Have you ever given a presentation where you knew the audience was paying attention? You could see them all looking at you but there was something missing. Like the audience was listening but they weren't really engaged or actively interested in what you were saying. Engaging with the audience, or what's called establishing a rapport with the audience, will really help you connect with the people you're presenting to. And will also make the audience feel like the time they spent watching your presentation was time well spent. By the end of this video you will be able to identify 5 different methods which will help you to establish a connection, or rapport, with your audience. First, before you can really engage with your audience, you really need to get to know who your audience is before you start to prepare your presentation. What are the demographics of your audience? How much will they know of the topic you're presenting? You will connect more with your audience if you present your ideas in a way that's understandable and appreciated by your audience. So you really need to conduct an audience analysis so you can target the information you are providing, the way you're presenting, and the type of language you're using in the right way to really connect with them. If you're new to the idea of audience analysis, I've provided the link to a site that provides some helpful guidance in this task in the resources section for this lecture. So when you have a chance go check this out. Second, once you have a good sense of who your audience will be, you can begin to build a rapport with them using a more conversational style when you're speaking to them. Using a conversational style in a presentation is useful because the audience will see you as a warmer person, which will then make them feel more at ease and more responsive to you. By conversational style, I mean using language that's more intimate and less formal than the language you'd use in academic or professional writing for example. Here are some examples on the screen of some simple language patterns you could use to create a conversational style in your presentation. Pause the video and take a few minutes to read through these suggestions now. Another benefit to analyzing your analysis is that you can think of how you can appropriately incorporate humor into your presentation. Humor is one of the oldest and most well-known ways to engage with your audience. This works because we tend to feel better about people who make us laugh. Telling an appropriate, or preferably self-deprecating joke about yourself, is a way to show the audience you are one of them. I've included a link here to the video of a TED talk by a presenter named Shawn Achor who really uses humor to connect and bond with his audience. Take a few minutes now to watch this video and pay close attention to how he immediately hooks his audience by telling humorous jokes and stories from his life that engages audience. After watching Sean Anchor's presentation, you'll probably also have noticed that he uses humor in his own personal stories to create a personal emotional connection with his audience. Those stories of his childhood and his sister draw the audience in and make them really pay attention to what he's saying. Telling stories in public speaking is an excellent way to engage your audience. Because as humans we're much more likely to remember things if we have a story to relate to rather than just cold hard facts. A story makes an emotional connection to your audience that will be remembered much longer than the actual words you used in your presentation. My final tip to engaging with your audience is something you can control easily, yet people often forget. It's the power of your own voice. When an audience is listening to a presentation the presenter's voice is really an extremely important tool. To use it you can vary the speed, pitch, and volume of your voice. When you use your voice to enhance your message the audience will notice. For example, you can vary the speeds, speak more quickly to add some tension to certain points of your presentation, or slow down if you're giving complex information. Vary your pitch, I mean, vary the high and low of your voice. Many nervous presenters speak in a monotone instead of highlighting specific words by varying their pitch. But this can be really boring to listen to a monotone, and it's certainly not going to engage any audience. In fact, if the monotone is too extreme, I might not know which word or sound is being emphasized. And as an audience member, I'd lose the message completely. By volume, I mean how you project your voice. You should always try to speak to the entire audience. However, if you always speak really loudly, your audience might get used to this and it'll lose its effectiveness. If you vary the volume of your speaking occasionally, increasing the volume right after you've used a pause for example, this will really keep your audience on its toes. Pauses will also help your audience to engage. This tool sounds so simple, but it's unfortunately really neglected, especially by learners of English who sometimes only focus on the grammar and pronunciation. Really persuasive presentations know the power of a pause. Pause at the beginning of the a talk and when you want to emphasize a specific word or idea. Pause for second before, or, maybe after it. In fact, if you really want to emphasize, you could pause before and after a keyword. The most important thing about using your voice in this way is to connect with your audience with your own emotions, to show your excitement and your own interest using your voice. So, now we've covered five different methods you could use together to make more of a connection to your audience so hopefully you would engage more with them. This in turn will help you to get your presentations from so-so to great. Good luck in your future presentations.
