3 ways to add more energy into your virtual presentations
When you give a presentation, you know how important it is to be engaging and energetic to keep your audiences’ attention on you. This is especially true when it’s delivered virtually, as you’re competing with distractions that are outside of your control. Your audience may have to deal with incoming emails, children, pets, notifications, deliveries, all happening at the same time you are trying to keep their attention.
There are a few things you can do to help spice up your presentations and make them more engaging for your audience, and in this blog post we share 3 of the best ways to do just that!
1. Movement
Obviously, your movement is slightly restricted as you’re likely to be in front of a webcam on the laptop when you’re presenting virtually. However, if you stand up to present you naturally feel more energetic, and there’s no reason why you can’t include a small bit of upper body movement. Remember energy is contagious – the more enthused you are, the more your audience will want to listen to what you have to say.
Movement isn’t just limited to moving around on foot either, even if you are sitting you can use hand gestures to emphasise certain points in your presentation. Use them naturally, as you would in a normal everyday conversation, and try not put your hands too close to the camera otherwise they will look really BIG!
Finally, do not be afraid to move towards your camera at times. Do this in the same way you would lean in to your audience if they were in the room.
2. Use the element of surprise
Whether you like it or not, the audience will probably have a pre-conceived idea of what your presentation will contain and how it will be delivered. It is up to you to blow their minds!
It could be as simple as using striking images, videos and stories to break up the text. Share something your audience isn’t expecting, a shocking statistic or a personal story that plays with their emotions.
If your presentation is mostly focused on slides, try pausing the slideshow and switch to just you being visible on the screen whilst you share the fact, story, quote, statistic etc.
Another simple way of surprising your audience is to use your voice to its full potential. Change your tone, speed, pitch and volume to add impact to what you are saying.
You’ll find the audience is more attentive and engaged when they don’t know what’s coming next!
3. Align the topic/points to something you’re passionate about
You can’t expect to be excited about every presentation you give. However, if you can incorporate something you are passionate about into the presentation, you stand a better chance of presenting it enthusiastically!
For example, if you are a big sports fan, you could use a sports statistic or analogy in your presentation to help get your message across. This is especially handy if you are presenting to a specific type of audience and have done your research beforehand, so you know who your audience is. If you know that the majority of them could be fans of a particular football team, for example, you could use an image, statistic or analogy that not only resonates with them, but is also something you’re interested in therefore you present it more passionately.
Presenting virtually does come with its own set of challenges that are different to presenting in-person. By increasing your energy levels when you present, the audiences’ attention will be on you and not their emails / cat / child / spouse / phones etc – hopefully the above tips will help you be more energetic when you give your next virtual presentation.
For more tips on virtual presenting, you can find another post on giving seated presentations here.
If you would like to improve how you prepare for and deliver virtual presentations, you might like to join us on our next Virtual Presentation Skills masterclass.
