech, you will understand how to triple the number of loyal regular customers.” Very often, speakers forget to talk about the importance of their information, and this is a good hook to keep the viewer’s attention. Especially if your advice and life hacks resonate with the audience’s “pain” – the problems they need to solve.
2. Tell a story
Storytelling is the art of communicating information through stories and stories that carry vivid emotions. Its main task is to keep the viewer’s attention from the first seconds to interest in the dynamics of events, to arouse sympathy for the main character.
Many brands and experts have long appreciated the benefits of storytelling. Stories about specific characters and their adventures help to better convey your thoughts to the audience. Of course, you can just dryly describe the problem and its solution, like in a school math problem, where 6 apples are given, three of which have gone bad and you are asked how many apples are left? Or you can come up with a story that everyone is willing to take interest in.
3. Make eye contact
Another way to reach out to your audience is through eye contact. You tell people, share the benefits, list interesting facts, and therefore do not forget to look them in the eye. This will help them become less distracted and more focused on you and your content.
4. Change your voice
As you’ve probably noticed, most speakers change their voices depending on the topic. Imagine that you are listening to a monotonous speech of a person who speaks for several minutes in a row. It feels like a robot machine is in front of you. Terribly boring, isn’t it? Therefore, change your tone, play with timbre. Do not let the audience get tired of an emotional presentation. The more personal in your speech, be it intonation or feelings, the more it will catch the audience.
You can highlight keywords with your voice, draw attention to important information. In such moments, speak a little softer, in a confidential tone. This is usually how secrets are communicated, people subconsciously react and show more interest.
5. Pause
Suppose you explain a difficult situation or problem to someone and then instantly switch to another story. Where is the pause so that people can analyze and “digest” the information received? Yes, at least it’s elementary to tell you “yeah”, in confirmation that they understood you.
When you make another thesis, it is important to wait and see how the audience reacts to the new message. Do not bombard them with information, as if scribbling from a machine gun, trying to prove your competence and expertise. Otherwise, you will suppress and oppress the public, which ultimately causes a loss of interest.
6. Add humor
A creative and fun presentation is half the battle. It is much simpler and more pleasant to read than, for example, beautifully designed slides with boring numbers. Your task is to figure out how to dilute these most boring numbers. Will it be gifs, memes, or jokes? Jokes about the weather, politics, or yourself? You have a lot of creativity. Do not neglect humor, share your mood with the audience, and this way you will win their attention.
7. Arrange polls
Have you ever wondered why speakers say things like “Raise your hands if you agree” or “Raise your hands those who did the same”? These simple questions will help you interact with your audience. You can also conduct an online survey using smartphones. And the voting results should be displayed on the screen. So you will find out what percentage of the audience listens to you and what to tell you based on the preferences of the audience.
This technique helps to unite the audience, break the “ice of distrust” towards you as a new person. Don’t you feel more comfortable listening to a friend rather than a stranger? The effect is the same here. As soon as the audience relaxes and feels calm, you will notice an increase in attention to your words.
8. Delight and share your emotions
Don’t expect your audience to like a presentation if you don’t like it yourself. Think about what interests you in your work, what do you want to tell the public, what inspires you within the framework of the topic? And go ahead, remember that you only have 8 seconds to make a first impression. Be positive and even enthusiastic, and most importantly, spread positive emotions around, because they are contagious.
9. Shorten your presentation
According to experts, a person is able to continuously perceive information for no more than 20 minutes in a row, then attention is dulled, a break is needed. Therefore, 10 slides are twice as good as 20. Shorten your theses not only for the sake of timing but also for the comfort of the audience, so that it does not “fall out” of the topic ahead of time. Better to add a couple of extra minutes for questions from the audience.