Friday, January 09, 2009
Social Media Inspired PowerPoint Design for 2009
"What would you like to see in PowerPoint design in 2009?"
That's what Olivia Mitchell, who writes the fantastic Speaking About Presenting blog, asked me last month. Now, Olivia didn't ask just me: she also acted as community organizer, posing the question to a plethora of presentation bloggers. She asked us to write one post on this topic.
Many have already posted replies at their blogs. (Olivia promises to organize these posts at her blog later this month, for your finding & reading enjoyment. When you visit her blog, subscribe, and you'll be alerted! Lots of great ideas!)
My PowerPoint design wishes for 2009?
- The look and feel of social media techniques will transition into PowerPoint design.
- Presentations will be designed with audience participation -- and push back -- in mind.
Yeah, I want design that stimulates thoughtful discussion. I prefer design that inspires action and meaningful audience participation. So what might this kind of PowerPoint design look like?
Twittery Design. I'm a big fan of Twitter. And many of my blogging colleagues are on Twitter, as well. Read this amazing Tweet from design virtuoso Tony Ramos:
Short, Simple, Tweet. The brevity of Twitter can make you a better designer. A better headline writer. A better presenter. Using and studying Twitter can be a powerful exercise in how to get your point across swiftly and succinctly. Twitter is enjoying phenomenal growth. The more people use Twitter, the more your audience will come to expect powerful brevity in all communication media. Start using this "short and sweet" writing technique in your 2009 PowerPoint design. (You can follow me at Twitter: I'll be honored!)
Meet Your Audience. Yes, you can often use various social media outlets -- Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, your own blog, YouTube, et. al. -- to meet your audience pre-presentation, to get a better feel for who they are and what some of their questions and concerns may be about your topic. Such a wonderful technique, to get to know a few audience members before you give a talk -- to tailor your speech, to use their names, to personalize the presentation!
More Heckling! Over five years ago, the engaging Joi Ito wrote of the heckle bot. Brilliant! While you're speaking, your audience can give you feedback on your performance. Today, the Twitter back channel is the new heckle bot, giving a speaker instant performance feedback. Of course, it's awfully hard to read Tweets while you're performing -- but you can review your back channel comments afterwards to continually improve your performance and design.
Grassroots, D-I-Y Design. I'm quite encouraged that people are using social media channels to talk back. I'm thrilled to see people challenge corporate, political, and thought leaders on these online, public platforms. So naturally, I'm pleased to see that, like social media, PowerPoint design still takes a (mostly) grassroots, bootstrapping, D-I-Y approach to design. They may not always be pretty, polished, or professional -- but I've seen many presenters persuade with their passion.
Less Propaganda. I use propaganda techniques in presentations. It can be effective for persuading. But persuading isn't the only purpose in giving a presentation. Sometimes, you'll want to spark an honest, intelligent, and interactive discussion. As a presenter, there are times when you'll want to learn from your audience. Social media can be an effective channel for encouraging lively dialog -- and so can a PowerPoint presentation that isn't overly focused on manipulating the audience into taking your side.
Willingness to be wrong or unpopular is a virtue. After all, how many of us are tired of the "If you're not with me, you're against me!" bandwagon approach? And how many people have been a little too frightened to do nothing but fawn and spray positive comments over popular presenters, speakers, bloggers, and leaders -- to disastrous global effect?
We need fewer "You're wrong / I'm right / Think my way / Because I'm popular, rich, and powerful" approaches. We need more intelligent dissenters.
PowerPoint to the People. Right On. OK. One more old-fashioned, light-hearted wish: if you're a PowerPoint Do-It-Yourselfer without a power base or budget, how will you ever get your message noticed if you look and sound exactly like everyone else? How appropriate is it for you to be overly stylized and design-conscious? Why not spurn design fashion altogether... and create your own passionate and persuasive storytelling style? Or why not steal the techniques of timeless publicity and propaganda hounds?
And as always, you're welcome to disagree with me or continue the discussion in the comments below!
What would YOU like to see in PowerPoint design in 2009?
Labels: design, PowerPoint, Presentation, social media
¶ 1/09/2009 04:09:00 PM
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Great article. Thanks. I have written a reply that will be published in ten hours from now here:
http://blog.beara.ie/?p=422
http://blog.beara.ie/?p=422
Thanks for the kind acknowledgment, Laura. A followup idea:
The recent presidential debates were broadcast on the usual TV and cable channels, but Current TV invited their audience to engage via social media. You may have seen this. Tweets appeared and dissolved in a steady stream throughout the broadcast. As a presenter, would you also invite tweets to appear at the bottom your YOUR screen?
HeckleBot, as noted above, is a step in this direction, but I propose an optional CNN-like text crawl at the bottom (or top) of the PPT slide show screen showing audience tweets in real time. The backchannel comes forward.
Sure, this could open a can of worms -- loss of focus and flow, heckling, snarking, earthquakes, floods, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria. But it IS audience engagement. And all-too-common lack of this is the real root of why so many hate presentations, PPT or no PPT.
I suppose a current workaround would be a second presentation screen showing a live RSS feed or Twitter search result on that particular presentation's hashtag. Whatever.
But for now, are ya followin' me, Microsoft? Write this into the next version of PPT, or maybe Windows 7. Please? Your SMS-enabled PPT audiences would be grateful.
The recent presidential debates were broadcast on the usual TV and cable channels, but Current TV invited their audience to engage via social media. You may have seen this. Tweets appeared and dissolved in a steady stream throughout the broadcast. As a presenter, would you also invite tweets to appear at the bottom your YOUR screen?
HeckleBot, as noted above, is a step in this direction, but I propose an optional CNN-like text crawl at the bottom (or top) of the PPT slide show screen showing audience tweets in real time. The backchannel comes forward.
Sure, this could open a can of worms -- loss of focus and flow, heckling, snarking, earthquakes, floods, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria. But it IS audience engagement. And all-too-common lack of this is the real root of why so many hate presentations, PPT or no PPT.
I suppose a current workaround would be a second presentation screen showing a live RSS feed or Twitter search result on that particular presentation's hashtag. Whatever.
But for now, are ya followin' me, Microsoft? Write this into the next version of PPT, or maybe Windows 7. Please? Your SMS-enabled PPT audiences would be grateful.
Tony, your comment is brill! Love it!
Sure, I'd invite Tweets to roll. What better way to play buzzword bingo -- or propaganda bingo when a speaker is presenting? :)
Dave: great post! The "comment" feature on the blog is sort of like hecklebot-after-the-fact.
As a comment moderator, I have rules for which comments get published.
I don't permit spam or off-topic comments, for example. And I don't permit hate speech or off-color language. The "live" heckle factor would likely need some policy rules. Perhaps taking anonymity out of the heckling equation could be a start.
Thanks for dropping by!
Sure, I'd invite Tweets to roll. What better way to play buzzword bingo -- or propaganda bingo when a speaker is presenting? :)
Dave: great post! The "comment" feature on the blog is sort of like hecklebot-after-the-fact.
As a comment moderator, I have rules for which comments get published.
I don't permit spam or off-topic comments, for example. And I don't permit hate speech or off-color language. The "live" heckle factor would likely need some policy rules. Perhaps taking anonymity out of the heckling equation could be a start.
Thanks for dropping by!
Hi Laura again,
Thanks for the reply. It's interesting to me that you emphasize the your issue of policy but in the end it seems that in the case of Twitter and Wikipedia that the moderation is by the community.
If someone started mouthing off hatespeak on Twitter they would simply get blocked by anyone who was following them. in Wikipedia there is a community of people who are on the watch for vandalism. as a result there is a surprising amount of good behavior.
You mention heckling in what seems like a pejorative way but in another life as a stand up comedian I prayed for audience interjections.
As a blogger I crave comments. I recall a statistic from somewhere that you will tend to get one person commenting out of a hundred who read a post and yet they are perhaps the most valuable reader to you. Treat them like rock-stars as Chris Brogan has said
Engagement is the key to creating synergy and that disruptive idea can be the spark that lights up new creativity.
Thanks for the reply. It's interesting to me that you emphasize the your issue of policy but in the end it seems that in the case of Twitter and Wikipedia that the moderation is by the community.
If someone started mouthing off hatespeak on Twitter they would simply get blocked by anyone who was following them. in Wikipedia there is a community of people who are on the watch for vandalism. as a result there is a surprising amount of good behavior.
You mention heckling in what seems like a pejorative way but in another life as a stand up comedian I prayed for audience interjections.
As a blogger I crave comments. I recall a statistic from somewhere that you will tend to get one person commenting out of a hundred who read a post and yet they are perhaps the most valuable reader to you. Treat them like rock-stars as Chris Brogan has said
Engagement is the key to creating synergy and that disruptive idea can be the spark that lights up new creativity.
Relevant comments, Dave! You crave relevant comments!
Blog spam and off-topic comments are a scourge. If I don't moderate it, it's disrespectful to my audience.
I welcome hecklers. What's pejorative about that? :)
Blog spam and off-topic comments are a scourge. If I don't moderate it, it's disrespectful to my audience.
I welcome hecklers. What's pejorative about that? :)
Hi Laura,
I think we are actually discussing two separate things at the same time:
I agree that blog spam is a pain. No question.
I'm just saying that If you look at PowerPoint and Blogs (TV for that matter) as essentially one to many media) and compare them to Twitter, FaceBook and Wikipedia; (Which are more like many to many media).
The lesson which seems to shine out from these new social media is that the power of collective control seems to work.
In the case of your blog comments, if the readers of your posting and comments were able to vote comments in or out of the stream in some way (I've seen this tried in a few places) it relieves you of the responsibility (and tedium) of policing the comments. It also empowers and engages the readers.
The process would become more democratic.
(I'm not making any criticism of what you do here, just using it as an example)
nice talking anyhow. i must get some sleep. it's late here!
All the best Regards
Dave Spathaky - Ireland
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I think we are actually discussing two separate things at the same time:
I agree that blog spam is a pain. No question.
I'm just saying that If you look at PowerPoint and Blogs (TV for that matter) as essentially one to many media) and compare them to Twitter, FaceBook and Wikipedia; (Which are more like many to many media).
The lesson which seems to shine out from these new social media is that the power of collective control seems to work.
In the case of your blog comments, if the readers of your posting and comments were able to vote comments in or out of the stream in some way (I've seen this tried in a few places) it relieves you of the responsibility (and tedium) of policing the comments. It also empowers and engages the readers.
The process would become more democratic.
(I'm not making any criticism of what you do here, just using it as an example)
nice talking anyhow. i must get some sleep. it's late here!
All the best Regards
Dave Spathaky - Ireland
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