Five Public Speaking Tactics to Help Connect With Your Audience

Undoubtedly we all have experienced being in a meeting where the speaker tends to surf through the endless number of PowerPoint presentation slides that do not seem to possibly have an end. As we engage ourselves in multitasking by doodling on a scratch pad and checking emails waiting impatiently for the meeting to get over.

On the other hand, we have also attended those presentations where we were keen on taking down everything that the speaker was saying waiting impatiently to ask a question and get to the resource table. This shows how important it is for the speaker to connect with the listeners and how much this ability counts while giving presentations. Here are five tips that can go a long way in ensuring that you can connect with your audience.

Know Your Audience:

We must know who we are speaking to, it can anyone from the sales team to the board of directors or financial analysts, they all are very different set professionals and individuals. Knowing our audience will help us to connect with them and gather and organize content that aligns with their interest.

Cato the Elder a Roman statesman, orator, and the first Latin prose writer of importance truly said, “Grasp the subject, the words will follow.”

For that matter, it can help us to determine what they already know and what will be the points, in general, that will help to keep them engaged as well as provide an opportunity to learn. Hence we should formulate a speech in such a way that not only offers them new learning opportunities but also a new perspective

Get There Early:

Connecting with people is not something that can only be done when we are on the dice, it is something that we can also be done before the start of the presentation or speech. Therefore, we should try to reach before time and get around the hall, speaking with a bunch of people from your audience to get to know the vibe. Apart from this it also gives us a few friendly faces in the crowd.

Smile:

Starting with a friendly and upbeat mood can help us connect with the audience instantly. If we seem to be nervous and bored with the topic it will give us hard time convincing our audience and connect with them easily. Remember that we are the mirror there and the audience is going to mirror our actions and expressions.

Maintain Good Eye Contact:

This is another public speaking tip that is widely suggested and it is for a reason, it is because it works. Making eye contact with the audience immediately helps us to connect with them and build a strong connection with the audience. But we should do it in such a way that eye contact running throughout the whole room as we speak from one side to another and should not bounce randomly from person to person.

Be Yourself:

Lack of originality is the biggest connection killer. Hence we should not try to copy some popular speaker’s style. We should strive to practice and develop good public speaking techniques and find our voice. This is because when we are ourselves, it gives us better odds of connecting with our audience as compared to it is while imitating some other speaker.

For instance, we can take Karen Mccleave Toronto based lawyer who has excellent oratory skills, and as a result of which Karen Mccleave got to serve the public for over 30 years as an Assistant Crown Attorney in Ontario.