When you're a digital marketer, presenting is part of the job. Even if you've put together a clear, compelling social media report, you still need to present it well to make sure your audience understands the data, your analysis of it, and the decisions you've made based on that analysis. You may not be expected to present social media reports yourself early in your digital marketing career, but presenting is an essential skill that you will eventually need, and that only gets better with practice. In this video, we'll discuss how to present your social media report effectively. When you're delivering your report, you need your audience to understand the key points you're making about the data you're sharing. But you also want to connect with them emotionally. For example, if you've grown your social media audience by 30% on LinkedIn in the last quarter, share your excitement! Or maybe inject some surprising statistics, entertaining anecdotes, or a particularly favorable customer review received on social media platforms into your presentation. Tapping into your audience's emotions will grab their attention and help keep them engaged. In order to make sure your audience is following you, pace yourself, speak slowly, keep your sentences brief, and use intentional pauses. Guide your audience through your presentation by helping them notice what you've noticed about the data, and transition between sections by using phrases like "building on this point" or "as I mentioned before." Also, check in with your audience periodically throughout the presentation to find out if they have any questions. If your audience isn't familiar with a social media term or metric, for example, you may need to define it for them. As you're presenting, you also need to be flexible. For example, it's possible that someone may have to leave your presentation unexpectedly, that other attendees may arrive late, or that answering people's questions takes longer than you had planned for. Consider the approach you'd take if you had to shorten your presentation. Know the most important points you'd want to make, and be prepared to share only those points should the unexpected occur. You should also be ready to pivot the discussion according to what is most important to your audience. If your audience contains your company's finance analyst or upper management, for instance, they may want to spend extra time discussing data related to conversions. Lastly, to present effectively, you need to be well-prepared. Ample practice can help you identify things like awkward phrasing and other issues. Or, if you tend to feel a little nervous before you present, good preparation can help calm your nerves and make you feel more confident. Preparing ahead of time also helps you identify and come up with answers to the types of questions your audience might have, and it gives you time to prepare to justify the strategic decisions that you want to make if any member of your audience has concerns about them. For example, let's say you'd like to expand your social media marketing efforts to a new platform, but a manager is concerned about having the resources to do so effectively. By having prepared for this type of response in advance, you can clearly explain both why you think expanding to a new platform is a sound strategy and how you plan to reallocate resources to make this possible. To help you prepare ahead of time, you might practice delivering your presentation to a member of your team and invite them to offer feedback, ask questions, or share concerns. The presentation techniques we've discussed here will serve you well, not just when you have to deliver social media reports, but in all of your marketing presentations. When you connect with your audience and take the time to respond to their questions and concerns, you keep them engaged in your presentation and help them understand it. And by being prepared, you can feel more confident that your presentation will be effective, regardless of anything unexpected arising. Developing your presentation skills can also benefit when you're looking for a job, because employers value these skills. And the same techniques you use to present to an audience, you can also use to present yourself at interviews.