Some simple adjustments you can make to engage your audiences and make the most of the technology in which you’ve invested…

1. Animate your slides! There are two distinct benefits to dynamic slides–they’re more interesting for your audience to look at, and they prevent the audience from reading ahead and moving their attention away from your material. Slide animations help keep you and your audience focused on the topic at hand.

2. Remember the adage “Practice Makes Perfect.” Even if you know your topic inside and out, you’ll want to make sure that your presentation is clear to your audience. Revisit your presentation and make sure that you’ll be understood when your material goes live!

3. Involve your audience with polling and quizzes. Let’s face it–it can be challenging to hold the attention of a large group of people without the benefit of live, in-room presence. Fortunately, there’s technology available that allows presenters to incorporate interactive elements into their webcasts. Consider adding in some strategic polls to assess opinions or experience with a topic, or incorporate a quiz to see whether your information has been absorbed.

4. Be visual. If you can portray something with a chart, graph, or image, do so. Showing and telling go hand in hand, and studies have shown that many people are visual learners. Take into account the fact that you will have viewers who will want to see a supporting graphic to underscore your points.

5. Consider the value of breaking your content into bite-size pieces. Different people have different attention spans, and it’s important to be conscious of that fact when you can’t see and judge your audience. While it is sometimes necessary to present information in a large block, there are many cases in which you can create a series to effectively convey portions of what would otherwise be a very long presentation.

By Kate Hutchinson
Article Source: http://blogs.talkpoint.com/webcasting-best-practices/5-ways-to-spice-up-your-online-presentations/