Simple Presentation Techniques: Look Them In The Eye!

Why is it that some speakers seem to connect very well with an audience and others don’t?

Have you felt at times a speaker was speaking just to you?

One of the keys to a great presentation is good eye contact and this can be achieved by anyone using a simple technique called ‘panning’

Start with speaking directly to one side of the audience – I always start on my right. Move to the middle at the back, then to the left, return to the middle back. Then look to the middle front, then middle back, and then return to the right.

This can be achieved with just a simple move of the feet and can look very relaxed.

Within the first sixty seconds you will have spoken to everyone in the audience!

The caveat to this is do look people in the eye (don’t look over their heads!)

If you repeat this technique throughout your presentation you will gain rapport, connect with the audience and have a better presentation.

Until next time,

Peter.

The difference understanding someone can make!

A very good friend and I were having a catch up just before Christmas. Being typical women we were chatting about everything and anything… and then we got onto the subject of work.

My friend works in a hospital as a cardiographer and was telling me, although she loves her job, sometimes the people she works with drive her nuts because she doesn’t understand the way they think. She couldn’t believe how differently they all worked!

Most of you who know me know how strongly I believe in understanding personality profiles – Peter is a trained human behaviour consultant and I have been more than fortunate to have been taught the logistics of it from a young age.

So I started talking to my friend about the various personality styles and she found it really interesting. She was particularly impressed when, after a couple of simple questions, I seemed to have a good knowledge of how her colleagues reacted in different situations.

So we decided it would be fun to see what her personality style was. After answering a short questionnaire we were able to see her profile was pretty much identical to mine – not surprising at all as we are like two peas in a pod! Once she had the basic idea of each personality style, she said she would try and use the knowledge she had gained the next time she was in work and let me know how she got on.

A week later, we were chatting over coffee again. She explained although it still drove her potty sometimes, she now understood the way her colleagues were dealing with the different jobs that needed doing and she was able to respond in a way that would be more affective with their personality style. In other words, it was making her life easier and the work was being done more efficiently! She also told me how it was helping her understand her family a little bit better too!

My friend learnt some very simple, but crucial, information in a little more than an hour over a cup of coffee, which has helped both her business and personal relationships for the better. Can you imagine the impact it may have on your business if you took a day out to learn it for yourself?

The best thing I have ever been taught is personality styles! (and for those of you who know, it’s not just because I’m an ‘I’!!!)

Until next time,

Hazel.

Social business is more than just social media! – 9th February 2012

I have been speaking for the last twelve months about how the business market is changing radically, creating a very steep learning curve when it comes to marketing our business. As I type this even the courts in the UK have announced that, not only are they allowing tweeting by the visitors to the court, they are now tweeting themselves!

Yes, times are changing!

This sounds fun, but actually it’s a symptom of a very different view point of how we do business. It’s imperative we take the time to decide what our strategy is long before we get into the day to day tactics of which media do we use, how often and by whom.

We are now working with all sorts of businesses in a very measured and structured way, as each business starts to realise it needs to work with experts who have been involved in this way of thinking for a considerable time – just as in all other areas of business.

The article by Kipp Bodnar How the Third Wave of Media Is Transforming Marketing Content which I picked up on hubspot recently really does spell this out and is a very worthwhile read. I thoroughly recommend you take five minutes out to read it.

By the way, I came across this article from a retweet from one of our clients so thank you V8 Media!

Until next time,

Regards,

Peter.

Tiger bread now Giraffe bread – all down to social media!

You may have seen a viral message going around Facebook in the past few months regarding a little girl who wrote to Sainsbury’s and asked why tiger bread was given that name as it was clearly more like a giraffe and should be named so! A customer services manager sent a wonderful reply agreeing with her – and a lot of people (including us!) were really delighted to see such  excellent and thoughtful customer service!

The Daily Mail has published an article online today to say that Sainsbury’s have been shocked to see the amount  of interest in the letters – which have now received over 150,000 likes – and have decided to completely rebrand the bread as giraffe bread! You can see the article here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2094564/Giraffe-bread-Lily-Robinson-3-gets-Sainsburys-change-tiger-variety-viral-letter.html

We thought this was a wonderful example of the power of social media. It  just goes to show, if you upload the right content, you  have the potential audience of millions at your fingertips who may sit up and listen to what you have to say!

So make the most of your social media, think about the message you want to send to others and don’t be afraid to share it – you never know where it may take you!

Until next time,

Hazel.