Engage Your Audience

Think of the worst presentation you’ve witnessed. What made it bad? Ask any audience what makes a bad presenter and they will invariably describe a speaker who comes across as distant, inauthentic, formulaic, and/or rote. They will describe someone who talks at them and not with them.

This makes sense. Audiences crave to be recognized, to be valued, and to be included. They trust speakers that take proactive steps to demonstrate that they understand (and appreciate) their audiences. On the other hand, speakers that focus on their message independent of their audience come across as disconnected and impersonal.

To ensure that you authentically value your audience, try these five audience engagement strategies:

1. Invite them to participate

Instead of making assumptions about your audience, ask them. Ask them a question and solicit their answers, either verbally or with a show-of-hands. You can even ask a question designed to evoke silent contemplation, but if you do, give your audience sufficient time to actually think about their answer. Asking a question and immediately moving on without giving the audience time to think is a good way to appear as if you are simply running your ‘presentation program,’ and audiences won’t like it.

To ensure that you authentically value your audience, try these five audience engagement strategies:

2. Use technology to boost participation

From polling applications to real-time displays of audience opinions and feedback, there are dozens of dynamic and creative applications to supercharge audience engagement. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, Eventbrite has an up-to-date blog showcasing 11 diverse audience engagement applications that you can access here.

3. Include “I know…” moments

Audiences want to be understood and appreciated.To give them what they want, perform your due diligence and research them. Armed with this insight, include in your presentation references to your knowledge of them as a unique collection of individuals with assorted “I know” moments (e.g. “I know that you’ve experienced [big event] and that shapes how you look at information like this” or “I know that job security is a big concern of yours, which is why…” or “I know you have a lot of concerns right now—[list their concerns], and you certainly don’t need more to think about, but what I’m going to talk to you about will actually make things easier.”)

4. Respect their time

Organizing your content and developing an appropriate and logical narrative thread may not seem like an audience engagement tool, but it most certainly is. Audiences instantly lose trust and feel devalued if a presenter is unorganized, rambles, or constantly jumps from one non-sequitur to the next. On the other hand, if it’s clear you’ve organized your material and practiced its delivery, then you have the laid the foundation for an engaging presentation.

5. Tell relatable stories

Storytelling is a mainstay of great presentations, but if your stories aren’t relatable to your audience, they will be ineffective. Select illustrative stories with recognizable (or at least relatable) characters, describe events familiar to the audience, and have take-away messages that align with your audience’s instincts. I will never forget the aspiring politician who told a Merle Haggard story to an auditorium of high school students in 2008—it didn’t work.

While a number of factors go into making a successful presentation, few are as fundamental as audience engagement. Make sure you are connecting, interacting, and engaging your audience with purposeful strategies and not simply broadcasting rote information into the ether.

Speak with your audience, not at them.