Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to host a great web conference. Marshall Makstein from eSlide and Jordan Rich from WBZ and Chart Productions joined me in presenting a Best Practices session on script writing, slide design and narration. The content was very well received, we've split the replays out into the three presentations below so they're more digestable. I hope you enjoy these presentations and have a Sharktastic Day!

Scripting
http://www.brainshark.com/brainsharkinc/vu?pi=433775124

Slide Design
http://www.brainshark.com/brainsharkinc/vu?pi=897367490

Narration
http://www.brainshark.com/brainsharkinc/vu?pi=533703282

The July issue of Armed Forces Journal has an article about everybody's favorite topic, PowerPoint. You have to love the title and then reflect on the pot-shots taken. The author is a recently retired Marine with 30 years experience and is pursuing a doctorate in history at Oxford. His key point focuses on decision-making and its implications when briefings are done via PPT.

I found the most telling comment was.... "Further, it is an accepted reality that PowerPoint presentations - particularly important ones - inevitably are disseminated to a much wider audience than those attending the brief. We have created huge staffs and they are all hungry for information. This means most of the people who actually see the brief get an incomplete picture of the ideas presented. Some briefers attempt to overcome this by writing whole paragraphs in the briefing notes portion of the slide."

Imagine if the Marines had Brainshark! In their voice, the briefer could provide a context for the visuals which would result in greater consistency of message within the chain of command. Think about using Brainshark to move your organizations decision-making process along. Click here to read the article.

Last week I wrote about using tone of voice to set the tone for your audience.  I thought an example might help.  So below are two presentations.  They are substantially the same with the exception of the recorded voiceover.  Take a moment to watch them both and then ask yourself which one is more impactful.

Bad

Better

When people hear your voice in a multi media presentation like Brainshark they are emotionally impacted by the tone you use when speaking.  You can use your tone of voice to set the tone for the presentation.  Your tone will either convince people that you are enthused, interested and confident and they will stay to listen to more or it won't and they won't.  

Here are 10 things to consider when recording your presentation

1.                  Be familiar with the script.  The best way to not sound like you are reading when you are reading is to have read the material at least twice before recording.  When you are familiar with the text you can focus on delivery and you will do a better job.

2.                  Practice out loud.  The presentation will be listened to and so it is important for you to practice it and hear it out loud.  This is usually the time that you discover words and phrases that should not be put together because they are difficult to articulate.

3.                  Be upbeat.  Enthusiasm is contagious, so spread it liberally.  An enthusiastic tone communicates interest and confidence.  People like to listen to interesting, confident people.  The converse is also true.

4.                  Smile.  It may feel silly at first, but it is hard to not to be upbeat with a smile on your face.  Your audience will no­tice the difference.   If it helps, put a mirror on your desk to see if you are smiling.

5.                  Sit up straight.  Or even stand up if it helps.  The point is to make sure that you are breathing deeply by having good posture.   Breathing from the diaphragm helps you speak with a stronger more confident tone.

6.                  Speak conversationally.  You are giving a presentation so speak as you would if you were standing in front of an audience.  Speaking too quickly or slowly will make the audience uncomfortable and they will choose not to listen.

7.                  Speak clearly.  You want to make sure you pronounce your words correctly however; over articulation is also a big mistake.  Your audience will appreciate clarity but they will take over articulation as the communication of a condescending tone.  If you follow hint #6 you will be fine.

8.                  Drink water.  Lubricate your vocal chords and they will perform better.

9.                  Listen.  Record the presentation, listen to the recording and then answer this question: "Does it sound like I care?"  If the answer is "Yes" then you are done.  If the answer is "Maybe", or "No", then you have to record it again until the answer is a definite "Yes".

10.             Have fun.  If you are enjoying yourself then your audience will feel it by hearing it in your voice and they will listen to more of what you have to say and believe it when you are saying it.

Have a Sharktastic Day!

Question:  I'm a product specialist, not necessarily a professional speaker - if I use an 'um' or stumble over a word - is it critical that I edit that out?

Tibby:  The goal is always to deliver clean audio.  If you have a good script then you are not likely to have the need for an "um" since this is a pause that we use so that our mouth has something to do while it waits for our brain to give it direction.  Since you can easily re-record a single slide of audio it is usually worth the effort and your audience will be the happier for it.

Question:  You keep mentioning that we must follow a conversational tone...how do you keep abandon rate with a conversational tone when a presentation is 20-25 min long?

Tibby:  Great question.  The answer is value and tone. The first key is value.  If every slide and therefore everythign said on every slide brings value to the viewer then you will have a successful presentation.  Your viewers will respond to perceived value and a conversational tone will help reduce abandon rates by keeping the delivery engaging.  Changes in tones and emphasis are part of engaging the audience and keeping them involved.  Monotone delivery that drones on will quickly lead to departing viewers regardless of the overall presentation length. 

Question:  My group is going to use Brainshark for training on a huge software change. Do you have any advice for training that is going to be lengthy (significantly more than 10 min)? How do I keep the learners engaged?

Tibby:  The key thing to keep in mind is effectiveness.  Current data indicates that our tolerance for long presentations has decreased.  Between ADHD, email, voice mail, meetings, instant messaging and doing more with less we all have less time.  Know your audience and don't send a 30 minute presentation to people who do not have 30 minutes to watch it.  Instead be sensitive to their ability to process the data and break into chewable parts.  Create 3 -10 minute presentations instead.  You will get better viewing numbers and your audience will appreciate the content and retain more because they will have stay focused for each 10 minute block rather than losing focus at 10 minutes and missing 20 minutes of content.

Question:  If slides have good animation, is it OK to have longer narration than 30 seconds?

Tibby:   it is not an animation question it is a consumption question.  Each slide should have one theme with as many as 4 key points that support the theme.  More often than not this can be done in 30 seconds or less.  If your slides are extending to the 60 second range then I would hypothesize that you are trying to cover too much material in a single slide.   Each slide is a page in the book of this presentation.  I stipulate that it is better to have a 20 page book with 20 pt font than a 10 page book with 10pt font.  Viewers like to feel like the content is moving, progressing.  Slides that are too long often lead to what I (to use another metaphor) call "speed bumps" in the flow of the presentation.  Speed bumps lead to off ramps and off ramps are bad.

Question:  Would you say that animation plays a big part in catching the student's attention while taking the course.

Tibby:  While I would agree that animation and visual enticement is helpful in gaining attention; the key to grabbing and keeping the audience is well-delivered, impactful audio.  You can communicate more with your words and intonation in a shorter amount of time then you can do visually or with text.  The audio elicits an emotional response that must be considered, manipulated, planned and delivered by the speaker.   The slide/visual object is the guide for the audio.  The power of the content comes from the audio, which is why scripting and practicing are critical elements to delivering good audio and therefore having successful presentations.

Question:  When creating the script and working with different speakers, how do you reach a consensus on what needs to be stated and the way it sounds best, so that everyone is comfortable and happy.

Tibby:  Another great question.  Just asking this question shows that you are on the right track!   In our 6 Steps to Success^TM communication strategy; the first step to a successful communication is to agree on the objective of the communication.  Once everyone involved is on-board with the objective, then you will need to map out how the objective will be achieved (how the story will be told) and then who is responsible for which piece of the story.  Now whether everyone is comfortable and happy is another question.  At some point you have to build the communication and get the word out.  Consensus is a great objective for each project but not always attainable.

Question:  As a new Brainshark user, I'm not fully aware of its total functionality...as alluded to in a prior question, is there a way to edit a particular piece of the audio without doing the entire slide over again?

Tibby:  Yes.  You can easily download the .mp3 audio file from any single slide, edit that audio and then replace the audio by uploading the new .mp3 audio file.  With that said, this may be more work than actually re-recording the whole slide.   If you write a script and you keep the slide length to the 30 second range then this means you can easily re-record a slide in 30 seconds or less.

Question:  Do you have problems with narrator being able to read the script while also clicking to trigger the slide animations and work the phone recording process? Some narrators seem to be challenged by all this multitasking. Do you usually have someone sit with the narrator who can do animation clicks, etc so the speaker can focus on his script?

Tibby:  This is not a very common concern but I have heard it before and I recommend the solution I use myself when recording.  Set the animations that need to be connected to the spoken word to appear "On Click".  Don't worry the speaker with setting these timings, let them focus on delivering quality audio.  After the slides are recorded, log in and go to the edit slide screen and set the animation timings for each slide.  The reason for the On Click setting is so that you can manage these animation timings in Brainshark. 

Question:  Is there someone we can contact for suggestions who can preview our presentation/course before we enroll students?

Tibby:  We have just released a new free service called Presentation Success Review and Feedback.  This gives you the ability to send your Brainshark presentation to our Customer Success Group where one of our highly qualified Customer Success Consultants will review your presentation and give you feedback on ways to improve it.  All you have to do is send your contact information and the presentation link to CustomerSuccess@Brainshark.com

Have a Sharktastic day!

On March 4th we held the 2009 SHARKIE Awards.  These awards were for excellence in Brainshark on-demand multi-media content in seven categories; sales, marketing, training, corporate communications, foreign language, use of video and the Brainshark Content Network.   We had over 100 presentations submitted for the awards and discovered that a lot of people are doing a great job of making their communications; Clear, Concise, Consistent and Compelling (which just so happened to be the judging criteria). 

The Brainshark of the Year went to Jennifer Watts and the team from Grange Insurance for their training presentation.  The reason they won the award was because they mixed humor, structure and clarity into the presentation to train sales people.  As a viewer you always knew where you were and where you were going.  They added humor with a pirate motif and a treasure map but the map also clearly explained the journey the training guided the viewer through so they could reach the City of Commission.  The presentaiton was well scripted and well delivered by a male and female voice and they mixed in question slides to verify the knowledge transfer with the viewer before moving on to the next point.  You can view this and all the winning presentations by going to the SHARKIE Gallery.

To see who won the SHARKIE in each category watch this presentation.

As you know we are now reviewing the 100+ presentations submitted for consideration for a SHARKIE Award. We’ll be announcing the Winners -Live online on March 4th. Watching dozens of presentations in a short period of time helped me solidify an idea I have been pondering recently; the combination of Entertainment and Learning. In other words, If you Entertain, They will Learn.

Now this is not a brand new concept. Just ask the folks at Sesame Street and Fisher Price or more recently at Leap Frog and Baby Einstein. For these folks entertainment and education are inextricably linked and are serious business. But of course this is kids stuff - right? This does not apply to the serious job of learning in the corporate world - right?

Wrong - There is a growing industry in the field of Edutainment.

Every presentation we reviewed was a serious business presentation. Each was trying to communicate an important piece of business related content and every presentation evoked an emotional response. I have spoken of the emotional response before when talking about audio delivery in your presentations. Audio is certainly a key component but there is also an element of overall approach that elicits the emotion. Opening slides that feel like they go on for days… don’t entice me to keep watching. Poorly structured presentations (no agenda or map or logical flow) cause me to feel confused and lost; whereas, presentations that are well organized are appreciated because I can navigate through the pieces that mean the most to me and I know where the content is going. Cluttered slides, too many animations or reading the text that is on the slide makes me agitated and I stop paying attention; whereas clear, concise slides encourage anticipation of the next bit of learning. Enthusiastic speakers elicit enthusiasm because we know that enthusiasm is contagious. And presentations that use themes or metaphors to guide them are appreciated for consistency and the fun they bring to the communication.

Case in point: One contestant submitted a presentation that was designed to educate a sales group. They used the metaphor of a treasure map. This is a great metaphor for sales people is it not? The metaphor returned multiple times and included an image of the map and the progress the viewer made as they moved through the learning. The authors had one “Pirate” male voice, complete with “AARRGGHH” and then a female voice that delivered the straight content in between. As I watched the presentation I looked forward to the Pirate and where I was on the treasure map. In the end I was entertained and I learned. If I was a sales person in that organization, I would know exactly what I needed to do in order to get my “treasure”.

Could they have done it straight? -Yes. Would I have listened? - Maybe. Would it have been as memorable? - No. Is it a good thing that it is memorable? - Yes. Will the sales organization look forward to the next presentation? You bet they will. Is that a good thing? Absolutely!

Take a risk. Make your learning energetic and fun. Your audience will appreciate it and look forward to more learning from you. Thank you for reading and have a Sharktastic Day!

There are many books about what makes a great presentation, but I have yet to find one specifically about multi-media content like Brainshark.  This is not to say that these books aren't helpful because they are.  There are many presenting fundamentals that apply to all good presentations such as good structure, preparation and research.  However, there are some key tenets that must be followed to produce quality multi-media content like Brainshark.

A great multi-media presentation has the following 4 characteristics in both the visual element and the spoken word:

1. It is Clear
2. It is Concise
3. It is Consistent
4. It is Compelling

1. It is Clear

Clarity starts with the overall structure or flow of the presentation and each slide.  If the presentation has an agenda slide (slide 2) where you tell the viewers what you will be discussing and then you slide titles, chapter titles and content matches what you outlined in your agenda slide (slide 2) then you have increased the clarity of your presentation.  If you cover a single main theme in the presentation and don't stray or end up on tangential material then you have added clarity.  If you keep each slide to a single concept or idea that is in support of the main theme, then you are more likely to have clear slides.  If you restrict the content on the slides to phrases only and use bulleted phrases to outline the talking points then you will be clearer.  Finally, make sure the script that will be spoken matches the flow of the slide so the viewer can easily follow where you are going.  From an auditory perspective, the foundation of clarity is the script and the window dressing is a conversational style with good pronunciation.  Don't forget that good stories are ones that the listener can follow and understand.

2. It is Concise

Less is more.  If the slide, phrase, sentence, graphic, animation, object, video, attachment, music or image does not add value to the presentation, then leave it out.  The best practice here is to review the presentation once it is complete.  Check the agenda slide and then verify that the content has delivered on the promised agenda.  If there is material in the presentation that is not covered in the agenda slide, then seriously ask yourself if it is necessary.  Your audience will appreciate that you delivered the material in the briefest manner possible and they are more likely to watch your next presentation.

3. It is Consistent

Don't make the audience work to find data or understand the flow.  Having a consistent visual presentation helps the audience understand where things are and what to expect.  Use one PPT template and stick with it.  Use one font type, color and size wherever possible and only vary to highlight a point.  From an audio perspective, having the speaker record in a single sitting will help increase the odds that they will maintain volume consistency.  The most important element when it comes to consistency is that the presentation stays on target with the objective.  All slides, all bullets, all images and all recordings are provided in support of the objective and main theme of the presentation.  Stay on track and your audience will as well.

4. It is Compelling

There are 3 keys to making the presentation compelling.

1. Always add value         

From the opening slide to the closing slide, make sure the audience understands what is in it for them.   Jerry Weissman calls this the "What's In It For Me or WIIFM factor.  You should know what the value is to the audience because you have already established and objective and analyzed what is important to you audience.  Everything you show and everything you say needs to deliver something that is useful to your viewer. 

On slide one you are setting the hook by saying hello and telling the audience why it is worth their time to watch the presentation, but the job does not end there.  Every slide, every word, is an opportunity to convince the viewer that the material is valuable or a waste of time.  If you keep proving the value - you keep the audience.

2. Stay focused

You know the objective because you agreed to it in step 1 of this process, so don't forget it!  Staying focused over the course of the presentation makes it possible for the viewer to connect the dots.  Stay away form sidebars and tangents - they cause your viewers to stop watching.

Visually - staying focused means - do not do anything that distracts the audience.  Control the number of words, the complexity of graphs and charts, the number and type of animations, the use and quality of images.  For example, don't show an image of the entire application screen when you are only focusing on the functionality of that which occurs in the upper third of the page.  Don't show a chart or graph or image or text string that cannot be read or deciphered in 3 seconds.  If you do then you have now introduced confusion.  Instead of the audience focusing on the spoken word, their brain is engaged with the visual element and no longer listening to why the visual is important.  So they miss the value and stop watching.

Orally - Say it as briefly and conversationally as possible.  Keep slides to 30 seconds or less.  Do not speak too slowly or over enunciate since this will become a distraction and they will stop watching.  Writing a good script will help with controlling the timing of the slides and practicing the script will help you to deliver the material conversationally, which is how people want to be spoken to.

3. Be engaging

Following the 2 items above will go a long way to make the presentation engaging, but there is one additional, critical, element - engaging the audience with your voice/intonation.  When it comes to multi-media content like Brainshark, you can not get away with mediocre audio.  If the speaker is average and the material is not required, they will stop watching.  Think about good radio advertising and you will be on the road to a good recording.  Your audience can interpret many things based on the tone of your voice.  They can sense interest and disinterest, they can sense excitement and disdain, and they can sense enthusiasm and ennui.  More importantly - they will be influenced by the emotion they sense through the tone in which the audio is delivered.  Enthusiasm is contagious so use it to your advantage. 

Put the 4 C's in your presentation and you will have a Sharktastic Day!

One of the most frequent requests I hear from clients is, "Do you have any Best Practices to make our presentations more effective?" As the Director of Customer Success, I take this question very seriously and as a Software as a Service (SaaS) Company, Brainshark does as well. The answer is in fact, "Yes". Over the past 8+ years we have gathered many best practices and have incorporated this content into a series of Best Practice tutorials which you will find on Customer Connection Online (CCO). We decided that not only is it valuable for us to assimilate and distribute this material, but it would be of great advantage to all users if you - the Brainshark user community could have a place to share and comment on best practices.

So....Welcome to the Brainshark Best Practice Blog. Our goal is to provide a forum where we can learn from one another and discuss the best practices around such topics as: images, audio, slide design, presentation mapping, reporting and evaluation, animations, graphics, attachments, questions, video, podcasting and anything else about which you might inquire. We will provide this Shark Think Tank and we invite you to jump in and share your thoughts, experiences and methods of success (or failure) so that together we will develop the best practices for communicating efficiently and effectively.

The first item I would like to share with you is that we recently held a SharkTale contest. A SharkTale, (in case you do not already know) is a success story. We asked you to share stories where Brainshark either helped you communicate successfully or helped you be more successful in your job.  The response was tremendous.  We received over 100 SharkTales.  We have posted the winning entries on CCO.  If you are looking for a Sharktastic example of how people are using Brainshark to be successful then please take a moment to visit our Customer List and take a look.  Then come on back here and let us know what you think.

Pat Kelly
Director of Customer Success