5 Tips for Online Public Speaking Success
The challenges of pre-pandemic public speaking nowadays seem rather quaint. All of the lessons that speakers have had to learn, such as how to be most engaging in front of a live audience, what body language to utilise, where to position themselves and how to move seem unfeasible when public speaking itself has moved more to online speaking.
The virtual frontier is a new one for many. The same rules don’t always apply and so speakers have had to adapt. Speaking sessions need to be more relevant and brief. Even planners now need to consider how to make an audience attend. It is one thing having the people in person — the speaker can influence them directly, and make it so that they leave with something extra from the presentation. But with online events, it is quite different. Online sessions of a big conference often fail to make viewers stay because the speakers are not quite prepared for it.
As it turns out, there are a few tactics that online speakers can adopt, to make their virtual audience more satisfied.
- Be more audience-centric — as a speaker, you have to imagine what it is like being in the shoes of your audience. That is how you will decide how you will go about choreographing your delivery and content. Consider what you find engaging in an online environment. You cannot just go about the delivery of your speech as you would do so in person. You need to consider how you will carve out your time, what methods to use for better engagement, and how to keep things moving, all the while keeping them interesting.
- Brevity is important — there is little room for fluff in online presentations and speeches. Every virtual speech has to be succinct and precise. All of the points have to be relevant and short. The goal is to present a gift of value to the audience. You have the floor to do so, and you want them to benefit in some way. Otherwise, they will just click and spare themselves the boredom.
- Some entertainment is in order — you need to utilise the power of visuals and tell stories, to spark up some entertainment value in the presentation online. You want to be self-deprecating, tell jokes and make the audience smile. Think of it this way: your audience is watching TV and you are the programme. You want to be as comfortable as possible, to add some value to the entertainment you provide. Of course, you need to be comfortable too, as that is the only way to stay genuine and do the task at hand the right way.
- Maintain eye contact — you need to ensure that you maintain eye contact by keeping your eyes on the camera. Talk to it and stare at it. Look at it when you speak. That is the only way to ensure that you maintain eye contact with your audience and not make it feel awkward. It contributes to a more engaging experience.
- Energy is also important — another essential component of a successful online speech is energy. It doesn’t matter what set you use — office, empty room, studio, etc. — you will have the performance on a small screen, which automatically means screen fatigue. Consider the fact that your audience likely spends too much time glued to the screen, and so you have to provide them with more energy.
All of these tips work to ensure that your online speech has the right effect on your audience. It is important to remember to incorporate them all the next time you are giving an online presentation.
