June 29, 2009

8 Ways to Extend Your Presentations

by Meryl Evans

With social media growing as a popular resource for businesses to reach out and connect with customers and prospects, presenters need to look outside of the room where they give presentations.

Sharing them on the Internet establishes your expertise, shows how you think, spreads your brand and provides yummy link juice. Here are eight ways you can squeeze more out of your hard work in creating your beautiful bullet-free presentation.

1. Record your presentation. With so many digital cameras and technologies readily available for low prices today, it’s easier to record your presentation. Having a video or audio of your presentation will show people what you’re like as a presenter. It could lead to more speaking opportunities or landing a gig.
2. Post the presentation online. Put it in on presentation sharing sites like Slideboom.com and Slideshare.net. For YouTube, you will need to convert your PowerPoint into a video before uploading it. Search the Internet on how to convert PowerPoint to video to get plenty of advice and software suggestions.
3. Blog about the presentation. Not the presentation itself, but the topic. Then you can link to your online presentation slides, video and audio files (if you have them).
4. Provide a script or captions. Go the extra mile to include general notes of what you said or caption your video. It’ll help you reach more people.
5. Tweet your presentation. Include a brief description that applies “what’s in it for me” (WIIFM) thinking. If your presentation talks about how to give better presentations, then tweet something like “Here are 5 tips to ensure your next presentation produces results [add link].” (Just don’t Tweet about your own material too often otherwise people will stop following you.)
6. Write an article. You already have all the content from the work you put into your presentation. Use it to write an article or even a series of articles. Many web sites accept guest writers or bloggers. Make sure you look for the one targeting the audience that would benefit most from your content.
7. Mention your presentation in your profiles. Post a link to the presentation or a short summary on your About page, your LinkedIn profile and everywhere your bio shows up. Again, it represents you and your brand. It may be worth mentioning the event in which you gave your presentation.
8. Turn the presentation into a freebie. A great way to build relationships and your mailing list is to offer the presentation as a download or turn it into a free course. You can break up the presentation into bite-sized emails as a free course. This keeps your name out there in the customers’ minds.

How have you made the most of your presentations?