Doing a good presentation is a hard task. Especially when you need to explain abstract concepts in 45 minutes, that require listeners to change their way of thought about the most basic concepts of their trade.
When I do seminars for companies and explain the concept of social media, I face this challenge all the time. I must get marketing groups, who are used to one way communication, to open their channels to a conversation with their customers. I need to convince CTOs to spend time of their engineers on writing external blogs.
Here are two effective ways I use to convey these fundamentally different messages to corporate decision makers:
Images images images – forget bullets, lists, sections. don’t let them read – let them see. Find images that are strong and tell a story. Flickr made our life much easier, as you can find there amazing images, and even look for creative commons licensed images specifically. For example – this picture can be used to describe traditional media:
This one to describe social media:
And this one to describe the differences:
Don’t avoid problematic issues: some of you will be surprised to hear that many people still believe that blogs are only online diaries of lonely girls. In my presentation I show various kind of bloggers, and refer to this group as well, again with a picture:
By referring to these issues as part of the discussion, you can make sure that the topic is handled as part of your overall message.
What’s Nu Metal got to do with it? Check out this Korn clip, and see how they convey a message in its first part:
Social Media, Corporate Thinking , and What Nu Metal Has To Do With It
Doing a good presentation is a hard task. Especially when you need to explain abstract concepts in 45 minutes, that require listeners to change their way of thought about the most basic concepts of their trade.
When I do seminars for companies and explain the concept of social media, I face this challenge all the time. I must get marketing groups, who are used to one way communication, to open their channels to a conversation with their customers. I need to convince CTOs to spend time of their engineers on writing external blogs.
Here are two effective ways I use to convey these fundamentally different messages to corporate decision makers:
Images images images – forget bullets, lists, sections. don’t let them read – let them see. Find images that are strong and tell a story. Flickr made our life much easier, as you can find there amazing images, and even look for creative commons licensed images specifically. For example – this picture can be used to describe traditional media:
This one to describe social media:
And this one to describe the differences:
Don’t avoid problematic issues: some of you will be surprised to hear that many people still believe that blogs are only online diaries of lonely girls. In my presentation I show various kind of bloggers, and refer to this group as well, again with a picture:
By referring to these issues as part of the discussion, you can make sure that the topic is handled as part of your overall message.
What’s Nu Metal got to do with it? Check out this Korn clip, and see how they convey a message in its first part:
Korn – Evolution
If you like this post, don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed or email list.
Technorati Tags: social media, korn, marketing, social media marketing, corporate blogging