Tips Guides

Public speaking is a career that requires a special person with special skill. Not everyone is successful when it comes to speech presentations, but those that are know and understand that there are some effective strategies for reaching their audience. If you are a public speaker, and just do not seem to be captivating your audience, this guide may prove to be exceptional helpful to you. Here, we will instruct you on techniques that you can use to capture the attention of your audience and properly retain it. In order to captivate your audience, you must start by learning your audience - by really getting to know them. Every successful presentation is backed by this simple fact - you must know who it is that you are speaking to.

Now, as you look over the audience that you are addressing, you may find yourself questioning exactly how it is that you are going to get to know all of these people in enough time to captivate them with your speech. It DOES seem like an impossible task. That is for sure! However, it can be done, and I am about to tell you how. You can start examining your audience by asking yourself, “what is it that this audience needs and wants?” In all actuality, it is best to ask this question even before you get in front of your audience. You should ask yourself this question as you are preparing your speech. There are generally two types of individuals that will be listening to the information that you have to offer:

1. The first type of person that will be attending your speech will need the information that you are going to deliver for one reason or another.

2. The second type of individual is the one that wants the information that you will bring with you when conducting the speech.

When creating your speech, it is important to include content that will appeal to both those that are searching for specific information that they need, and those that are just interested in hearing what it is that you have to say. When presenting the information that you have to share, it is important to know and understand that the content of your message must be delivered in an upbeat manner so that your audience is really enthused. It is always important to remember that sometimes, how you say something, you will a larger impact than what you say.

The next thing that you must consider when it comes to public speaking is that which your audience already knows. If you elaborate on facts and figures that everyone is already familiar with, then it is quite possible that you will actually lose the attention of those that are listening to your presentation. Many successful speakers will offer a prep presentation that covers, or summarizes, the information that will be covered in the main part of the speech. This way, if someone already knows what it is that is going on when it comes to the information that you have, they have the opportunity to opt out of the presentation. This can prove to be a highly successful process when it comes to retaining your audience.

Now, the next thing that you will need to consider is the level of understanding that your audience has when it comes to the topic that you are discussing. True, they may have some knowledge on the subject, but do they really understand what it is that you are covering? If not, you should work to increase their level of understanding. If you do not capture their level of understanding, it is very likely that you will not captivate them as an audience. However, if you present the topic that you are covering in a manner that your audience can know and understand what it is that you are discussing, you will likely captivate the attention of your audience.

If you are a public speaker, it is absolutely essential, to know how to capture and maintain the interest of the audience that you are speaking too. Here, you have discovered some key items to keep in mind when it comes to developing a presentation that is bound to be a huge success. If you carefully implement the things listed throughout this guide while preparing your next speech, you will be quite popular among those that are part of your audience.

Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of Be Successful News, a site that provides information and articles on how to succeed in your own home or small business.

Whether you call it speech anxiety, stage fright or communication apprehension, fear of public speaking can ruin an otherwise positive experience. But it does not have to be that way. No one escapes the rush of adrenaline that accompanies giving a presentation before an audience. But when you learn to accept, analyze and use fear, you let it work for you like great speakers do.

Accepting your fear is probably the biggest help in overcoming it. What troubles you is your fears about the fear that interferes with your performance. A lot of new speakers worry that fear is a sign that they are not meant to be public speakers or that they will do a terrible job. Those fears are simply not valid.

Fear is nothing more than your bodys natural response to unfamiliar situations. Its a state of heightened alertness and energy, just in case you are in danger. Feeling fear in a new situation is not a bad sign. It means you are healthy and normal. The more you speak, the more you will train your body to recognize speaking as a familiar and safe situation. Until then, you can manage the fear that accompanies the unfamiliar.

Accepting your fear helps you not make it worse, analyzing your fear is what begins to help make it better. Most fears fall into one of three categories are fear of having nothing worthwhile to say, fear of displeasing your audience and yourself. For now, let us assume you have already planned wonderful content, so the first fear is not a problem.

Fear of displeasing others and yourself are closely related. If you are a person who criticizes yourself harshly, you will pay more attention to critical expressions in your audience. If you are your own best friend, you have the ability to find friendly and supportive people even in the toughest audiences.

Being your own best friend is a nice catchphrase, but most people have not been trained even to be polite, much less to be their own best friends. So what would that look like?

Well, what do you do when a good friend does something new and brave like public speaking? Do you greet her backstage with a list of everything she did wrong or could have done better?

No. You congratulate her on breaking through her fear to take on the world. You talk about your favorite parts. You point out all the places the audience applauded, laughed or looked thoughtful. If you have some suggestions for improvement, you save those for the next day or so, when she as calmed down. But right after that talk, she knows she can count on good words from you. You can make a decision in any situation, to be that kind of a friend to yourself.

Once you know you can count on yourself to focus on the positive, you can use whatever bit of fear you have left over. The way you use fear is to change the way you think about it. You smile when you feel that rush of adrenaline. Instead of naming it fear, you call it excitement. You will suddenly realize that this energy is nothing to be afraid of. It gives you the power to grab the attention of your audience and carry it throughout your presentation.

That wave of excitement is the creative power that makes a speaker dynamic. It is the electric force that connects you with your listeners. You do not have to conquer this feeling. You can say, Yes! to it.

Instead of resisting fear, accept it. Analyze it. Use it. Your audience will feel that Yes in you, and they will say, Yes to your message.

Ranju kumar is assistant editor at http://www.persuasivepublicspeaking.com, which helps entrepreneurs and independent professionals to earn more by making their marketing and communication more persuasive. For tips on more persuasive communication, sign up for the free eclass mastering public speaking

Every effective speaker uses visual aids. Think back to the times you have been part of an audience. The best speakers used this even when you did not think of them. In church or temple, for example, the speaker wears certain robes, reads from a book of scriptural writings or is surrounded by religious symbols. Sacred music plays in the background before or after the talk.

As a speaker, you use visual aids to communicate better and help your audience understand and remember your message. It can be:

1. Provide support and emphasize main ideas
2. Facilitate understanding
3. Encourage emotional involvement
4. Aid with delivery
5. Add to your credibility
6. Decrease your nervousness, because they can give something to do with your hands
7. Draw audience attention away from you personally and onto your topic
8. Make it almost impossible to forget what you want to say.

Good visual aids also help listeners by sorting and organizing information. A well-organized text slide, for example, shows one main point with three to five supporting statements. This way, your audience can file the information away in their minds, in an organized fashion, and pull it up again whenever they need it.

Visual aids do more than just help audiences learn. They increase the entertainment value of your talk by adding interest and color. Actually, they cover more than just the visual. People learn better the more their senses are engaged. So if you are giving a talk about aromatherapy, you will want to use a lightly scented candle or other product to illustrate what you are talking about. If you are teaching a cooking technique for a small class, of course you will offer everyone a taste of the finished dish.

Some of them are distracting, annoying or simply too much. Here are some tips for creating and using effective aids:

Use some kind, even if you do not have much time to prepare. Even a simple article or picture helps anchor your speech in the listeners mind.

Keep it simple. Flip charts or PowerPoint slides with text should highlight just a few words or phrases per page. Just enough to help you and your audience remember the main points. If it takes more than a few seconds to understand the text, the audience will go into reading mode and stop listening.

Make sure ahead of time that your venue can accommodate your visual aids. Try to visit the room you will speak in before the big event. Make sure there is a stand for your flip chart or bring one.

If you use pictures or other artifacts, make sure they are directly connected to your topic. Enhance your audiences memory, not distract from it. It is useful to watch video of good speeches. Notice how effective speakers use it to emphasize a point, make a transition and remind themselves of their next points. You will see that what a person wears can be for good or bad.

Once you have chosen and created your visual aids, it is important to practice using them. This gives you a chance to make your transitions smooth and ensure that you have all the supplies you need. Practice in front of family or friends and let them tell you whether it is useful or distracting.

Developing good visual aids is just one creative aspect of effective public speaking. Using them well can make your presentation more enjoyable, both for you and your audience.

Ranju Kumar is assistant editor at persuasivepublicspeaking.com, which helps entrepreneurs and independent professionals to earn more by making their marketing and communication more persuasive. For tips on more persuasive communication, sign up for the free eclass mastering public speaking