In order to give an
effective presentation, you need to know your audience. What does that mean?
Who is the audience?
The first step is
to analyze the audience by asking yourself the following questions:
Who is in the audience?
How does your message relate to them?
Are they experts in
the field? Are they novices and know nothing about your topic, so you have to educate
them from A to B?
Is this an audience
that is receptive to what you are saying? Or is this an audience that might be
a little hostile? Are you recommending something that might challenge their
mindset or the way they work?
What is the level
of people in the audience? Are they your senior managers or the board of
directors? Are they your peers or your staff?
How do they like
information presented? How much detail? How much focus on the problem vs. the
solution?
Why should the
audience care?
The second part of knowing the audience is answering the
question, “Why should they care about what you have to say?”
Your audience is
trying to manage the massive amount of information that gets thrown at them
every day. So you need to make it clear
why they should pay attention to your presentation. Be sure to answer the audience’s unspoken
question, “WIIFM – what’s in it for me?”
Why is it important
for them to understand your message? Is this something that is going to help
them do their jobs better? Is it going to make their life easier? Is it going
to entertain them and make them forget about stress for a while? Is it
information that they are required to know? What is important about what you
are saying in relation to their real situation?
Before you get up
in front of an audience to present, make sure you understand as much as you can
about them. Doing so will help ensure
that the audience understands your message and is able to act on it.
by Gilda Bonanno www.gildabonanno.com
Gilda Bonanno's blog www.gildabonanno.blogspot.com