The backchannel can present challenges for business presenters because

Business Communication Today

Fourteenth Edition

Chapter 16

Developing Presentations in a Social Media Environment

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Learning Objectives

16.1 Describe the tasks involved in analyzing the situation for a presentation and organizing a presentation.

16.2 Explain how to adapt to your audience and develop an effective opening, body, and close for a presentation.

16.3 Discuss five steps for delivering a successful presentation.

16.4 Explain the growing importance of the backchannel in presentations, and list six steps for giving effective presentations online.

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Planning a Presentation

LO 16.1 Describe the tasks involved in analyzing the situation for a presentation and organizing a presentation.

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Presentations offer important opportunities to put all your communication skills on display, including research, planning, writing, visual design, and interpersonal and nonverbal communication. Presentations also let you demonstrate your ability to think on your feet, grasp complex business issues, and handle challenging situations—all attributes that executives look for when searching for talented employees to promote.

If the thought of giving a speech or presentation makes you nervous, keep three points in mind. First, everybody gets nervous when speaking in front of groups. Second, being nervous is actually a good thing; it means you care about the topic, your audience, and your career success. Third, with practice, you can convert those nervous feelings into positive energy that helps you give more compelling presentations. You can take control of the situation by using the three-step writing process to prepare for successful presentations (see Figure 16.1).

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The Three-Step Process

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Figure Caption: Although you rarely “write” a presentation or speech in the sense of composing every word ahead of time, the tasks in the three-step writing process adapt quite well to the challenge of planning, creating, and delivering presentations.

Planning presentations is much like planning any other business message: You analyze the situation, gather information, select the right medium, and organize the information. Gathering information for presentations is essentially the same as for written communication projects. The other three planning tasks have some special applications when it comes to presentations; they are covered in the following sections.

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Analyzing the Situation

Define Your Purpose

Inform

Persuade

Collaborate

Develop an Audience Profile

Emotional State

Comfort Level with Your Language

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As with written communications, analyzing the situation for a presentation involves defining your purpose and developing an audience profile. The purpose of most of your presentations will be to inform or to persuade, although you may occasionally need to make a collaborative presentation, such as when you’re leading a problem-solving or brainstorming session. Given the time limitations of most presentations and the live nature of the event, make sure your purpose is crystal clear so that you make the most of the opportunity and show respect for your listeners’ time and attention.

When you develop your audience profile, try to anticipate the likely emotional state of your audience members. Figure 16.2 offers tips for dealing with a variety of audience mindsets.

You also need to determine whether your audience is comfortable listening to the language you speak. Listening to an unfamiliar language is much more difficult than reading that language, so an audience that might be able to read a written report might not be able to understand a presentation covering the same material.

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Assessing the Environment

Four Basic Seating Arrangements

Classroom or Theater

Conference Table

Horseshoe or U-shaped

Café Seating

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Also consider the circumstances in which you’ll be making your presentation.

For in-person presentations, pay close attention to seating arrangements. The four basic formats have distinct advantages and disadvantages:

●● Classroom or theater seating, in which all chairs or desks face forward, helps keep attention focused on the speaker and is usually the best method for accommodating large audiences. However, this arrangement inhibits interaction among audience members, so it is not desirable for brainstorming or other collaborative activities.

●● Conference table seating, in which people sit along both sides of a long table and the speaker stands at one end, is a common arrangement for smaller meetings. It promotes interaction among attendees, but it tends to isolate the speaker at one end of the room.

●● Horseshoe, or U-shaped, seating, in which tables are arranged in the shape of a U, improves on conference table seating by allowing the speaker to walk between the tables to interact with individual audience members.

●● Café seating, in which people sit in groups at individual tables, is best for breakout sessions and other small-group activities. However, this arrangement is less than ideal for anything more than short presentations because it places some in the audience with their backs to the speaker, making it awkward for both them and the presenter.

If you can’t control the seating arrangement, at least be aware of what it is so you can adjust your plans if necessary.

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Selecting the Best Combination of Media and Channels

Controlled Methods Choice of Methods
Specific Software Live, In-Person
Built-in Display Webcasts or Screencasts
Online Meeting Software Twebinars
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For some presentations, you’ll be expected to use whatever media and channels your audience, your boss, or the circumstances require. For example, you might be required to use specific presentation software and a conference room’s built-in display system or your company’s online meeting software.

For other presentations, though, you might have an array of choices, from live, in person presentations to webcasts (online presentations that people either view live or download later from the web), screencasts (recordings of activity on computer displays with audio voiceover), or twebinars (the use of Twitter as a backchannel —see page 477— for real-time conversation during a web-based seminar).

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Organizing a Presentation

Linear

Outlined Like Conventional Messages

Follow a Predefined Flow

Nonlinear

Doesn’t Flow in Any Particular Direction

Allows Presenter to Move Back and Forth Between Topics

Select the Right Software

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The possibilities for organizing a business presentation fall into two basic categories: linear or nonlinear. Linear presentations are like printed documents in the sense that they are outlined like conventional messages and follow a predefined flow from start to finish. The linear model is appropriate for speeches, technical and financial presentations, and other presentations in which you want to convey your message point by point or build up to a conclusion following logical steps.

In contrast, a nonlinear presentation doesn’t flow in any particular direction but rather gives the presenter the option to move back and forth between topics and up and down in terms of level of detail. Nonlinear presentations can be useful when you want to be able to show complicated relationships between multiple ideas or elements, to zoom in and out between the “big picture” and specific details, to explore complex visuals, or to have the flexibility to move from topic to topic in any order.

The difference between the two styles can be seen in the type of software typically used to create and deliver a presentation. Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, Google Slides, and similar packages use sequences of individual slides, often referred to as a slide deck. They don’t necessarily need to be presented in a strict linear order, because the presenter does have the option of jumping out of the predefined order, but in most presentations using slides, the speaker moves from start to finish in that order.

Prezi is the best-known nonlinear presentation software and doesn’t use the concept of individual slides. Instead, you start from a main screen, or canvas, which often presents the big picture overview of your topic (see Figure 16.3). From there, you add individual objects (including blocks of text, photos, or videos) that convey specific information points.

Remember that presentations—using any software or system—are not about flash and dazzle; they are about sharing ideas, information, and emotions with your audience.

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Defining Your Main Idea

One-Sentence Summary

Subject

Purpose

Audience

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Regardless of which overall approach you take, a successful presentation starts with a clear picture of the main idea you want to share with your audience. Start by composing a one-sentence summary that links your subject and purpose to your audience’s frame of reference.

Each of these statements puts a particular slant on the subject, one that directly relates to the audience’s interests. Make sure your purpose is based on a clear understanding of audience needs so that you can deliver information your audience truly cares about. For example, a group of new employees will be much more responsive to your discussion of plant safety procedures if you focus on how the procedures can save lives and prevent injuries rather than on how they will save the company money or conform to government regulations.

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Limiting Your Scope

Work Within Time Constraints

Hold Audience’s Attention

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Limiting your scope is important with any message, but it’s particularly vital with presentations, for two reasons. First, for most presentations, you must work within strict time limits. Second, the longer you speak, the more difficult it is to hold the audience’s attention and the more difficult it is for your listeners to retain your key points. The only sure way to know how much material you can cover in a given time is to practice your presentation after you complete it. As an alternative, if you’re using conventional structured slides (see page 489), you can figure on three or four minutes per slide as a rough guide. Of course, be sure to factor in time for introductions, coffee breaks, demonstrations, question-and-answer sessions, and anything else that takes away from your speaking time.

Approaching time constraints as a creative challenge can actually help you develop more effective presentations. Limitations can force you to focus on the most essential message points that are important to your audience.

If you’re having trouble meeting a time limit or just want to keep your presentation as short as possible, consider a hybrid approach in which you present your key points in summary form and give people printed handouts with additional detail.

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Choosing Your Approach

Shorter Presentations

Direct approach for routine information or good news

Indirect approach for bad news or persuasion

Longer Presentations:

Direct approach to motivate or inform

Indirect approach to analyze, persuade, or collaborate

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With a well-defined main idea to guide you and a clearly defined scope for your presentation, you can begin to arrange your message. If you have 10 minutes or less to deliver your message, organize your presentation much as you would a brief written message: Use the direct approach if the subject involves routine information or good news; use the indirect approach if the subject involves negative news or persuasion. Plan to spend a minute or two during your introduction to arouse interest and to give a preview of what’s to come.

For the body of the presentation, be prepared to explain the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your subject. In the final few moments, review the points you’ve made and close with a statement that will help your audience remember the subject of your speech (see Figure 16.4).

Longer presentations are organized like reports. If the purpose is to inform, use the direct approach and a structure imposed naturally by the subject: importance, sequence, chronology, spatial orientation, geography, or category. If your purpose is to analyze, persuade, or collaborate, organize your material around conclusions and recommendations or around a logical argument. Use the direct approach if the audience is receptive and the indirect approach if you expect resistance.

Regardless of the length of your presentation, remember to keep your organization clear and simple. If listeners lose the thread of your presentation, they’ll have a hard time catching up and following your message in the remainder of your speech. Explain at the beginning how you’ve organized your material and try to limit the number of main points to three or four.

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Preparing Your Outline

State the Purpose and Main Idea

Organize the Points and Sub-Points

Identify Major Points Throughout

Plan Transitions Between Sections

Prepare a Bibliography or Source Notes

Choose a Compelling Title

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A presentation outline helps you organize your message, and it serves as the foundation for delivering your speech. Prepare your outline in several stages:

●● State your purpose and main idea and then use these to guide the rest of your planning.

●● Organize your major points and subpoints in logical order, expressing each major point as a single, complete sentence.

●● Identify major points in the body first and then outline the introduction and close.

●● Identify transitions between major points or sections and then write these transitions in full-sentence form.

●● Prepare your bibliography or source notes; highlight those sources you want to identify by name during your talk.

●● Choose a compelling title. Make it brief, action oriented, and focused on what you can do for the audience.

Many speakers like to prepare both a detailed planning outline (see Figure 16.5 on the next page) and a simpler speaking outline that provides all the cues and reminders they need to present their material.

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Creaking a Speaking Outline

Simplify the Planning Outline

Condense Points

Add Delivery Cues

Arrange Your Notes

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Follow these steps to prepare an effective speaking outline:

●● Start with the planning outline and then strip away anything you don’t plan to say directly to your audience.

●● Condense points and transitions to key words or phrases.

●● Add delivery cues, such as places where you plan to pause for emphasis or use visuals.

●● Arrange your notes on numbered cards or use the notes capability in your presentation software.

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Crafting Presentation Content

LO 16.2 Explain how to adapt to your audience and develop an effective opening, body, and close for a presentation.

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Follow these steps to prepare an effective speaking outline:

●● Start with the planning outline and then strip away anything you don’t plan to say directly to your audience.

●● Condense points and transitions to key words or phrases.

●● Add delivery cues, such as places where you plan to pause for emphasis or use visuals.

●● Arrange your notes on numbered cards or use the notes capability in your presentation software.

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Adapting to Your Audience

Small Groups Large Audiences
Conversational Tone Formal Tone
Conference Room State or Platform
Invite Comments Limit Participation
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Your audience’s size, the venue (in person or online), your subject, your purpose, your budget, the time available for preparation, and the time allotted for your talk all influence the style of your presentation. If you’re speaking to a small group, particularly people you already know, you can use a casual style that encourages audience participation. Use simple visuals and invite your audience to interject comments. Deliver your remarks in a conversational tone, using notes to jog your memory if necessary If you’re addressing a large audience or if the event is important, establish a more formal atmosphere. During formal presentations, speakers are often on a stage or platform, standing behind a lectern and using a microphone so that their remarks can be heard throughout the room or captured for broadcasting or webcasting.

When you deliver a presentation to people from other cultures, you may need to adapt the content of your presentation. It is also important to take into account any cultural preferences for appearance, mannerisms, and other customs. An interpreter or event host can suggest appropriate changes for a specific audience or particular occasion.

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Developing the Presentation

Distinct Elements

Introduction

Body

Close

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Like written documents, presentations comprise distinct elements: the introduction, the body, and the close.

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Presentation Introduction

Arousing Audience Interest

Establishing Your Credibility

Previewing Your Message

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A good introduction arouses the audience’s interest in your topic, establishes your credibility, and prepares the audience for what will follow. That’s a lot to pack into the first few minutes of your presentation, so give yourself plenty of time to prepare the words and visuals you’ll use to get your presentation off to a great start.

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Arousing Audience Interest

State Your Purpose and Main Idea

Organize Your Major Points and Subpoints

Identify Major Points

Identify Transitions Between Major Points

Prepare Your Bibliography

Choose a Compelling Title

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Some subjects are naturally more interesting to some audiences than others. If you will be discussing a matter of profound significance that will personally affect the members of your audience, chances are they’ll listen, regardless of how you begin. All you really have to do is announce your topic, and you’ll have their attention.

A presentation outline helps you organize your message, and it serves as the foundation for delivering your speech. Prepare your outline in several stages:

●● State your purpose and main idea and then use these to guide the rest of your planning.

●● Organize your major points and subpoints in logical order, expressing each major point as a single, complete sentence.

●● Identify major points in the body first and then outline the introduction and close.

●● Identify transitions between major points or sections and then write these transitions in full-sentence form.

●● Prepare your bibliography or source notes; highlight those sources you want to identify by name during your talk.

●● Choose a compelling title. Make it brief, action oriented, and focused on what you can do for the audience.

Many speakers like to prepare both a detailed planning outline (see Figure 16.5 on the next page) and a simpler speaking outline that provides all the cues and reminders they need to present their material. Regardless of which technique you choose, make sure you can give audience members a reason to care and to believe that the time they’re about to spend listening to you will be worth their while.

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Establishing Your Credibility

Have Another Person Introduce You

Introduce Yourself Humbly and Simply

Inform Audience Why You Are the Right Person for This Presentation

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In addition to grabbing the audience’s attention, your introduction needs to establish your credibility. If you’re a well-known expert in the subject matter or have earned your audience’s trust in other situations, you’re already ahead of the game. If you have no working relationship with your audience or if you’re speaking in an area outside your known expertise, however, you need to establish credibility and do so quickly; people tend to decide within a few minutes whether you’re worth listening to.

Techniques for building credibility vary, depending on whether you will be introducing yourself or having someone else introduce you. If another person will introduce you, he or she can present your credentials so that you don’t appear boastful. If you will be introducing yourself, keep your comments simple, but don’t be afraid to mention your relevant experience and accomplishments. Your listeners will be curious about your qualifications, so tell them briefly who you are and why you’re the right person to be giving this presentation.

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Previewing Your Message

Summarize the Main Idea

Identify Major Supporting Points

Indicate the Order in Which You’ll Develop the Points

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In addition to arousing audience interest and establishing your credibility, a good introduction gives your audience members a preview of what’s ahead, helping them understand the structure and content of your message. A report reader can learn these things by looking at the table of contents and scanning the headings, but in a presentation you need to provide that framework with a preview.

Your preview should summarize the main idea of your presentation, identify major supporting points, and indicate the order in which you’ll develop those points. Tell your listeners in so many words, “This is the subject, and these are the points I will cover.” Once you’ve established the framework, you can be confident that the audience will understand how the individual facts and figures are related to your main idea as you move into the body of your presentation. If you are using an indirect approach, your preview can discuss the nature of your main idea without disclosing it.

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Presentation Body

Presenting Your Main Points

Connecting Your Ideas

Holding Your Audience's Attention

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The bulk of your speech or presentation is devoted to a discussion of the main supporting points from your outline. Whether you’re using the direct or indirect approach, make sure the organization of your presentation is clear and your presentation holds the audience’s attention.

Connecting Your Ideas: Help your listeners move from one key point to the next with generous use of transitions. Between sentences and paragraphs, use transitional words and phrases such as therefore, because, in addition, in contrast, moreover, for example, consequently, nevertheless, and finally. To link major sections of a presentation, use complete sentences or paragraphs, such as “Now that we’ve reviewed the problem, let’s take a look at some solutions.” Every time you shift topics, be sure to stress the connection between ideas. Summarize what’s been said and then preview what’s to come. You might also want to call attention to the transitions by using gestures, changing your tone of voice, or introducing a new slide or other visual.

Holding Your Audience’s Attention: After you’ve successfully captured your audience’s attention in your introduction, you need to work to keep it throughout the body of your presentation. Here are a few helpful tips for keeping the audience tuned in to your

message:

●● Relate your subject to your audience’s needs.

●● Anticipate your audience’s questions.

●● Use clear, vivid language.

●● Explain the relationship between your subject and familiar ideas.

●● Ask for opinions or pause occasionally for questions or comments.

●● Illustrate your ideas with visuals.

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Presentation Close

Restating Your Main Points

Ending With Clarity and Confidence

Providing a Clear Wrap-Up

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The close of a speech or presentation has two critical jobs to accomplish: making sure your listeners leave with the key points from your talk clear in their minds and putting your audience in the appropriate emotional state. For example, if the purpose of your

presentation is to warn managers that their out-of-control spending threatens the company’s survival, you want them to leave with that message ringing in their ears—and with enough concern for the problem to stimulate changes in their behavior.

Restating Your Main Points: Use the close to succinctly restate your main points, emphasizing what you want your listeners to do or to think. By summarizing the key ideas, you improve the chance that your audience will leave with your message clearly in mind.

Ending with Clarity and Confidence: If you’ve been successful with the introduction and body of your presentation, your listeners have the information they need and are in the right frame of mind to put that information to good use. Now you’re ready to end on strong note that confirms expectations about any actions or decisions that will follow the presentation—and to bolster the audience’s confidence in you and your message one final time.

Some presentations require the audience to reach a decision or agree to take specific action, in which case the close provides a clear wrap-up. If the audience agrees on an issue covered in the presentation, briefly review the consensus.

Make sure your final remarks are memorable and expressed in a tone that is appropriate to the situation. If your presentation is a persuasive request for project funding, you might emphasize the importance of this project and your team’s ability to complete it on schedule and within budget. Expressing confident optimism sends the message that you believe in your ability to perform. Conversely, if your purpose is to alert the audience to a problem or risk, false optimism undermines your message.

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Delivering a Presentation

LO 16.3 Discuss five steps for delivering a successful presentation.

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With an outline, speaking notes, and any visual aids you plan to use, you’re almost ready to deliver your presentation. This section covers five essential topics that will help you prepare for and deliver engaging and effective presentations, starting with choosing your method.