You don’t need to use all seven but you might want to use all of them as a guideline when preparing and writing your next presentation. The more of the seven points you can incorporate into the presentation the more likely a better outcome.
1) Be Relative
Experts tell us that humans are thinking about themselves 95% of the time, even when listening to your presentations! So make sure you tailor your material along the lines of ‘What’s In It For Me?’ (from the audience’s perspective). This is known as the WIIFM principle.
2) Be Positive
We are all creatures of emotion so we relate best of all to our emotive states. Two basic contrasting states of emotion are, Positive & Negative. A good presenter will adopt a positive view point as opposed to a negative one. Either will work, but the Positive one will uplift your audience.
3) Be Imaginative
We are more clever then we credit ourselves. Don’t shy away from using your imagination when considering material for your presentation. If you ‘like’ it , then probably so will the audience. You run the risk of being boring (or at least staid) if you only keep to standard material. Be brave, dare to be different.
4) Be Topical
We all relate to what we know. One way of making sure you cover all the audience is to use topical examples, current affairs or recent events as proof of your points and facts. This way everyone in the audience will be able to tie their opinion to your message making it easier to remember.
5) Be Simple
We grasp simple concepts readily. Don’t make it hard work to follow your line of thought. Complex topics can be made more clear through the use of examples, analogies and stories. Look at specific words that can be replaced to make sure the message is understood, can ‘ambiguous’ be replaced with ‘unclear’?
6) Be Humorous
We love to laugh or at least wear a smile. Consider inserting some appropriate humour in the presentation. It must be tasteful and relate to your message. An off coloured joke usually ends up offending someone. Play safe and talk about yourself, try not to be funny, and you’ll more often then not inject humour.
7) Be Brief
A good presentation is one that delivers a message in a memorable way in the shortest possible time. Don’t speak for the sake of filling up the allotted time. Say what needs to be said, prove it, get some commitment from the audience and then bow out. More times than not, ‘Less is More’.