Make Your Slide Presentations Stand Out: Janet Jarnagin Shares Expert Tips
Slide presentations are the standard for showing visual materials during a meeting. You can present text, graphics, and other forms of multimedia through a slide presentation, and using many slide creation programs are pretty basic. The drag-and-drop interface of programs such as PowerPoint or Google Slides makes it easy for a beginner to start creating slideshows in no time.
Janet Jarnagin, a board and management reporting professional based in New York has created and seen hundreds, if not thousands, of slideshows during her career. Her expertise is all about reporting in the corporate setting. Perhaps you have an upcoming presentation, and you want your slides to be in a league beyond the rest.
In this post, Janet Jarnagin wants to share some expert tips that will help you create slideshows that truly stand out, while still delivering the message you want to convey.
Introduce with Credibility
Are you speaking to your audience for the first time? Place at least a single slide about establishing your credibility as a presenter. This will help engage your users, preventing them from questioning the facts you will be presenting in your presentation.
Some credibility elements include:
● Educational background
● Work or business experience
● Achievements
● Press and media
Providing a concise yet impactful introduction can help the audience trust what you have to say.
Try the 10, 20, and 30 rules
If applicable to your business presentation, you can adopt the 10, 20, and 30 rules. Janet Jarnagin explains that the components of each:
● 10 slides: If possible, try to fit your content within 10 concise slides.
● 20 minutes: Your presentation length should not be longer than 20 minutes to hold the attention of your viewers.
● 30-point font: All the fonts, headers, and bullets in your slideshow presentation should not be smaller than 30 points.
Adhering to these rules for short presentations is an effective way to make your presentation memorable from beginning to end. Often, listeners struggle to keep their attention when slides are long, the presentation takes longer than usual, and fonts are unreadable. Unless you have an extensive report, try to adhere to these concise rules for the majority of your presentations.
Turn Your Presentation into a Narrative
Another factor that would captivate your audience is how your slideshow is presented. Are the facts laid out plainly without anything else to engage them, or is there something else that will keep their interest?
A good business presentation can stand out when you incorporate narrative elements, such as telling a story. For example, if you would like to create a slideshow about a prototype product, you can incorporate narrative elements in such a manner:
● Introduction and setting: The current status quo of target consumers: What they are doing and the products they are using.
● Conflict: The current issues about the status quo, the problems that the target consumers encounter.
● Plot and resolution: Introducing the “protagonist,” the prototype product, and how it can make people’s lives more convenient. The product takes action, and the problems are resolved.
● Ending: Presenting the possibilities, trajectory of growth, and other forward-facing elements of introducing the product.
By using this story-based type of presentation even in the corporate setting, listeners can see a clearer picture of your objectives, leading to more positive results.
Avoid Information Overload
There is often a notion that all your information must be placed in the slides. This could not be further from the truth — in fact, it can even sabotage the clarity of your presentation and your viewers’ engagement.
Janet Jarnagin suggests only placing the main headers and a few bullet points in your presentation. If you created an outline for your presentation beforehand, those topics you placed in the outline are a good starting point of what you can include. It can also help to add memorable quotes, key points, summary results, and other thought-provoking ideas in your slide for more impact.
Practice Your Verbal Presentation
Of course, it is equally important to practice how you would verbally present each slide to accompany your slideshow. Jarnagin suggests going through your slides and preparing index cards for the information not contained in your visual presentation.
Some tips that can help in your verbal presentation include:
● Veering away from highly scripted presentation: It is difficult to sit through a serious topic accompanied by a highly scripted speaker. Try to speak as naturally as possible if you were having a conversation with a small group.
● Avoid fillers: Fillers show a lack of preparedness and unprofessionalism during public presentations. It is okay to have small pauses, collect your thoughts, and present your ideas without adding fillers such as “umm” or “uhh.”
● Use audience-appropriate language: Audience-appropriate language is what you think the vocabulary of your audience is. If you’re speaking with a professional group in the financial services industry, then it is okay to use some financial jargon from time to time. Otherwise, you want to keep your terms simple and easily understood.
Sliding Your Way to Success: Creating Excellent Slideshow Presentations
The main takeaway for creating great slideshows is clarity, conciseness, and a well-practiced verbal presentation to go along with it. It is possible to captivate your audience with a short, simple, yet engaging slideshow — while hitting your objectives and creating a lasting impression.
