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Monday, July 27, 2009
The Days of Talking Heads Are Nearly Over
I ♥ David Byrne.
I even ♥ David Byrne's "I ♥ PowerPoint."
Really, I do.
But the days of the Talking Heads are over.
I'm not talking about the band. I'm talking TV. And presenters. And presentations.
We have social media to thank.
Interactive presentations are in.
Authoritative anchors reading dispassionately from teleprompters are out.
Teachers and professors lecturing from on high? Also on the way out.
Note your TV news shows asking, "What do you think? Talk back. Send us your video. Talk to us at Twitter. Comment on our blog...."
Walter Cronkite, bless his trusted soul, didn't ply his trade in an era of interactivity. He was a talking head, appropriate for the decades he served. A deep authoritative voice coupled with a kind-looking face served him well in his time.
Today, Jon Stewart is the most trusted man in TV news. Well, not really. People just voted him as the most trusted newscaster.
In an online poll.
By Time Magazine.
See what I mean? Online polls. Talking back. Old-school journalism meets citizen journalism. Opinions. Interactivity. It's all the rage.
Burning down the house. Last week, Stewart jokingly called his second-place poll rival (TV news anchor Brian Williams) a "teleprompter monkey."
Does that make the new style of news anchor, a "hyper-interactive monkey?"
And how are you using social media to make your presentations more interactive, compelling, and contemporary?
I ♥ David Byrne.
I even ♥ David Byrne's "I ♥ PowerPoint."
Really, I do.
But the days of the Talking Heads are over.
I'm not talking about the band. I'm talking TV. And presenters. And presentations.
We have social media to thank.
Interactive presentations are in.
Authoritative anchors reading dispassionately from teleprompters are out.
Teachers and professors lecturing from on high? Also on the way out.
Note your TV news shows asking, "What do you think? Talk back. Send us your video. Talk to us at Twitter. Comment on our blog...."
Walter Cronkite, bless his trusted soul, didn't ply his trade in an era of interactivity. He was a talking head, appropriate for the decades he served. A deep authoritative voice coupled with a kind-looking face served him well in his time.
Today, Jon Stewart is the most trusted man in TV news. Well, not really. People just voted him as the most trusted newscaster.
In an online poll.
By Time Magazine.
See what I mean? Online polls. Talking back. Old-school journalism meets citizen journalism. Opinions. Interactivity. It's all the rage.
Burning down the house. Last week, Stewart jokingly called his second-place poll rival (TV news anchor Brian Williams) a "teleprompter monkey."
Does that make the new style of news anchor, a "hyper-interactive monkey?"
And how are you using social media to make your presentations more interactive, compelling, and contemporary?
Labels: fun, Presentation, social media
¶ 7/27/2009 01:08:00 PM 5 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Crowdsourcing Presentation Content with Twitter
What's Crowdsourcing? According to Wikipedia, crowdsourcing is outsourcing a task to a large group of people in an open call. For example, when I was asked to present on the topic of social media & reputation management to an audience of college students earlier this month, I turned to the community at Twitter as an exercise in presentation content crowdsourcing.
Using the medium to help create the message, I posed my situation and asked a question:
Within hours, I received a dozen or so intriguing replies. It struck me that many of the replies looked -- and read -- like fortune cookies. So I felt whimsically inspired to use a prophetic design treatment for some of the Twittered replies. Ergo,
and
In some cases, I worked the Tweet into the overall landscape of the Twittered prophecy.
Give credit where it's due. When I showed each of the crowdsource quotations, I gave verbal credit to the contributor, stating their name, city, and occupation. The Tweet itself shows each of their Twitter " handles="" or="" thanks="">LisaBraithwaite @JGaler @AnitaCochran) . The audience discussed the twittered advice. Each slide served as a backdrop for an interactive discussion.
Why Crowdsource Content? Frankly, at the time I turned to Twitter for content ideas because it sounded like fun -- and because it would be very easy to do. I'm also acutely interested in what professionals who participate in social media circles might have to say on the subject -- and how they'd say it. Additionally, I thought that the students in my audience would also be interested in this very relevant perspective and voice, as well.
I also found four other reasons to crowdsource presentation content:
1. Introduce a fresh voice. As a speaker, you express your own point of view and personality. And you'll use your own pace, pitch, tone, and vernacular. A fresh, new voice can add both visual and auditory interest -- while supporting your key points.
2. Introduce fresh ideas. Through crowdsourcing, you may be exposed to new ideas that can enhance the content and tone of your presentation. The Twitter community gave me plenty of content to support my overall thesis -- but they also encouraged me to explore a new dynamic that may previously have gone uncovered.
3. Strengthen the audience connection to the content. Presenters often use a pithy quotation from a famous person to help convey a point. But why limit your quotations to famous people? Getting a quote from a respected professional with a unique point of view can be engaging for the audience. Using a quote from a "real" person can make the content more personal.
4. Why not? How hard is it to ask a question to a group of people? The worst that can happen is that no one responds, and you're out a few seconds of your time! Weigh that against the best that can happen - you gain new insights into your topic that you haven't realized before. You get smarter. You get to build and strengthen ideas. Your audience benefits from stronger, more personal content. And along the way, you meet interesting people who like to talk about ideas.
What other reasons might you decide to crowdsource a presentation? And what might hold you back from getting ideas from people in the crowd? :)
(For another example of crowdsourcing, feel free to respond to this question about college graduation keynote speeches!)
Using the medium to help create the message, I posed my situation and asked a question:
Within hours, I received a dozen or so intriguing replies. It struck me that many of the replies looked -- and read -- like fortune cookies. So I felt whimsically inspired to use a prophetic design treatment for some of the Twittered replies. Ergo,
and
In some cases, I worked the Tweet into the overall landscape of the Twittered prophecy.
Give credit where it's due. When I showed each of the crowdsource quotations, I gave verbal credit to the contributor, stating their name, city, and occupation. The Tweet itself shows each of their Twitter " handles="" or="" thanks="">LisaBraithwaite @JGaler @AnitaCochran) . The audience discussed the twittered advice. Each slide served as a backdrop for an interactive discussion.
Why Crowdsource Content? Frankly, at the time I turned to Twitter for content ideas because it sounded like fun -- and because it would be very easy to do. I'm also acutely interested in what professionals who participate in social media circles might have to say on the subject -- and how they'd say it. Additionally, I thought that the students in my audience would also be interested in this very relevant perspective and voice, as well.
I also found four other reasons to crowdsource presentation content:
1. Introduce a fresh voice. As a speaker, you express your own point of view and personality. And you'll use your own pace, pitch, tone, and vernacular. A fresh, new voice can add both visual and auditory interest -- while supporting your key points.
2. Introduce fresh ideas. Through crowdsourcing, you may be exposed to new ideas that can enhance the content and tone of your presentation. The Twitter community gave me plenty of content to support my overall thesis -- but they also encouraged me to explore a new dynamic that may previously have gone uncovered.
3. Strengthen the audience connection to the content. Presenters often use a pithy quotation from a famous person to help convey a point. But why limit your quotations to famous people? Getting a quote from a respected professional with a unique point of view can be engaging for the audience. Using a quote from a "real" person can make the content more personal.
4. Why not? How hard is it to ask a question to a group of people? The worst that can happen is that no one responds, and you're out a few seconds of your time! Weigh that against the best that can happen - you gain new insights into your topic that you haven't realized before. You get smarter. You get to build and strengthen ideas. Your audience benefits from stronger, more personal content. And along the way, you meet interesting people who like to talk about ideas.
What other reasons might you decide to crowdsource a presentation? And what might hold you back from getting ideas from people in the crowd? :)
(For another example of crowdsourcing, feel free to respond to this question about college graduation keynote speeches!)
Labels: PowerPoint Presentation, Presentation, social media, Twitter
¶ 7/14/2009 08:20:00 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Three Transparently Phony Ways to Appear Less Confident
Confidence. Somehow, this word became virtuous in the 1980's. It remained a positive trait -- until fairly recently.
Confidence men, we called them in the 1930's and 40's. Over time, we shortened this to "Con Men" or "Cons". Overly charming, smooth. Hucksters. Yech.
Cons transmit that they are absolutely positive in their correctness. Who trusts the overly confident?
Bernie Madoff and his ilk have made us collectively uneasy about confidence again.
If you're an overly confident speaker, you might have a big problem connecting with a modern, tech-savvy audience. (Especially here in the American Midwest!) In an era of quickly produced, less-than-polished user generated content -- your confidence might seem inappropriately over-the-top.
Here are 3 quick and completely insincere ways to tone down any over-confidence you may have as a speaker or presenter.
And if you're a con artist, your audience will likely see through your naked attempts to "Aw, shucks it up" for them. After all, this is the age of authenticity and transparency -- two achingly glorious buzzwords that shine a bright, unflattering spotlight on slick over-confidence and transparently phony faux-humility mannerisms.
Social awkwardness is in!
Nerds, enjoy it while it lasts...
What will the next wave of popularity be?
Confidence. Somehow, this word became virtuous in the 1980's. It remained a positive trait -- until fairly recently.
Confidence men, we called them in the 1930's and 40's. Over time, we shortened this to "Con Men" or "Cons". Overly charming, smooth. Hucksters. Yech.
Cons transmit that they are absolutely positive in their correctness. Who trusts the overly confident?
Bernie Madoff and his ilk have made us collectively uneasy about confidence again.
photo credit: Matti Mattila
If you're an overly confident speaker, you might have a big problem connecting with a modern, tech-savvy audience. (Especially here in the American Midwest!) In an era of quickly produced, less-than-polished user generated content -- your confidence might seem inappropriately over-the-top.
Here are 3 quick and completely insincere ways to tone down any over-confidence you may have as a speaker or presenter.
- Toss in filler words. A few, "ums and ahhs" and nervous shuffling can go a long way to instill the idea that you're thinking about what you're saying. You're not glibly reciting a speech. You're not absolutely convinced that you are unequivocally correct. You're open to starting conversations and creating a dialog. Your social awkwardness in public speaking indicates that you're thinking. That you're concerned. That you care enough to be nervous. Audiences warm to this kind of humility.
- Ugly up your PowerPoint slides. Nothing says, "I'm overly image conscious" like professionally designed PowerPoint presentations. When it looks like a presenter spent 80 hours in meetings with a team of designers, writers, and speech coaches to deliver a one-hour presentation -- that's the take-away. That's what the audience will talk about behind the speaker's back. The message won't stick when all people talk about is how pretty the slides were and how Hollywood the storytelling was.
- Dress out-of-sync. I watched a multi-millionaire give a presentation to 200+ business people. The audience? In modern business attire. The presenter? In a sad, schlumpfly suit from the 1980's. The audience LOVED him. Think they merely tolerated his eccentric garb because he was rich? Guess again. I also watched a junior software engineer wearing an unpressed polo shirt and lumpy khakis present to a board wearing business suits. They ADORED his presentation, too.
And if you're a con artist, your audience will likely see through your naked attempts to "Aw, shucks it up" for them. After all, this is the age of authenticity and transparency -- two achingly glorious buzzwords that shine a bright, unflattering spotlight on slick over-confidence and transparently phony faux-humility mannerisms.
Social awkwardness is in!
Nerds, enjoy it while it lasts...
What will the next wave of popularity be?
Labels: design, fun, PowerPoint Presentation, social media
¶ 7/08/2009 04:22:00 PM 4 Comments Links to this post
